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Vintage Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern Williamsburg VA Sea Food Dinner Menu
Previously owned original Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern printed dinner menu from Williamsburg, Virginia, showing age-related handling and storage wear. Textured cream card stock covers display overall age toning, faint surface rubbing, a few small handling creases, a soft vertical crease with a short closed tear along the left margin, and lightly bumped lower corner tips including a noticeable crease at the front lower right, but no writing or large stains, and the Kredel map illustration and titling remain sharp and attractive. Interior text and Bill of Fare pages are gently toned but clean and fully legible with the fold and binding secure, and the piece is offered as a single multi-page menu without an envelope or additional inserts.
Original vintage printed dinner menu for Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, an historic establishment \"Specializing in Sea Food\" with a map-illustrated cover celebrating the Chesapeake Bay region.
The textured card stock front cover presents an antique-style map showing Chesapeake Bay, the James and York Rivers, Jamestown, Williamsburg, Norfolk, Cape Henry, Cape Charles, Tangier Island, and the Atlantic Ocean, with winding shorelines picked out in contrasting ink. A decorative cartouche at the lower center carries the title Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern Specializing in Sea Food flanked by mythological figures, while a compass-style medallion and fleur-de-lis finial appear at the lower right, the artwork signed \"KREDEL\" in the margin.
The reverse side is printed with a two-column historical essay beginning \"In 1607, when John Smith and the first band of courageous Englishmen poked their way cautiously up the James River and settled at Jamestown Island,\" recounting the discovery of tobacco and the natural bounty of Tidewater Virginia. The text goes on to describe the abundant fish and shellfish of the Chesapeake, the development of the region\'s foodways, and the emergence of Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern as a renowned eighteenth-century gathering place in Williamsburg.
An interior text page headed by a decorative initial \"C\" opens, \"Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern is furnished in simple fashion, typical of taverns in the latter half of the eighteenth century,\" and details the mixture of round, square, oval, sawbuck, and English tavern-type tables, American and English Windsor chairs, and ladderback chairs used in the dining rooms. It notes that case pieces such as corner cupboards and serving tables are original eighteenth-century antiques, and that decorative objects include pewter, delft, Whieldon, creamware, slipware, and German stoneware based on the Williamsburg collection.
The candleholders are described as reproductions of eighteenth-century brass, pewter, and tin candlesticks, with reproduction wine bottles and side lighting taken from period prints, and the overall effect is to evoke the atmosphere of an eighteenth-century Virginia tavern while serving modern guests.
The central Bill of FARE pages are printed on lightly tinted paper bordered at the top with a lively fish motif and the heading \"Bill of FARE\" in bold type. Star-like ornaments separate sections as the menu opens with offerings such as Clams from the Eastern Shore .80, Chesapeake Bay Oysters (in season) 1.10, Tomato Juice Cocktail, Captain Rasmussen\'s Clam Chowder, Clam Juice Cocktail, and French Onion Soup.
Main course selections highlighted on the menu include Boneless Double Breast of Chicken a la Bourgeoise, $3.50, described as a casserole of white meat chicken baked in sweet butter with vegetables; Fried Florida Shrimp, $3.25; and Hampton Crab Imperial, $3.75, made with chunks of back fin crab meat mixed in a piquant cream sauce. A prominent seafood specialty, Platter of Assorted Sea Food, $3.95, assembles Florida shrimp, Chincoteague oysters, Crab Imperial, and French fried potatoes.
Additional choices range from Lobster Newburg, $3.50, with delicately flavored lobster from Maine in a rich sherry Newburg sauce, to Charcoal-Broiled Steak, $4.95, served with French fried potatoes. Side dishes and desserts listed include cole slaw or green salad with entrees, biscuits, spoon bread, raspberry sherbet, Swiss Gruyere or sharp cheddar cheese with crackers, rum cream pie, and a Choice of Coffee, milk, or other beverages.
A substantial and evocative piece of Christiana Campbell\'s Tavern and Williamsburg dining history, ideal for framing, display, or addition to collections of restaurant menus, Chesapeake Bay seafood ephemera, and Colonial-style culinary memorabilia.
MSC198-181
