The Menu From Duda's Tavern In Baltimore

The Menu From Duda's Tavern in Baltimore

Eating In Fells Point In Baltimore, MD

Eating In Fells Point In Baltimore, MD

Jack and I spent two days last week in Baltimore, MD. It seems like every time we go go Baltimore we have seafood---crab cakes or oysters. This time we also had them. The oysters were at the Oyster House where Jack had a great oyster soup. We usually have the crab cakes at Phillips Restaurant at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The Inner Harbor is where a lot of museums are and it caters to tourists as well as locals. But on this most recent trip we had the crab cakes at the Tremont Hotel where we shared a meal. I think these were the best crab cakes I have ever eaten. All crab, no filler with a just a hint of Old Bay Chesapeake seasoning. Yum,yum!

Now I want to tell you about a restaurant that we discovered on a corner in Fells Point. The place has been in business for over 6o years in the same location. It is called Duda's Tavern and it was founded way back in 1949 by Walter and Pauline Duda to cater to blue color workers. In the 1980's when the Inner Harbor was developed the owners added a small kitchen to the tavern. Well, to make a long story short Jack and I discovered a fall lunch special on the menu that got us very excited. Sausages (brats and other types) served with mild sauerkraut and hot potato salad. Weordered that lunch special and were pleasantly surprised. The sausages were were good, the sauerkraut was good but the star on the plate was the hot potato salad. It was the best hot potato salad that I have ever tasted. Yum, yum!!!

The food at this simple tavern was so good that I had to ask our waitress for a menu to add to my large menu collection. The waitress obliged us and even gave us a golden sticker to add to the top of the menu. The sticker was for the tavern's 60 years of being in business in Fells Point.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you a photo of my latest collected menu.

The Lucky Cuss Restaurant Menu

The Lucky Cuss Restaurant Menu

Tombstone, Arizona is another western town that represents the old wild west. It is known as the town that was too tough to die. Every fall Tombstone, Arizona has a wild west festival called Tombstone Days. The man pictured on the cover of this old menu is Jack Hendrickson who moved to Arizona around 1960 and created The Lucky Cuss Restaurant and Barbeque Pit. Jack Hendrickson enjoyed doing western reenactments and I will always remember seeing him march with his burro in the Tombstone Days Parade when we lived in Arizona in the '70s.



Jack Hendrickson who moved to Arizona from Illinois named his new restaurant after another Tombstone legend, Ed Schieffelin who long ago had discovered two silver mines right outside of Tombstone that had earned him the nickname "The Lucky Cuss". Jack Hendrickson following in his idol's footsteps also thought he was "The Lucky Cuss" to be able to live and work in Tombstone so he named his restaurant The Lucky Cuss.

Jack Hendrickson became a Tombstone fixture by serving on the City Council for 8 years and for being the town mayor for 4 years. Jack died in 1988 but I think his restaurant is still in Tombstone and being run by his daughters.

Collected Menu - Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Collected Menu - Jackson Hole,Wyoming

If you look to the right on my blog and check my subject listings, you will find a category called Collected Menu. These are menus that I have collected over the past forty some years of places I have dined. The menu above is from Jackson Hole,Wyoming. I got this menu in 2007 when Jack and I took a 39 day trip across the United States. I think if you asked me to name my all time favorite western town, I would definitely have to say Jackson Hole. It just reeks with western charm from the town square that sports antlers to the mountains above the city that look as though the skiers could fly down and land in your lap on the town square. The Snake River Grill is on the town square and is a great western food place. Jack and I had a great meal here so I just had to ask for a menu to add to my menu collection.

