ADS-L; Mystery of Boston's Paypal and his "Restorator"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

ADS-L
   The purpose of ADS-L is _not_ my interests (new words, antedatings,
etymology, slang, sayings/proverbs/maxims, national and international terms
of food, dress, music, dance, art, sports, games, et al.).  I post the things
I'm interested in and that I'm working on at the time.
   For example, Jim Landau is interested in math.  I'm not so interested in
math, and believe that JSTOR gives good coverage of its journals.  But he can
post anything on mathematical language that he wants to post.  People who are
interested will read it, and it's a valuable addition to the ADS-L archives.
   Other people, like Mark Mandel, are interested in science fiction.
   Other people are interested in Minnesota speech.  I've never been to
Minnesota and I don't post on this, but I'm interested.
   But please do not confuse my interests and posts with the sole purpose of
the list.

PMT
  The Naples 45 restaurant in Grand Central Terminal offers a PMT, of parma,
mozzarella, tomato and arugula.  I haven't seen PMT anywhere else; it's
certainly not a BLT yet.

PAYPAL "RESTORATOR" MYSTERY
   Lucius Beebe's BOSTON book credits Paypal (or simply "Julien") and his
"Restorator" for a lot of food.  The Boston Public Library wasn't any help at
all, and now it looks like the Massachusetts Historical Society is no help at
all, also.

Subj:   RE: Payplat's "Restorator" & Boston menu collections
Date:   8/14/2002 10:10:50 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:   <A HREF="mailto:ngraham at masshist.org">ngraham at masshist.org</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:Bapopik at aol.com">Bapopik at aol.com</A>
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Dear Mr. Popik:

This is in response to your inquiry about menus at the Massachusetts
Historical Society.  The Massachusetts Historical Society is an independent
research library, which serves primarily as a repository for collections of
personal papers and rare books of early New England families.  The MHS does
not have a separate menu collection, however, there are menus in many of our
manuscript collections, some of which have been separately cataloged.  Most
of these are menus for special events or commemorative dinners, largely from
the mid to late 19th-century.  I checked our library catalogs and did not
find any references to Payplat.  You might have more luck with the Boston
Public Library, which has a much larger collection of published histories of
Boston.  Good luck with your research.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Graham
Reference Librarian
Massachusetts Historical Society
1154 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215

ngraham at masshist.org  /  (617) 646-0509

-----Original Message-----
From: Bapopik at aol.com [mailto:Bapopik at aol.com]
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 2:01 AM
To: library at masshist.org
Subject: Payplat's "Restorator" & Boston menu collections


Dear MHS,

   I was reading BOSTON AND THE BOSTON LEGEND (1935) by Lucius Beebe.  On
page 269, Beebe credits Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat ("Julien") and his
"Restorator" with introducing Boston and a young America to cheese fondue,
crepes, and much more.  Do you have a book or a clipping file on Payplat?
Do you have any menus from his "Restorator"?
   Do you have a menu collection?  If so, what menus does it specialize in?
For example, would you also have something from Steve's Ice Cream in 1972?

Barry Popik
New York, NY
member, NY Culinary Historians