Juice Gone

When I was young, which I freely admit was a very long time ago, when you ordered a meal in a nice restaurant, you were asked if you wanted soup or juice.  The question followed as night follows day. 

"I'd like the Veal Parmesan."
"Soup or juice?"

These were appetizers of a sort, one of which came with the meal, its cost included in the price of the entree.  For an extra quarter, you could probably have had both.

I always went with the juice.  Usually it was tomato, but if there was a choice, the server popped the follow-up question.

"I'd like the Veal Parmesan."
"Soup or juice?"
"Juice."
"Tomato or grapefruit?"

I always went with tomato.  It came in a small, clear glass that held six fluid ounces and sat on a small saucer or in a little shallow bowl.  There was a lemon wedge too, usually next to it but occasionally stuck on the rim of the glass.

By the mid-1960's, however, the soup-or-juice thing somehow fell out of favor and the standard antipasto was a mix of iceberg lettuce and sundry little extras like a tomato slice, a ring of red onion, and a couple of croutons.  The question got changed.

"I'd like the Veal Parmesan."
"What kind of dressing on your salad?"

There are now plenty of restaurants in which you get a choice of soup or salad, but I cannot recall any restaurant in which I have dined in the last several decades where a starter of tomato juice was an option.  But I'm going to keep my eyes open.