Knott's Berry Farm - Steak House Menu Comparison

It's Knott's Monday! Following up on a previous post where we compared Knott’s Berry Farms “Chicken Dinner” restaurant menu’s, today’s lets compare prices at Knott’s Steak House. You can see the previous Chicken Dinner menu post here (link). Ignore the part about how today’s post was suppose to happen in a week, since that was back in early July! Hey, it was a busy summer!

I don’t know the actual date the “Steak House” opened at Knott’s. Maybe some Knott’s fan out there could let us know. I do believe the “Ghost Town Grill” was sort of the Steak House version 1, or at least its beef items did end up on the first “Steak House” Menu.

Since it’s always best to start at the beginning (or at least the beginning of what’s in my collection) here is the cover and price page from the “Ghost Town Grill”. If you would like to see then entire menu/brochure, you can download it here Ghost Town Grill - Full download (9.5mb). Filet Mignon $2.50 and ice cream was a dime!!!

The next five sets of menu price pages represent approximately 1955 to 1970, however a couple don’t have dates. These are brochure type menu’s with about 8 pages, mostly pictures and descriptions of the farm. The center pages have the prices as you will see below. There are 3 difference versions of the covers, one with no phone number, one with a “LAwrence” phone number, and one with the area code (714).






Up first is the oldest “Steak House” menu in my collection. It’s not dated, but I would place it around 1955, anyone know for certain?






Next I would place this at 1957 judging by the “Dinners served” totals running thru 1956. It’s interesting to note those are “grand totals” as the same numbers appear in the Chicken Dinner Menu.






1958 brings a couple small price increases, but most noteworthy is the addition of “Buffalo” to the menu! Check out down at the bottom of this post and you will find a complete “Buffalo Steak” menu. Was this just an off-shoot of the “Steak House”?






Now from 1965 (what a great year!) no more Buffalo meat, but we’ve got some hand written price increases and Sauté Chicken Livers for $2.50! I think I just lost my appetite, wait, a boysenberry tart topped with ice cream for a quarter! OK, I’m hungry again. Wow, Dwight "Andy" Anderson looks like he has eaten a few of those steaks over the years, is that even the same guy?






The last menu has no year served totals and is just a true “menu” with just four pages including the covers. I would place it around 1970, but that’s just a guess.






Here is the back of the oldest Steak House menu and the only menu/brochure to actually shows the inside of the place. That General Merchandise Store sure looks fun too, is that Sam Drucker behind the counter?







Lastly, here is the Buffalo Steak Menu. It appears to be part of the Steak House. Has anyone had buffalo meat? Is it any good? Do they still sell it anywhere? Is it even legal?







Check back next Monday for yet another vintage Knott's Map! Come back tomorrow for some Disneyland stuff... Oh, and come back on Bonus Sunday for a few complete scans of the menus.