02 Sep 2011, Posted by admin in EAT + DRINK, 0 Comments

Bookshelf: Menu Design in America, 1850 – 1985

Large-scale, photo-driven books tend to conjure images of Impressionist landscapes and Sierra Club-worthy polar bears. Pretty, but also pretty boring after the initial flip-through. But very occasionally, there is a large-scale book that is the rare exception, a book like Menu Design in America: A Visual and Culinary History of Graphic Styles and Design, 1850-1985 with as much thought-provoking brawn as stunning artistic inspiration.

“America” happens to have a decidedly heavy L.A. restaurant bias in this book, as the primary private collection (anonymous) of menus featured in the book are from an L.A. private donor (the downtown L.A. Library also has a great menu collection, by the way). Many of the menus are also from the collection of Taschen’s executive editor Jim Heimann, who served as editor here. Taschen is no stranger to the high-dollar, glossy design book, but this is its first food-related topic, albeit here falling under their pop culture category.

Here’s to hoping it’s not the last. [Yeah, I am hanging on to this book!]

Get the rest of the review over at LA Weekly.