Collected Menu - Las Vegas, Nevada

Collected Menu - Las Vegas, Nevada

If you like German food like Jack and I do, then when you make a trip to Las Vegas get away from the casinoes for awhile and go the Las Vegas Hofbrauhaus where you will experience some good German food along with German singing and dancing. Jack and I have both been to the world famous Hofbauhaus in Munich, Germany. This restaurant reminded us of that experience. When you can't make it to the original place it is nice to go to a place that reminds you of the original. And isn't this a pretty menu. I just like looking at this menu. Brings back many pleasant German culinary experiences that Jack and I had not only in Munich but in places like Berlin, Frankfurt, Heidelburg, Rothenburg and Saschenhausen.

Collected Menu - Cincinnati, Ohio

Collected Menu - Cincinnati, Ohio

Some time back in the 1980's Jack and I were visiting my relatives in Ohio and my sister Mary Ellen Gariety Thobe suggested that we drive from Tipp City down to Cincinnati to eat at a restaurant that had singing waiters and waitresses who were music majors from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. So we did and we had a great time.

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Cincinnati, Ohio is another Ohio city known for its German heritage so we had lots of good German food that reminded Jack and I of when we used to live in Germany. By the way Cincinnati is also known as porkopolis because of all the pigs that used to be brought to market for butchering in the city.

I had some of the singing waiters and waitresses sign my menu. I wonder if these students made a career of singing. I also wonder if the Forest View Gardens Restaurant is still in existence. If it is, then I would recommend it for a delightful evening.

Collected Menu - Covington, Ohio

Collected Menu - Covington, Ohio

Here is another menu from southwest Ohio. Buffalo Jacks is a small local diner in Covington, Ohio. The first time I entered this restaurant I just about flipped out. Right at the front door was a huge stuffed buffalo! Holy Cow! I surely wasn't expecting to see a stuffed buffalo in Ohio. Wyoming or Colorado or Montana? No, I would not be surprised to see one those states.

But Ohio? Covington, Ohio? No way! But there he was this huge bull staring me in the face so I just had to grab a menu to take with me when I left. Especially since the name of the restaurant was Buffalo Jack's!

Collected Menu Minster, Ohio

Collected Menu - Minster, Ohio

Last October I shared with all of you five of the many menues I have collected and have had framed thru the years. This one is from a restaurant in Minster, Ohio that is called The Wooden Shoe.

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Minster, Ohio still has a large Dutch and German population and in 1933 there used to be a Dutch brewery in Minster that was called The Wooden Shoe. My father used to love the beer from that brewery and he was very sad when it was closed down because of competition from bigger breweries in the midwest.

WS WS WS

Today I guess folks feel the same way about NCR Corporation and General Motors leaving Dayton, Ohio and Clopay Corportation leaving Russia, Ohio.

Collected Menu - Lake Express Cafe on Lake Michigan Car Ferry

Collected Menu - Great Falls, Virginia 2004

This is the menu cover of my favorite French restaurant in Virginia: The Auberge Chez Francois in Great Falls, Virginia. Years ago Jack and I celebrated a wedding anniversary here. Then in 2004 we took our daughters and future son-in-law for a meal here. Again we had a wonderful time. We know people who have attended wedding receptions at this restaurant. Some years ago the restaurant suffered a disastrous fire and had to be closed for a year while the place was being rebuilt. I have another menu from this restaurant that Jacques Francois the chef signed for me in 1982.
Jacques has passed away but th restaurant is still doing a great business. Click here for more info about this famous northern Virginia French restaurant:
http://www.laubergechezfrancois.com/index.shtml

Collected Menu - Versailles, Ohio 2005

If you live in southwestern Ohio, make a promise to go to Versailles, Ohio near Russia, Ohio to enjoy a meal at the Versailles Inn. This Inn is located on Main Street in Versailles and it used to be the corner drugstore. I used to walk by this building every summer day when I was working at the Egg Auction down the street by the railroad tracks. What a surprise to learn that in later years the building was bought and turned into an inn complete with dining room.

When Nancy Reagon was first lady she used to go to the Inn in Clifton, Virginia with George Will. After I went to the Versailles Inn I realized that this place could run rings around the Inn in Clifton. The managers had made a trip to the Alsace region of France to find authentic French furniture to furnish this inn. It is a beautiful place in southwestern Ohio. Go there if you get a chance.

