Schrafft's, New York 1920

Schrafft’s began life as a candy manufacturer in Boston and in 1898 one its salesmen, a visionary man called Frank G Shattuck, opened the first store in New York. His sister Jane introduced the concept of light lunches and Schrafft’s developed into a chain of restaurants that was particularly popular with women.
This 1920s menu cover, showing an elegantly-clad waitress, perfectly illustrates the genteel image of the restaurants during the Roaring Twenties.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2004, Mr Shattuck’s great-grandson Frank said of the restaurant’s refined clientele: “Everyone wore hats and home-made suits. And if you were a lady it was safe to sit at the soda fountain and drink gin from a tea cup.”
Schrafft’s expanded steadily throughout the 20s and 30s and its employment policies were also far ahead of its time – it employed many women as cooks, supervisors and executives. At its peak, there were 50 outlets in the greater New York metropolitan area. In the 60s the restaurants and the candy store businesses were sold to separate owners. By the 80s, Schrafft’s had all but disappeared.

Courtesy Private Collection.

Each print is accompanied by a copy of the interior menu where available.

We make our prints with archival-quality fine art paper, using professional pigment inks. Properly framed or stored, our prints will last 70+ years without fading or discolouring.

All our prints up to A2 size are made in-house in the UK. For larger prints, we work with the best commercial giclée printers in the UK. Learn more about our printing process, borders and custom orders here.