Café Continental, New York 1950s

The Café Continental was situated in the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel on Central Park South. The cover features an illustration by John Held Jr. (1889-1958) an American cartoonist, printmaker, illustrator, and author.

One of the best-known magazine illustrators of the 1920s, Held created cheerful art showing his characters dancing, motoring and engaging in fun-filled activities. The drawings depicted the flapper era in a way that both satirized and influenced the styles and mores of the time, and his images have continued to define the jazz age for subsequent generations. Held’s illustrations graced publications such as Vanity Fair, New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar.

The menu rear states the following: “With the opening of Café Continental we inaugurated the policy of acquiring only quality merchandise. Indeed, the wines listed in here, we feel, are the superior products of the estates of France and the shippers of other lands. And, believing that fine wines enhance the enjoyment of good cuisine, we are offering them to patrons at lower prices than ever.”

In 1988, the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel was acquired by Donald Trump who converted it into a 340-unit condominium known as the Trump Parc.

Courtesy Private Collection.

Each print is accompanied by a copy of the interior menu where available.

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