Chinese Takeout Menu (Part 3)

Quick Overview

Fong's Graphics & Printing, established in 1985 in the San Gabriel Valley, reveals their extensive archive of old restaurant menus and printing samples, including the tri-fold paper menus they used before modern digital methods, and discusses their ongoing printing work, such as creating new menus for a local restaurant.

Key Points: Fong's Graphics & Printing has been operating in the San Gabriel Valley since 1985, recently celebrating its 40th anniversary. The business maintains an archive of various old menus, including printed samples from the 1980s and 1990s, showcasing different printing styles like multi-page spiral-bound menus and tri-fold paper menus. Daphne Fong demonstrates the evolution of menu printing, showing examples from when they hired photographers for food pictures to current methods. The owners discuss how customers, including local restaurant owners, would order specific menu items, which were then compiled into the final print job. The video highlights the historical context of menu creation, contrasting old techniques (like using physical samples and calligraphy) with modern digital processes. The archive contains samples of different menu types, such as Chinese food menus, Hawaiian BBQ plates, and vegetarian options.

Context: The video documents a visit to Fong's Graphics & Printing, a long-standing printing business in the San Gabriel Valley, established by Daphne and Doris Fong in 1985. The host interviews the owners amidst shelves filled with decades of their printing work, focusing specifically on the evolution of Chinese restaurant menu design and production over the past four decades.

Detailed Analysis

The video explores the history and craft of menu printing through an interview with Daphne and Doris Fong at their business, Fong's Graphics & Printing, which has been running since 1985 in the San Gabriel Valley. The host expresses surprise at the volume of historical menus kept in their archive, which are organized on wooden shelves. Daphne Fong shows the host various menu formats they have produced over the years, including older, colorful menus featuring food photography (like the 'Family Pack' and 'General Chicken' ads seen on lightboxes) and spiral-bound books showing different cuisine sections (Hawaiian BBQ, Chinese food). They look through old samples, noting that customers used to select items based on these physical proofs. The owners explain their process, which included hiring photographers for food pictures and using calligraphy for titles, like the sample showing breakfast, lunch, dinner, beef, and seafood items written in traditional script. They contrast this with modern needs, mentioning that some older styles of printing (like single-color printing on an old machine) are no longer used. The discussion emphasizes the tangible, physical nature of their past work compared to today's digital standards, showing how they managed customer choices by having them point to desired items on the samples.