Original Hickory House Dinner Menu, circa 1940s

New York: The Hickory House, 1940. Vintage three-color dinner menu from the renowned 52nd Street jazz club, circa 1940s, with a "Chef's Special" card stapled to the top outer corner of the second leaf.

One of the longest running and premiere jazz clubs of "Swing Street," as 52nd Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues was known in the 1930s through the 1950s, Hickory House was opened shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 by impresario John Popkin. Featuring a huge oval music bar, depicted on the cover of the menu on offer here, Hickory House was both a swing venue and the spot to grab dinner and cocktails before a show. A musician's club, Hickory House presented and served jazz luminaries for three decades. Among those known to perform or frequent the venue included Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Thelonious Monk, among countless others, many of whom were known to be found sitting in with the house band, The Hickory House Trio (Marian McPartland, Bill Crow, and Joe Morello), on Sunday afternoons in the 1950s. In 1956 jazz pianist and composer Jutta Hipp released two acclaimed Blue Note albums recorded at the club, "At the Hickory House Volume 1" and "At the Hickory House Volume 2." By the mid 1960s, the venue was one of the last of the jazz clubs left on 52nd street, and by the end of the decade closed. As noted on the back of the menu, "Life! Life! From ten thirty until scrambled eggs there is always a popular swingy rhythm band to beat out tuneful and catchy syncopations in their own inimitable style."


10.75 x 14.25 inches, bi-fold. Very Good plus, with light soiling, rubbing, and edgewear overall, and a faint horizontal crease.