Template:POTD/2009-02-10
A table d'hôte menu from 1893. A table d'hôte meal, literally "host's table" in French, is a multi-course meal with only a few choices, which is charged at a fixed price. The phrase originally meant literally a particular table, "a common table for guests at a hotel or eating-house". The meaning transferred thence to "a public meal served (at a common table) at a stated hour and at a fixed price". Eventually, the elements required for a meal where guests eat together, that is, at the same table at the same time, fell away so that the phrase persisted where only the fixed price element remained.
This menu was from a dinner given in honor of the conductor Walter Damrosch, whose autograph can be seen in the lower left.