Menus: The Epicurean Experience
Fri Mar 17, 7:00 PM - Fri Mar 17, 9:00 PM

This exhibit uses original menus as a starting point to explore the fine dining at the Tampa Bay Hotel and other grand Florida resorts from 1891 to 1932. These rarely exhibited menus draw visitors into the conversation of Victorian food, the source of food, its preparation, etiquette, fashion, and utensils that blend together to create the Victorian epicurean experience. We will briefly touch on menu art and children in the Hotel dining room. This exhibit displays original artifacts, including menus, photos, clothing, and utensils from the Tampa Bay Hotel and other Florida hotels.

At the Tampa Bay Hotel, and other Florida resorts, meals were not simply about eating, but instead were a fine dining experience. Thought and care were put into food choices, decorations, place settings, music selection, and of course, menu design. Dressing for dinner often took over an hour, and meals could be a full ten courses. Meals for special events and holidays were even more elaborate. Included in the exhibit are menus from holidays such as Independence Day (1898), George Washington’s birthday celebration (1901), Thanksgiving (1905), New Year’s (1912) and Christmas (1911, 1912).

The menu is map that guides diners through their dining experience. It lays the foundation for what they anticipate their experience to be based on the elaborate dishes served, the number of courses, the detail and extravagance of the menu design, the international elements, and dinner entertainment. Blended with these obvious dining elements are the subtle ingredients of fashion and etiquette and the behind the scenes components of where food comes from and how it is prepared. We hope you will savor this exhibit.

Menus: The Epicurean Experience opens on March 17th and runs through December 23, 2017. Entrance to the exhibit is included with admission to the Museum. Please join us on March 17th at 7:00 pm for a lecture by Patrick Dunne, proprietor of Lucullus antiques in New Orleans. The shop has been featured in Conde Nast Traveler,