New York has always taken dining out as seriously as some other societies take religious worship. And though meals may last no more than a few hours, restaurant menus can last far longer. Over time, these concise yet fanciful documents offer a unique historical perspective on the everyday life of a great city.

The New York Public Library tapped William Grimes, the chief restaurant critic of The New York Times, to sift through its collection of menus, most gathered by Miss Frank E. Buttolph (who amassed menus the way some people go after comic books or baseball cards) from 1920 to 1924.

The result is a show that makes for, as Grimes put it, "a good browse." The "New York Eats Out" exhibit is broken into two broad sections, "Popular Dining" and "High-Style Dining," and is further divided historically, into pre- and post-Prohibition time-frames. The exhibit constitutes a small treasure trove of culinary memories -- menus, wine lists, photographs and other ephemera, with commentary by Grimes -- that can easily be taken in during the course of a lunch break.

It all begins with Delmonico's, the storied establishment that from 1827 to 1923 defined stylish dining in New York. A succession of equally grand restaurants follows, including Sherry's and the Waldorf-Astoria. Their menus are uniformly ornate and gluttonously detailed. (The show's principal graphic revelation is that, as a design object, the menu became a much more streamlined and visually provocative document as New York dining evolved).

But what's truly intriguing is how immediate the effect of reading them remains. Food is just food, a perfect connector across the decades. These restaurants may have been playgrounds for the wealthy, but anyone can understand what made them so successful: their food must have been delicious.

But just as New York boasted the country's most expensive restaurants, it also fed millions of poor laborers and immigrants. Grimes has also included menus representing ethnic cuisines, from Jewish to Chinese, which have long formed part of the New York dining landscape. Striking old photographs document itinerant vendors, who have peddled everything from oysters to falafel from street carts.

Throughout the show, Grimes makes the subtle argument that dining in New York has been a conceptual experience. This cuts right across the high-low divide, with the inexpensive automat demonstrating the point as much as the tragically destroyed Windows on the World. Former Windows wine director Kevin Zraly's annotated wine list from 1976 forms the poignant centerpiece of the display.

France's contribution was shipped directly from Paris, to better achieve maximum Gallic effect. But by the fair's end, the Nazis had taken Paris, so returning home was not an immediate option. The stranded manager, Henri Soulé, and his staff elected to make the temporary restaurant a permanent feature of New York's landscape. The legendary Le Pavillon was born, and over time, it would serve as an Ellis Island for French culinary talent. The restaurant itself may be long gone, but its influence lives on in the form of Manhattan landmarks such as La Caravelle, Le Grenouille and La Côte Basque.

Wine is a factor in the exhibition, but not really a significant aspect. According to Grimes, the early days of fine dining in New York were ruled by Champagne, French reds and German whites, with Sherry and Madeira included as carryovers from colonial times, when both beverages were wildly popular. The menus bear this out, with extremely prestigious labels -- châteaus Latour, Lafite-Rothschild, Cos-d'Estournel--doled out in oldfangled measurements -- a half quart, a full quart.

Back then, wine was priced remarkably close to the food. In 1900, dinner might have run from $2 to $5, depending on one's level of gluttony, but Château Latour could be had for $1.50 a quart. And wine prices didn't change much over time. From 1882 to 1900, Bordeaux from vintages five to 10 years old remained less than $3 per bottle. Contrast this with the current state of wine-list pricing. From 1984 to 2002, wine list prices grew by three times or more for recent vintages of Latour, Kirwan and their prestigious cousins. Wine lovers who pay close attention to this aspect of the show may exit scratching their heads, wondering why eating out continues to be affordable while drinking out increasingly is not.

Still, they probably won't be able to help leaving "New York Eats Out" with these thoughts on their minds: What's for dinner, and where can I get it?

New York Eats Out
November 8, 2002 - March 1, 2003

The New York Public Library Edna Barnes Salomon Room
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-869-8089

Admission: Free
Exhibition hours: Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays

Web site: www.nypl.org/press/nyeatsout.html