From Pigeons To Lobsters: Restaurant Prices Have Wild History

People’s culinary tastes can change — which in the past has proven to be detrimental at times. History shows that a species can literally be eaten to commercial extinction such as the Canvasback duck, or contribute to complete population demise as in the case of the Passenger Pigeon, whose numbers declined from over 3 billion to 0 in less than 50 years. It is shown in marine populations as well, such as abalone, a shellfish that became wildly popular with Americans after 1915 but was harvested to near extinction in California waters, says a Texas A&M University at Galveston professor who studies the effects of consumer demand on living resources.

Glenn Jones, a Texas A&M oceanographer, became intrigued many years ago with what restaurants served and how prices changed among the items. He and graduate student Raven Walker have scoured more than 35,000 restaurant menus, looking at prices from the 1850s to the present.

Jones says the Passenger Pigeon was a popular dish in the 1870s and was frequently seen on menus at fancy restaurants from New York to California – good news for diners, but terrible news for the bird itself.

“It was considered a delicacy, so there was a huge demand for it,” he explains.

“Through a combination of habitat destruction and merciless hunting and netting, the species became extinct when the last one died in the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914, 100 years ago this month. It was believed that only 50 years earlier they were the most abundant bird in the world, with an estimated 3 billion living in the north central United States. So you could say they were literally eaten to extinction.”

Another fowl example: the Canvasback duck, which was so popular that in today’s prices, it went from $20 per serving in the 1870s to $100 by 1910.

“Hunters killed up to 1,000 Canvasbacks a day to supply restaurant demands,” Jones adds. “Eating them became a status symbol and shows quite clearly that conspicuous consumption applies for many restaurant food items, where consumer demand continues to increase even as prices increase and availability declines.”

The slaughter eventually led to laws being passed, such as the Migratory Bird Act, but for some species, it was too late.

Jones says some of the most interesting menu items have to be seafood fare. Even adjusted for inflation, many seafood items have increased in price 10 times or more.

Lobster was once considered a trash fish, one that was so disdained that servants begged their employers to serve it to them only once a week as part of their weekly meals. Many times, it was ground up to use as a fertilizer.

“People didn’t want to be seen eating it in public,” Jones says.

“It was so cheap it was served to prisoners in jail and even children in orphanages. But times changed, and lobster meals went from a few dollars in today’s money to more than $30 in just a few years. Lobsters became so popular and were so associated with money that by the end of the 19th century, a wealthy single man was called a ‘lobster’ by female suitors, and many postcards of the day depicted a lady trying to snag a well-dressed ‘lobster’ as a mate.”

Abalone, a popular seafood item, went from $6 in the 1930s in today’s money to $40 by the 1980s and prompted commercial fishing bans for it on the West Coast. Similar price rises were seen for swordfish and some types of turtles, most notably the Diamondback Terrapin.

Some seafood fare has remained very stable in inflation-adjusted price over the past 100 years, most notably crab and oysters, Jones says.

Although historically consumer demand has impacted species negatively, it may be used positively as well. Lionfish are an invasive species believed to have been released into Florida waters and they have expanded into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

Posing a threat to native reef fish and with no promise of natural eradication, a solution for maintenance could be simple: why not eat them? Walker says her current research centers around the lionfish and its potential consumption by humans. She recently returned from Aruba after a preliminary study was conducted asking the key question: Can a consumer demand be created so that an invasive species such as the lionfish can become a popular seafood dish and therefore be controlled by diner demand?

“These fish are wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, so maybe it is possible to develop a strategy to stabilize their numbers by making them popular to eat via conspicuous consumption, just as passenger pigeons, Canvasback Ducks, Diamondback Terrapin, lobster and abalone became wildly popular and heavily over-harvested over 100 years ago,” she says.

“Controlling their numbers is crucial, so maybe getting more restaurants to offer them on their menus would be a good approach to the problem.”