Menu, Verandah Grill

Product Description

It is not very easy to find the hard-back Cunard Line Verandah Grill menu covers.  When one does find the covers, they almost never have the actual menu in them any longer.  This time, however, all is complete.  And what this one of the best menus from the Queen Elizabeth I have ever seen is that the occasion was the last meal served on the ship before departing Southampton forever.  And even better than that is that the guest of honor at this luncheon was Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.  She toured the ship for the last time in Southampton on November 6, 1968 and ate lunch in the grill.

And oh, what a luncheon it was, too!  The cover is signed inside to “My good friend Robbie with every  good wish and happiness of the “Queen Mary.  Don Vincent Verandah Grill manager.”  Inside the menu it is further signed “To Robbie. The final meal served before departure to Florida”

Of course, it is in the grandest of Cunard styles.  Dover sole, southdown lamb (with very little mint sauce!), chocolate soufflé for desert, and accompanied by the best wines including a a Lafite Rothschild 1959.  Dare one say it?  Simultaneously, the last of many important meals on RMS Queen Elizabeth but also perhaps one of the most important meal ever held on any Cunarder?

A sad day, but if we could have only been there to witness it.  Owning this menu is as close as we can come, however.  Some damage to spine where cord was taken on and off for many years to put new menus in each night.  Else excellent.