Meaning of Soup to Nuts

I don't know why this isn't in the list yet, but the origin of the phrase is from formal dinners that started with a soup course and ended with the last course being a plate of mixed nuts.

They're the courses in a (Victorian?) formal banquet. Soup is the first course, and the nuts are served with the brandy and cigars as the gentlemen retire to the billiards room....

---from "archive 6" posted 08-01-00 by bob.