DeCoff's Restaurant Children's Menu

History

• In 1914, there was a large fire in Salem which destoryed 253 acres after this. With an American style restaurant like Decoff's open, they probably receieved a ggreat amount of business with the appeal of a warm, familiar meal just a few years after such a huge tragedy.
• In 1925, the Hawthorne Hotel opened and in 1930 “In 1930, the city of Salem set out to re-create Salem as it would have appeared at the time of John Winthrop's arrival in 1630. The project was part of Salem's contribution to the Massachusetts Tercentenary celebration in 1930.” (Salemweb.com)" This seems to be the start of Salem being a huge tourist attraction what with a historic village and a beautiful hotel to stay in. So with these two elements driving tourism up, Decoff's was again, a warm familiar American style meal that would appeal to customers from all walks of life. 
• In the 1930s, there was apush to make chidlren's meals healthier, meaning mroe fresh fruits and veggies were added to menus all over the country. But due to the fact this restaurant was also open during the depression, the focus might've been more towards getting a real meal, with health being a secondary thought.
• •Children’s menus were also not as interactive as the ones we see today. Children’s menus relied heavily on some cute images and maybe some funny jokes, versus the coloring pages and games of today. This menu for example features cute illustrations of bunnies with the phrase “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry.” This phrase dates back to biblical age. It’s an amalgamation (mix of several phrases) of verse Isaiah 22:13, Ecclesiastes, 1 Corinthians 15:32, and Luke 12:19. The original verse reads “Let us eat and drink…for tomorrow we die.” 

The Menu Itself

• All of the food on the menu is traditional American food with full American words on the menu. The only foreign word is "Omellette" which is the Americanized spelling. 
• While some restaurants, back then and today, might've had seperate menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, this menu has all 3 menus listed on one page, but doesn't say the times for when each meal. It could be implied then that you can order breakfast items all day. 
• There is a fair amount of choice on the menu, not only with there being a an "a la carte" (meaning a seperate listing with seperate pricing as opposed to a full meal) but the main menu itself offers a variety of meal choices. There's also options to have an egg made "any style"
• There's not a lot of drescition in itself on this menu though. Things are just listed as they are. But there are adjectives like "BROILED lamb chop," "SCRAMBLED egg," and "CREAMED chicken."
• As mentioned, there was a slight push to make children's meals healthier. This is shown in this menu iwht the prominent display of "All White Meat Chicken." Something we promote in our restaurants today was a point of interest 80 years ago.