Bridge Luncheons

Appears in

Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America

Published 2004

About

Although the roots of the card game of bridge go back at least to the early sixteenth century, the game itself, a variant of whist, did not come into being until the end of the nineteenth century. When and by whom the first bridge luncheon was given is not known, but it is probable that the game’s rapid rise in popularity at the turn of the twentieth century, in combination with the emerging club movement, made it a natural way for a middle-class woman to entertain her female friends.

One of the earliest mentions of a luncheon featuring bridge occurred in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s The Winning Lady, published in 1909. By 1922Emily Post’s Etiquette included advice on how long a guest was expected to stay at a bridge luncheon. Since bridge luncheons were almost always strictly feminine affairs, the food and drink tended to be light and dainty. A typical menu from a 1933 cookbook was cream of mushroom soup, frozen cheese salad with fruit mayonnaise, pocket rolls or ginger muffins, coconut cake or cherry angel food cake, coffee, and chocolate peppermints. The book noted “a smart bridge luncheon may be served easily” on card tables (All About Home Baking, 1933). Some hostesses served small sandwiches, biscuits, or cookies cut out in club, heart, diamond, or spade shapes, while others had special sets of table linens decorated in card-suit themes or even similarly decorated bridge luncheon plate-and-cup sets designed to fit comfortably around the small tables. Manufacturers also obliged the hostess with bridge mix, candy, and nut assortments in this period.

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