![]() Non-drinkers appreciated it, as did serious imbibers who had overdone things at their neighborhood speakeasy. Īrriving on the scene as it did during Prohibition, tomato juice clearly served as a non-alcoholic cocktail. It was especially popular in restaurants that appealed to women then such as tea rooms, quaint inns, and department store restaurants. ![]() Denver’s Blue Parrot Inn blended orange and tomato juices, while The Colony in New York mixed clam and tomato.Īlthough tomato juice could be found on menus of all kinds of eating places, even Chinese-American restaurants, it tended to be an appetizer favored by those who eat luncheon, not lunch. The Wrigley Building Restaurant in Chicago came up with clabbered tomato juice which was tomato juice mixed with a goodly amount of cottage cheese. Restaurants tried all sorts of combinations. Mix well, shake until foamy, and pour over crushed ice. However tomato juice was well known and available in cans in the 19th century so he clearly did not invent it (as is often reported).Ī tomato juice cocktail could be made by the addition of tobasco sauce, paprika, sauerkraut juice, clam juice, etc. It MIGHT be true that he was first to serve it in a public dining room – it does not seem to appear on American menus prior to World War I. It is said that a chef at the French Lick resort hotel in Indiana introduced tomato juice to American diners in 1917. Women’s magazines touted it as smart, healthful, and perfect for anyone wanting to lose pounds just like a Hollywood movie star. It came into vogue in the 1920s along with other good-for-you foods such as Melba toast, cottage cheese, pineapple, and sauerkraut juice. I was so convinced that tomato juice was hopelessly unimaginative that I was taken by surprise when I did a little research and discovered that it was considered a fashionable snob drink in the 1920s and 1930s. ![]() There must have been tomato juice on the menu, too, despite it being decidedly out of style by then. I was fascinated by the quaint metal contraptions on each table holding little pots of appetizers such as cottage cheese, olives, and pickles. It reminds me strongly of an old standby restaurant in Massachusetts that closed about ten years ago. No doubt there are restaurants that still have it on the menu – nothing really ever goes away totally. I noticed that one of the appetizers was tomato juice and I thought to myself how commonplace a selection that once was and how rarely it is seen today. Recently I acquired a 1947 menu from the Algonquin Hotel of “round table” literary fame.
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