Bar snack and appetizers

[rooftop1000]

After an OK BBQ lunch today we were discussing that the place would probabley be fine for bar food or snacks. Then I really got to thinking, most of what we see as casual snack food, appetizers, bar food are fairly "new" foods. Like Buffalo wings, jalepeno poppers, mozz sticks and their crispy greasy friends.

I was trying to think back on what would have been on an app or bar menu pre 1980 lets say....other than shrimp cocktail and onion rings I am stumped. Anyone?

tracey

[tsquare]

Pickeled (or just hard boiled) eggs, peanuts, pretzels, and if you were really lucky, hotdogs. This was from a tavern my friend's Mom owned circa 1970, southern California.

Edited December 28, 2008 by tsquare (log)

[gfweb]

Pre 80s Philly bar food...believe me I should know...

Fried mushrooms, French Fries, Beer Nuts, popcorn, onion rings, hard boiled eggs, pickled peppers.

Occasionally a joint would serve hot dogs or beef sandwiches (wet or dry) or sloppy joes.

[kasw]

sauerkraut balls were very popular in the Cleveland area pre-1980. You can still find them in a few places.

-Karen

[suzilightning]

back in 1977-1978 while working to get the money to go to grad school i worked at the Pub(short for the Earl of Stirling Pub).

after dinner service we did bar food. the bartenders had nuts, a kind of "chex" mix and caramel corn we did for them as well as pretzels. in the kitchen we did mini pizzas, fries we served with a garlic mayo(odd at the time but our main boss was swiss and they were our best seller), mini burgers(using the leftover dinner rolls) and deep fried hot dogs.

dang, if i had known about deep fried mars bars i would have done them!!

[BarbaraY]

In the 60s I worked in a cafe that had an attached bar. There was sawdust on the bar floor (much to the chagrin of the health inspector) and the peanut shells were tossed on the floor.

We also had pickled Polish sausage and boiled eggs pickled in the leftover sausage brine. Beer nuts and dried shrimp were also available. If there were other items, I have quite forgotten them.

[judiu]

I remember the "snack pack" sardines with much fondness. I believe they were King Oscar brand, came on a carded display. A tin with 6 small sardines and three double saltines. Yummy!

[munchymom]

From Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig, published in 1974:

"We retreat from the parked cycles into an enormous, high-ceilinged old place. To go with the beer this time I order every kind of snack they've got, and we have a late lunch on peanuts, popcorn, pretzels, potato chips, dried anchovies, dried smoked fish of some other kind with a lot of little fine bones in it, Slim Jims, Long Johns, pepperoni, Fritos, Beer Nuts, ham-sausage spread, fried pork rind, and some sesame crackers with an extra taste I'm unable to identify."

[Lisa Shock]

In the early 80's I worked in a gallery in Santa Fe, NM. There was a bar across the street that offered a small hot food buffet on a steam-table cart for a couple of hours in the early evening. Lots of people would go there and get a drink and fill up on a cheap dinner. IIRC the buffet included mini tacos and tostadas made on 2" corn tortilla rounds, mini-pigs in a blanket, and chile rellenos.

I saw Buffalo Wings for the very first time at an art gallery opening in Annapolis MD in 1982.

[ChrisOC]

Pickeled eggs, pickeled Polish sausage and Bind Robins (little packs of smoked herring) I haven't been able to find those Polish sausages in a jar for years!