Pool Boy Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I adore restaurant matchbooks and boxes. I prefer ones that are boxes with wooden match sticks the most, but they are all interesting and like little memory reminders.I must have several hundred from at least 50 to 100 restaurants from over the years. I can't help but take a handful of them whenever I see them from a place I have just dined at. They amuse me and bring good memories or stories back to the forefront in an instant. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kibbee Nayee Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I used to collect these as well, until I had too many and they were a fire hazard where I was storing them....I also had about a thousand beer mats from all over Germany, Belgium, the UK and most of the rest of Europe, until a random spring cleaning made them disappear. My current favorite is the toothpick matchbook that PassionFish has at the host stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Wow. Seeing this topic appear was jarring. My parents did this! I grew up surrounded by restaurant matchbooks decorating the walls of the lower floor of our home. My parents collected them over a few decades and from restaurants all around the world. My dad built framed rosewood panel boards to display them, side-by-side with maybe a few hundred per board. By the time I went off to college, there must have been 6 or 7 of the filled display boards. Easily a couple thousand or more matchbooks. I remember as a kid not thinking much of them but visitors were always wow'ed by them; all the countries and states; all the differently-sized matchbooks; all the logos, colors and artwork. And, of course, all the memories of places visited, meals experienced and life lived. As a high-schooler, I didn't appreciate the interesting or sentimental aspects of them. They reminded me more of a pipe-smoking habit I always wanted my dad to quit. And that they surely were a fire hazard though my dad adapted to that realization by board #3 and would then snip the heads off the matches in matchbooks or empty match boxes before gluing them onto new boards. Many years later my parents downsized and didn't keep the match book/box boards. Haven't thought about this in years until this thread. Seems like this would be a much tougher hobby to pursue now since, with smoking no longer allowed indoors, I'd have guessed very few restaurants even offer matches anymore. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 Yeah I have a lot of matches from places long gone for sure. Never really realized about the fire hazard aspect. But I generally use them for lighting fire in our fireplace. Once I am down to the last matchbooks from a place, it gets stored separately so I don't use the last one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I used to have a decent stash and I don't know where most of them are now, which isn't so good. Of the ones I have handy, my oldest and newest are appended. (Pardon the low quality not-so-smart phone photos.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheezepowder Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 I love the souvenir matchbooks too. Lyon Hall in Clarendon still has them at the host stand, and, as in Pat's photos, Rose's Luxury used to give out a matchbook with the check. Sadly. I used most of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweaked Posted March 7, 2015 Share Posted March 7, 2015 Matchbox of course has matches by the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Scan0002.jpg Love the Four Sisters one. Pretty vintage back when all four worked there. The Cafe Atlantico and Gerard's Place ones look like business cards? I now wish I'd at least photographed the ones we had growing up. So many obscure and better-known places from Europe and Latin Anerica along with US and Canada. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Love the Four Sisters one. Pretty vintage back when all four worked there. The Cafe Atlantico and Gerard's Place ones look like business cards? Actually, six are business cards (including Four Sisters). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Actually, six are business cards (including Four Sisters). That would have been cheating on the rosewood boards of my childhood. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kibbee Nayee Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Scan0002.jpg Loved Bilbo Baggins in the '80s. Haven't been back in a couple of decades.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizzie Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 The gentleman who was my mother's boss was president of whatever was the international matchbook collectors society. He had thousands on display in his home, and we always collected them for him wherever we traveled. I am currently working on a trade investigation for a (very) small family-owned matchbook manufacturing business in New England, against dumped imports from India of "commodity matchbooks". These are different from the ones others are discussing here and are the plain ones generally sold or given away with cigarettes, but if anyone ever needs factoids on matchbooks, I can offer a few... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkstar965 Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 The gentleman who was my mother's boss was president of whatever was the international matchbook collectors society. He had thousands on display in his home, and we always collected them for him wherever we traveled. I am currently working on a trade investigation for a (very) small family-owned matchbook manufacturing business in New England, against dumped imports from India of "commodity matchbooks". These are different from the ones others are discussing here and are the plain ones generally sold or given away with cigarettes, but if anyone ever needs factoids on matchbooks, I can offer a few... OK. "International matchbook collectors society"? Was there really such a thing? If my dad had been aware of that, he'd likely have been a member. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 If anyone is looking for a ton of matchbooks, there's an old antique shop in Alexandria on Route 1 south of the beltway. It's just south of where the old movie theater used to be with is now a Costco. It used to be called Thieves' Market. Anyhow, there's also a computer repair shop upstairs and as I was waiting to pick up my computer, I noticed this large bin that was full of matchbooks. It was probably 3ft x 2ft x 1ft. No idea the price or even the content other than they were from all different places.Just an FYI if you're interested. There has to be some old restaurant match books in there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 If anyone is looking for a ton of matchbooks, there's an old antique shop in Alexandria on Route 1 south of the beltway. It's just south of where the old movie theater used to be with is now a Costco. It used to be called Thieves' Market. Anyhow, there's also a computer repair shop upstairs and as I was waiting to pick up my computer, I noticed this large bin that was full of matchbooks. It was probably 3ft x 2ft x 1ft. No idea the price or even the content other than they were from all different places. Just an FYI if you're interested. There has to be some old restaurant match books in there If anyone really wants mine, they can have virtually all of them. There are a few I'll want to keep (Bagatelle leaps to mind - see, I was doing 2-star Norwegian dining 10 years before it was trendy). Imagine meeting an internet wine friend for the very first time at such a place - his first name was even Knut (and yes, you pronounce the K, sort of). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 I found a few more from DC: DC Restaurant Matchbooks.pdf and France: France Restaurant Matchbooks.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 I burn through my supplies using an entire matchbook when I light fires in my wood fireplace at home in season. When I am done to my last book or box, they get moved to the do not touch bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopsing Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 I was cleaning out a drawer and came upon these old matchbooks (see attached pic). Many of the restaurants have since bitten the dust. The skinny red one is Hunan Chinatown. The black one in the middle right is A Cut Above. I have many Hunan Chinatown matchbooks so I must have liked that restaurant a lot. Do you wish any of them would come back? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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