Boomer here.
1950s and 60
Canned or jarred smoked oysters.
Baked Alaska
Shirley Temples
Creme de Minthe (sp?)
Coq au vin

1970s
My boyfriend was obsessed with frozen raspberries with cream on top.
Kahlua Sombreros
Tequila Sunrises
DH says steak restaurant

1989s
Japanese food including sushi

Name brand anything.

I remember desperately wanting those Wonder Bread polka dots as a kid. Does it even still exist?

Going to Red Lobster or Ponderosa was a once a year treat.

Anonymous wrote:Sushi.

We were Japanese expatriates in northern Europe, when I was growing up. Restaurant sushi was expensive. My parents desperately made ersatz sushi at home with carefully hoarded Japanese rice and all sorts of local fillings: that's how I ended up with celery and dried prune sushi, sausage sushi, all sorts of iNteRestinG stuff!

My kids can get sushi anytime, and they don't understand the SUFFERING.

Hahahaha! I get it. I'm the German PP. We lived in Japan for 7 years when I was younger, and when we moved back to Germany, we suffered from lack of sushi! Herring sushi. Smoked makerel sushi. Cucumber of course.

(and the aforementioned fancy avocado)

Berries
Any fruit in the winter that wasn't red apples, bananas, or oranges
Name brand cereal
Bread that wasn't pre-sliced in a plastic bag- any kind of sourdough, baguette, etc. was reserved for a holiday meal
Mashed potatoes from scratch instead of those flakes (I know, it was insane)
Any potatoes that weren't russets in a giant bag. We only had cute little potatoes for holidays.
Coffee from beans or ground coffee brewed in a pot was only for holidays, otherwise it was instant crystals only.

Anonymous wrote:Brie. I eat it on any day (I mean still not often), but it doesn’t have to be a holiday.

Even pepper jack cheese. Was a party food, but I love it for every day.

Pomegranate seeds

Steak and burgers. Not fancy but they were celebration or holiday/party foods.

Nowadays I throw together a presentable charcuterie on any given weekend, but it would have been super special / rare growing up. That’s probably all of us.

No, grew up in Germany. What we think of of as charcuterie trays was essentially dinner most nights. Maybe a little less fancy looking, but not by much. My grandparents were very big on "you eat with your eyes", meaning everything had to look nice.

Fancy would be avocados. Only specialty stores carried them. And kiwis.

Eggs were soft boiled and only eaten on Saturday mornings. So semi-fancy?

Baked brie in crescent rolls
Ambrosia
Cobb salad at a local restaurant

Sushi.

We were Japanese expatriates in northern Europe, when I was growing up. Restaurant sushi was expensive. My parents desperately made ersatz sushi at home with carefully hoarded Japanese rice and all sorts of local fillings: that's how I ended up with celery and dried prune sushi, sausage sushi, all sorts of iNteRestinG stuff!

My kids can get sushi anytime, and they don't understand the SUFFERING.

Berries are the first thing I think of. We never, EVER had fruit in the house other than bananas, Macintosh apples and navel oranges. A richer friend's mom once served us sliced kiwi and strawberries for a snack and I talked about it for months to my mom.
I remember when the first sushi place opened in my Michigan hometown in the late 90s and my family thought it was very outre ("raw fish???"). Espresso is also a good one --that was something for Frasier Crane to drink, not suburban moms.
Chex Mix was something my mom actually prepared as an appetizer for holiday guests, not an everyday snack out of the bag like now.

Anonymous wrote:Grey Poupon, obviously.

This made me smile.

You nailed it OP! I saw the topic and immediately thought of canned artichoke hearts and brie. Anything brined in cans, really-- olives, hearts of palm, artichokes, baby corn... We would try to sneak some behind my mom's back and got yelled at because "those are for company".

Anonymous wrote:This made me think about my MIL and her 11 siblings. Their mother convinced them radishes were a "treat" even though she grew them by the bushel (for sale).

To this day, her grandchildren savor radishes because Grandma would dole them out only if they were good.

In France they serve them raw in restaurants as an app -- with butter of all things.

Anonymous wrote:Shrimp.

Farmed Asian shrimp has changed everything.

Yes! Shrimp was very fancy! I only had it in a shrimp cocktail a few times when going out to fancy restaurants for a special occasion with my grandparents.

Anonymous wrote:Non store brand anything
Seafood

+1

If there was a generic available, that was what we had. And this was back in the day when it wasn't even a store brand, it was a black-and-white label that just said "peas" or "spaghetti sauce" or "peanut butter" or "grape jelly."

Grey Poupon, obviously.