The Elegant Art of Dining: Bohemian San Francisco, Its ... - iMedia

is not in the higher class of restaurants, but there are times and places when you
must remember you are making a study of human interest and not getting a
meal, and you must leave your fastidiousness and squeamishness at home.
It takes some time to get well within the inner circle of Bohemianism, but after
you have arrived you have the password and all doors are open to you. If our
friends think of a new story they save it up until our next coming and tell us
something that always has a bearing on Bohemia. For instance, how few of us
know the origin of the menu card. It seems to be a natural thing, yet, like all
things, it had a beginning, and this is the way it began (according to a good
friend who told it to us):
Frederick the Great was a lover of good eating and his chef took pride in
providing new and rare dishes for his delectation. But it frequently occurred
that the great ruler permitted his appetite to overcome his judgment, and he
would eat so heartily of the food first set before him that when later and more
delicious dishes came to the table he was unable to do them justice. To obviate
this he ordered his chef to prepare each day a list of what was to be served, and
to show their rotation during the meal, and in compliance with this order the
first menu card was written. To Frederick the Great is also attributed the naming
of the German bread now called pumpernickel. According to one of our Italian
friends the story runs this way: Frederick wished some bread and his chef sent
him in a loaf that was of unusual color and flavor. It did not please the king and
he was not slow to express his disapproval. He owned a horse named Nicholas
but commonly called “Nicho!” and when the chef appeared before him to
receive his censure for sending in distasteful bread, Frederick threw the loaf at
his head, exclaiming, “Bon pour Nichol.” From this it received its name which
has become corrupted to “pumpernickel.”
After the doors are open to you, you will find not only many new stories, but
you will learn of customs unusual and discover their origin dating back to the
days whose history remains only in Folk Lore. You will be let into family secrets
of the alien quarters, and will learn of hopes, aspirations, and desires, that will
startle you with their strangeness. You will find artists, sculptors, and writers of
verse in embryo, and if you remain long enough in the atmosphere you may see,
as we have, some of these embryonic thinkers achieve fame that becomes nation
wide.
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