We Do Not Eat Out As Often As We Once Did,

but when we did, the menus were just a list of food, drinks and prices,

but there was a time when menus were almost pieces of art in their own right, like this one from Chez Yvonne, which is decorated with lovely illustrations of a beret-wearing French poodle, drinking wine and serving food, if you look closely at the menu cover, which is from the 1950s, you can see charming touches such as the birds singing in the trees ( French chansons, of course),

originally French restaurateur Andre Frelier and his wife Yvonne opened L’Omelette bistro in 1932, it quickly became a favorite spot for Stanford University, after their marriage ended, Yvonne opened her own restaurant – Chez Yvonne – in nearby Mountain View, California, along with her son Roger, both restaurants were popular, and both served superb French food,

Chez Yvonne was in operation from 1949 to 1980 when it was demolished to make way for the Mountain View Residence Inn. Yvonne, who has been described as a ‘fiery French Moroccan,’ apparently kept a cheetah as a pet in her retirement,

the Frelier family obviously had a talent for cooking because another relative Roger Pierre was personal chef to stars such as Dean Martin, Tina Turner and Johnny Cash, I mentioned that the menus were almost works of art, as it happens you can purchase prints of the original menu here.