I found a treasure trove in my attic today, and since there's so much interest on this board in New Orleans, I scanned this to amuse you -- a souvenir menu from Antoine's, from July 1963, I hope you can read it -- the per person "minimum" was $3.00!

I know I had "pompano en papillote". I was 12 and we were on a cross-country road trip.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1043488...eat=directlink

That's awesome. I love how page 4 cascades. What a good find.

That's wonderful! They have a lot of their old menus in display cases in one of the dining rooms. It's great that you remembered what you ate. I'm not sure I would.

Starr's, it was such a big deal to me, eating in such a fancy restaurant. I even remember what I wore (the same dress I wore to my 6th grade graduation a few weeks earlier).

I love the coffee for 20 cents.

My earliest restaurant memories are late 60s - and the prices were MUCH higher. Even in diners near NYC, I recall an omelet and fries being $3 - when Antoines was charging less than $1 for an oyster.

But - still incredible.

We ate there about 1971 with friends from NO.

The menu was not much more expensive then. The restaurant didn't take reservations, but all the locals had "their waiter", and they would call and make reservations with the waiter directly, so they could skip the lines. Our share of the bill was about $35, a vast amount for us at the time, but it was three or four courses and they improvised a dessert for my wife when she didn't like any of the offerings.

This goes back some 30 years but a friend took an old menu back to Antoines and they let him order off the old menu at old menu prices.