Collected Menu - Ill, France 1972, 1974

L'Auberge de L'ill is a three star Michelin restaurant in Illhaeusern, France that was run in the '70's by the Haeberlin brothers: Paul, the chef and Jean-Pierre the manager and artist in residence. The menu above shows a watercolor created by Jean-Pierre for the cover of the menu. The chef, Paul Haeberlin, trained at La Rotisserie Perigourdine and with Edouard Weber who cooked for the the former Tsar of Russia, the Kings of Greece and Spain and the very famous Rothschild family. Jean-Pierre Haeberlin attended the Ecole des Beaux arts in Strasbourg, France

I was lucky enough to eat twice at this restaurant located along the the banks of the L"ill river that had large weeping willows shading the riverbank. Each time I went I had the most wonderful dish which was a salmon souffle. I can't describe it but I remember that it was exquisite. The first time I went with a fellow Frankfurt am Main DOD teacher Gladys Madison Steorts who is a distant relative of the great President James Madison of Virginia. Gladys and I went during the Christmas holiday season and we had a wonderful meal. When Jack and I married in 1974 I was determined that he experience this wonderful restaurant before we left Germany so we went one hot July weekend in 1974 to the L'auberge de L'ill where we had a wonderful meal that started at 5:30 P.M. with complimentary quiche and bottle of wine under the weeping willows and ended around 9:30 P.M. with a chocolate souffle.

This Alsatian place is so popular that even in the winter the restaurant turns away up to 60 customers per day because they are totally booked.

Collected Menu - Danube River in Austria 1971

The photo on this menu is of the Abbey Melk on the Danube River that I toured in 1971. I have such fond memories of this Danube River cruise from Vienna, Austria and of the the wonderful Benedictine abbey sitting high up on the river bank. If you ever get a chance to go to Vienna, Austria, do take a cruise on the Danube river which is so beautiful and do tour this baroque abbey. For more info and to take a virtual tour of this wonderful Benedictine abbey click here:
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/melk.htm This menu now hangs in my breakfast room.

Collected Menu - Paris, France 1972

This is a very small menu. It it from a restaurant in Paris where I and my friend Pat Wylam Morgan experienced a meal that was a complete fiasco. I don't know to this day what the problem was but it goes down in my memories as a very strange and disastrous meal. Maybe the chef got sick or maybe the staff didn't know how to cook. I do know that the picture on the menu cover is a Henri Toulouse Lautrec painting of Paris in the late 1900's portraying a can can dance with music.

I collect menus of meals that have great significance to me. What was significant about this meal is how terrible it was. Incredibilly this was in the capitol of gastronomic delights: Paris, France!

This menu hangs in my kitchen.

Collected Menu - Rhinegau, Germany 1971

Fall in Germany is a wonderful time. So many festivals to enjoy, so many wineries to visit, so many fall landscapes to explore by land and by river (the Rhine Main River). One fall day in 1971 I went with friends to Rhinegau, Germany for a local wine festival. If you look below you will see this statement in German: Ein Tag ohne Wein ist wie ein Tag ohne Sonnenschein!

Which means a day without wine is a day without sunshine!

This menu now hangs in my breakfast room.

Collected Menu - Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1971

I taught and lived in Frankfurt am Main, Germany for four years. On the weekends I loved to go shopping in downtown Frankfurt am Main. I would go by subway. There was a stop on the subway right below this Cafe Haupt Wache. After I had finished my shopping I would enjoy going to this restaurnt for a wonderful German meal before heading back to my BOQ near the 97'th General Army Hospital. This restaurant was in a building that was 400 years old. To build the metro station underneath it they tore the building down after numbering each and every piece of it. After the subway was built they rebuilt this 400 year old building and it became a wonderful restaurant. I would love to go back to Germany and see if it is still in existance after 35 years.

