That doesn't sound pretentious at all.
The back of the card sys "Incomparable Food and Beverages by Paul."
You were supposed to know who he was, or be impressed by people who did.
Another postcard filled in some details: Paul was "Paul Shank, Denver's self-styled architect of appetite." An odd thing to say on one's promotional material. "Self-styled" is often a mild backhanded crack.
It used to be located in a mansion. An eBay listning for a menu - sold by the time this page runs, perhaps - has a brief appreciation by Lucius Beebe, writing in Gournet. Beebe notes that the Tiffin is "maintained by a pair of altogether admirable (word missing) named Jean and Paul Shank, who call themselves 'architects of appetite,' and if you can surmount this initial hurdle, you will find their menu an imposing array" and so on.
In Beebian terms, that was a rather lethal insult. |
