Swenbeck's Shore Dinners
Swenbeck’s Park Café is a restaurant located in Salem Willows in Salem, MA. John Swenbeck established this restaurant in 1910. Swenbeck’s menu includes mostly seafood, with the exception of some beef options and vegetables. Seafood restaurants are popular around New England due to the easy access of the material being close to the sea. The first thing that you see when looking at this menu is the huge lobster on the front. This image informs the viewers that this is a seafood restaurant. One thing that I like the most about this menu is the kid’s menu and the “suggestions” part of the menu. These parts make the restaurant seem family friendly.
I am working with a primarily seafood restaurant. In the 20th century, haddock had become very popular, putting a stress on fishing due to the high demand. This makes me believe that Swenbeck’s offered basic seafood, such as flounder, clams and lobster, because it was the easiest thing to catch, and there was plenty of it. The restaurant also offers steaks and a kid’s menu.
My menu is for Swenbeck’s Shore Dinners in Salem, MA. Swenbeck’s was located in Salem Willows in Salem, MA. The address of this restaurant is 165 FORT AVE., SALEM, MA 01970. During this time, Salem Willows featured “Restaurant Row”, which offered many seafood restaurants, including Swenbeck’s, which was a, primarily, seafood restaurant.
The menu has mostly seafood such as fish and lobster, but also offers steak and a kid’s menu, which includes fish, vegetables, hamburgers and french-fries.
I could not find a date when the restaurant closed, however, Swenbeck’s, also known as Swenbeck’s Park Café, was established in 1910 by John Swenbeck. I could not find when the exact date of this menu is, however, due to the prices of the items on the menu, it is thought to be from this menu is from around 1943 when the price for a pot of tea was $0.15. The price of lobster also leads me to think that this menu is from before WWII, before lobster was considered a delicacy, was easily accessible, and did not cost much to buy.
On the back of the menu, a picture of the restaurant and a map of where the restaurant is located are provided. I have discovered that the owner of this restaurant is buried at Puritan Lawn. I found this to be interesting because that is the cemetery that my family is buried in.
My menu seems to use several marketing techniques. To start, Swenbeck’s begins the menu by describing the dinners as “Complete Dinners” and “Special Dinners” right at the top of the menu. Swenbeck’s offers a “Lobster Salad Special”. They use the word special in order to draw customers in, making them think that they are getting more than just a salad. At the bottom of the menu, Swenbeck’s writes “WE DO OUR OWN BAKING” indicating that their food is fresh. The menu uses a different language as a header for one of the categories. “A la Carte Dinner Plate” “is used in reference to a menu of items priced and ordered separately, which is the usual operation of restaurants.” (wikipedia). In other words, these are items that can be purchased separately. The use of this phrase, instead of the word “sides” makes the items seem more valuable. The rest of the menu is pretty simple, indicating to us that this restaurant may have been for more of the lower class people; an affordable place to go out to eat.
Although my menu does not have descriptions of dishes, I noticed that it uses more front vowels than back vowels such as using the word “delicious” in one of the names of the menu items. One instance that I had seen the different types of vowels in my menu was when it came to beverages. The Swenbeck’s menu offers a pot of tea and a cup of tea. If I had not known the difference between a pot and a cup, after reading this article, I would believe that a pot of tea was larger because it uses a back vowel rather than a front vowel which is used in the word pot.
