Handbill, flyer

Two part advertisement for Johnson's Alamode Beef House located at Drury Lane. One part of the advertisement announces the opening of a take away department for 'supplying out-door customers' and appears to be targeted at a new, more working class customer. The second part of the advertisement lists the facilities available at the dining rooms and luncheon bar of the beef house that also operated as a tavern and commercial hotel. Johnson's was one of London's most famous alamode beef houses. Charles Dickens refers to the restaurant in David Copperfield and he also visited it himself as a young man as he recalls ‘Once, I remember tucking my own bread (which I had brought from home in the morning) under my arm, wrapped in a piece of paper like a book, and going into the best dining-room in Johnson’s alamode beef-house in Clare Court, Drury Lane, and magnificently ordering a small plate of alamode beef to eat with it. What the waiter thought of such a strange little apparition coming in all alone, I don’t know; but I can see him now, staring at me as I ate my dinner, and bringing up the other waiter to look.’ Alamode beef or 'beef a la mode' was stewed for several hours, often with vegetables.