The Story of the Restaurant

So, given that restaurant dining accounts for 4% of the US gross national product, and 45.8% of all money spent on food, we thought it might be interesting to take a look at how it all started. When exactly did people start eating in restaurants…and where did the name come from?

Lets start by defining what a restaurant is: a restaurant is a place where consumers can sit down, be waited on, order food from a menu offering several choices, and pay for the entire meal with a single set payment (that last one will make more sense in a moment). The definition is necessary because, in a way, people have been eating out since the dawn of time. Archaeologists excavating in Ur (the home town of Abraham) have found evidence of cookshops in the streets, the Greeks talk about buying prepared food from vendors, and you can actually see the remains of what can only be described as a Roman fast-food joint in Pompei. But these places catered mainly to the poor, and the food prepared was designed to be eaten on the run, so they don't really qualify as restaurants. Inns are closer to the mark. Almost every town, village and waystation had some kind of an inn, even if it was only a private home that rented rooms to travelers. The difference between inns and restaurants is, of course, that they really only catered to people who were away from home and usually offered only one selection to eat (i.e., what the innkeeper's family was having). Local people did not pop into the inn for a bite after a hard day's work in the fields, or to celebrate a birthday or the purchase of a new cow.

Of course, Europe during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages was a fairly primitive society. The only people with anything that could be described as a disposable income were the wealthy, and they usually had their own cooks at home where the rituals of dining became highly complex. For the poor (there really wasn't a middle class), eating was a matter of sustenance and food was prepared simply and at home. Drinking was more of a social institution, but even then most ale and wine was prepared for domestic consumption.

In China the situation was different. When Marco Polo journeyed to Hangchow in 1280, he found a city dedicated to the enjoyment of food, with restaurants dedicated to almost every specialty. Here the customer was treated to individual tables, cutlery, and napery of the highest quality. Some restaurants even provided free transportation for guests, and had adjoining brothels. Customers would order from waiters who memorized what they had been told and rushed to the kitchen, returning with dishes and bowls balanced precariously up their arms. In Japan, too, restaurant dining came early and some establishments founded in the 15th century are still in business today.

Back in Europe, things began to look up in the 17th century, with the growth of a more leisured middle class, a boom in urban dwelling…and the introduction of coffee. Coffee houses and cafes sprang up everywhere and soon became more than just places to taste the invigorating drink. Different cafes began to host gatherings of intellectuals and scientists (see: The Royal Society). Early newspapers, too, were an outgrowth of the cafes, as different groups published their own, first just for the entertainment of the café's clientele, but soon for city-wide consumption.

Having established a habit of drinking coffee out of the home, it was a small leap to dine out. Surprisingly, this habit had its first flowering in England, where taverns began catering to gentlemen. Far from being pubs, these establishments were aimed at the merchant and upper classes, and prided themselves on their food. Good cooks were much sought after, and eagerly lured away from one tavern to the other.

Visiting Frenchmen were much taken by the English taverns, but found that the situation at home made duplicating the craze almost impossible. France, it seems, was held in the vice-like grip of the culinary guilds. Like later unions, these guilds operated a closed shop, and were supported by the weight of the law. This meant that catering was divided between as many as seven different guilds, and woe betide anyone who crossed the line.

For example, there were the patissiers who could make pies and pastries but couldn't roast meats, the rotisseurs (roasters), who roasted meat but couldn't bake anything in the oven or make ragouts (meat cooked in liquid - basically casseroles), the traiteurs (caterers) who had the right to sell ragouts. If you dined out, the aubergistes (wine sellers) would organize the meal, and at the end you would be presented with separate bills from each of the guilds who had been involved in preparing it. Talk about a disincentive!

By the mid 1700s some enterprising individuals had opened establishments known as "bouillons" which sold thin soups called "restaurants," literally restoratives. Gradually the shops themselves became known as restaurants. Still, they were a far cry from anything we would recognize as such. All this was about to change.

In 1765, a maker of "restaurants," by the name of Boulanger, took it into his head to cook sheep's feet and serve them with a white sauce. The traiteurs went ballistic - this was clearly a ragout. They took Boulanger to court, claiming that he was selling unauthorized ragouts. Now ragouts are meat cooked in a sauce, Boulanger was cooking meat and sauce separately and then pouring the sauce over the top. The traiteurs lost.

By 1771 restaurateurs were providing food and wine for their customers and delivering a single bill at the end of the meal. And by 1886 the term "restaurant" had ceased to mean a "restorative soup" and had come to mean an "eating house."

However, the first place that we would recognize as a restaurant didn't open until 1782. It was called La Grande Taverne de Londres and was located at 26, rue de Richelieu. Opened by Antoine de Beauvilliers, who had once been steward and chef to the comte de Provence, the restaurant featured well-dressed waiters and an impressive wine cellar. People flocked to it and from this point restaurants began to crop up all over Paris, influenced in large part both by the fad for English taverns, but also by the fact that the French Revolution saw the end of the guilds, brought a huge number of deputies from the provinces, and provided a large number of cooks who had previously been in the employ of aristocrats.

In private homes, fashion had demanded that whole dishes be brought to the table and guests served from the vast array. Now individual portions were prepared out of sight and brought to the guest. Food of a quality that had once been restricted to the wealthiest citizens became available to everyone with the price of a dish in his pocket. But along with quality, restaurateurs were expected to provide choice: the best restaurants would have endless menus with as many as 12 soups, 65 entrees and 50 desserts.

This kind of competition forced chefs to create ever more elaborate dishes, importing ingredients from across the globe in an effort to present their public with something new, different and exciting. The cuisines of other countries were investigated and plumbed for ideas and inspiration was found in the exploits of adventurers and the faces of opera singers. Dining out became more than simply eating, it became a social event and an exploration.

Which, after all, is what it still is.