A Middlesex Hotel Menu (1870s)

James Jacobs, who last operated the Middlesex Hotel, issued this dinner menu. As the coach, express wagon, and milk wagon in the engraving on the front of the menu make clear, the well-known photograph of the building in the 1860s (see no. 23) was the model for the illustration. The fare at the hotel appears to have been standard for the period. Despite a history of difficulties over the serving of alcohol at the Middlesex, diners could still order wine, beer, brandy, and cider with their meals.