About Cartelier
The living history of restaurants & bars.
Menus are the most ephemeral documents in culture — printed for a single evening, replaced the next morning, and almost never kept. Cartelier preserves them: what was served, who was responsible for it, what recognition they held, and how all of it changed over time.
What Cartelier answers
What did a restaurant serve on a particular night?
When did a dish first appear — and how did its price move?
Who was chef de cuisine when this menu was served?
What changed between yesterday's menu and today's?
Today the archive holds 4 venues and 5 preserved menus — it grows with every capture.
How the record is kept
Time is first-class
Chefs change, prices change, stars change. Cartelier never overwrites a historical fact because something changed — every menu, role, and rating is recorded for the date it was true.
Provenance is mandatory
Every record traces to a source: the document it came from, the date it was captured, and a cryptographic hash of the original. Corrections create new records; originals are preserved.
Nothing is invented
If a menu doesn't state it, it isn't in the record. Missing dates stay missing rather than being guessed. Awards are documented from published sources — never issued by us.
Missing data is part of the narrative
An incomplete archive says so. Gaps invite contribution — restaurants and bars can claim their profile and complete their own history.
Verification language
Every menu carries its verification state, displayed wherever the record appears:
- Official source — captured from the venue's own published materials.
- Verified by restaurant — confirmed by the venue's claimed team.
- Recovered from archive — restored from historical web archives or contributed documents.
- Date inferred — the document carries no printed date; the estimate is labeled, never silently asserted.
Preservation is the product.
A menu observed today that disappears tomorrow cannot be reconstructed by anyone, ever. That is why the archive exists.