Collected Menu - Munich, Germany 1970

The year I transfered from Okinawa's Sukiran Elementary to Frankfurt am Main's Frankfurt American School #1 I went in the fall to Munich, Germany for Octoberfest. This is the menu that I picked up from that tour. This menu hangs in my kitchen and reminds me of many happy Octoberfest celebrations that Jack and I have attended in both Germany and the United States. We have several of the those large beer steins that everyone including the kids are using for drinking beer. What totally amazed me in Munich is that a waitress at the Octoberfest at the Hofbrauhous am Platz could carry five of those steins in each hand without spilling a drop. Amazing! This menu hangs in my kitchen.

Collected Menu - Osaka, Japan 1970

I like collecting menus as souvenirs because first they are cheap and two it is fun to remember a special meal shared with family or friends. But do remember to ask the waiter/waitress if you may have a free menu or pay a small fee (usually less then a couple of dollars) to get the menu. The menu above is a case in point of what can happen if you don't ask or pay for a menu.

It was spring vacation of 1970 and I was touring Japan and on this particular day the tour was in Osaka at Expo '70 where various world pavilions were showcasing national interests. Betsy Plunkett in our group suggested that we head over to the Belgian Pavilion for Belgian waffles (something I had never had) so we did. After a delightful meal I grabbed the menu because I loved the old world painting on the cover and placed it on the floor by my purse. Someone saw me do this. The waiter came over and calmly asked me to put the menu back on the table implying that stealing the menu was verboten. I said OK and put the menu on the table. And then much to my chagrin this little teacher from Kadena Air base on Okinawa said that we needed to please speak to the manager of the restaurant. I shot her a look that said I'm in trouble for stealing a menu from this restaurant and now you want to bring the manager of the restaurant over to chew me out. What---are you out of your mind? Are you crazy?

The next thing I knew the manager was table side and I was explaining why I wanted the menu and apologizing for not asking for the menu or paying for the menu. I kept smiling and blinking my eyes at the Belgian manager and the Belgian manager kept explaining that they had a fresh batch of menus arriving next week and at that time he could give me a menu. But I countered with that I won't be in Osaka, Japan next week. I'll be back on Okinawa teaching first graders. So he looked at me and sighed and said "Here, take the menu. I shouldn't do this because it is against the rules but you may have it." At that point everyone at my table cheered. And I learned a valuable lesson. I would always ask for a menu or ask to buy a menu. End of story. This menu hangs in my kitchen.

Show and Tell Friday - Collected Menu - Hong Kong Harbor 1968

Do you like to travel and do you like to return home with a souvenir of your travel destination? In the summer of 1967 I was in the Wilmington, Delaware kitchen of a lady whose son was a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and a subsequent Marine Corp officer in Vietnam. This lady had on one wall of her kitchen framed menus of restaurants around the world that her son had visited in his naval and marine corps travels. I thought that was the neatest souvenir idea and so I copied the idea. For over the next forty some years I have been collecting and framing menus from both famous restaurants and not so famous restaurants around the world. I have at least 110 menus today. (I always lose count when I go from room to room to count them. Yes, yes, my collection has outgrown the kitchen and has spread like a fungus onto walls in my breakfast room, powder room, laundry room and the staircase leading to the basement.

For the next week or so I'm going to share with you some of my favorite menus from my collection since there is a lot less in the way of flower gardening photos to share with you this time of year. In the meantime I will make a serious effort to count how many menus I really have.

Now for the first menu I have to share with you. I think this is the very first menu that I ever collected and framed. I got it in 1968 in Hong Kong, China when I was ferried with other DOD teachers to a floating Chinese restaurant in the harbor of Hong Kong for an elaborate meal. I had this menu framed when I returned to Okinawa where I was teaching first grade at Sukiran Elementary School. You might want to click on the photo above to read the writing. This menu today hangs in my kitchen.