Elmwood Plantation Menu

The menu’s 14.25 × 10-inch bifold format provides ample space for imagery. On the front is a painting of the manor surrounded by a serene landscape. Spanish moss hangs from the branches of an oak tree in the foreground, painted in muted browns and cool greens. In the background, the plantation’s pillars are a warm pink. A horse-drawn carriage, silhouetted in a deep, dark green against the light green background, rolls up to the building. The pink pillars are on display again on the menu’s back cover, which presents a closer view of the porch. Long shadows stretch out from the columns, giving the impression of a peaceful and quiet afternoon. The carriage is visible at the far end of the porch. The coachman’s hat shows that this is no run-down farm cart; this is the carriage of an aristocrat. The images are minimalist and subdued, conveying an elegance consistent with the ornate lettering inside the menu.

The back of the menu presents a brief overview of the plantation’s history. The bulk of the passage focuses on the majesty of the grounds, with their “magnificent oaks” and the mansion’s “thick walls and heavy pillars.” The passage includes some rudimentary facts about the plantation's history but does not go into detail. It also includes inaccuracies.

As in the illustrations on the front and back covers, there is a notable absence in the menu’s brief history of Elmwood Plantation: any reference to enslavement.

Elmwood Plantation’s history stretches back to the early 1700s. After changing owners a handful of times, the land was granted to Nicolas Chauvin de La Frénière by colonial governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. From the start, enslaved labor was central to the property’s development. La Frénière and his brothers brought in over one hundred enslaved people to clear and till the land. Enslaved workers likely did the lion’s share of the labor in 1762, when La Frénière’s son ordered the construction of the manor.

Elmwood Plantation changed ownership multiple times through the Spanish colonial era and after Louisiana became a US state, but one thing remained constant: the enslaved people who planted, tended, and harvested its sugarcane were the backbone of the plantation. They may have been erased from the design of the menu, or the brief history it presents, but enslaved laborers made possible the sophisticated architecture and picturesque landscape in the menu’s illustrations—and, in some ways, the luxurious ambiance enjoyed by the modern restaurant’s diners.