A Taste of the Past: Remembering Fredericksburg’s Traveler’s Café

Eating dinner is like playing golf or drinking wine. You can do it alone, but it’s a lot more fun with other people.

And the communal nature of food is revealing. The kind of food we eat, how we eat it, where we eat it and who we eat it with tells a lot about history and culture.

Before the 20th century, hotels, taverns and camp yards provided food for people away from home. Those places had no menus. The cook didn’t take requests. Diners ate whatever came out of the kitchen, often something in a pot that could sit on the stove all day, be stirred occasionally and dished out as needed.