Clik here to view.
Variations on the word restaurant
Although I have found the word “restaurant” used as early as 1830, it wasn’t until about 1850 that it became common in the United States. Before that there were a variety of related words which can be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Romantic dinners
No respectable person in the 19th century would have dreamed of even mentioning such a thing as a romantic dinner in a restaurant. The whole topic of “romance” and restaurants was scandalous. Basically...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Etiquette violations: eating off your knife
While eating lunch at the Café Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie in New York last week what did I see but a well-dressed, “high-net-worth-individual” eating from her knife? She held a fork in her left hand...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Confectionery restaurants
A little-recognized restaurant type that has had considerable influence historically was the restaurant that grew out of or was associated with a confectionery business. The closest this type of eating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Good eaters: students
As far back as the early 19th century students have made up a notable segment of restaurant clientele. They have played a significant historical role both in supporting the growth of restaurants and in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peas on the menu
I read a story on dining-out trends a few days ago that said, “We’re ordering fewer peas …” Of course! I can’t remember when I last ordered peas in a restaurant. Never, I suspect. Plates often come...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Anatomy of a restaurateur: Kate Munra
With her Early-American-style ringlets and silk gowns, already outdated by 1900 when this portrait was taken, white-haired Katherine Sterrett Munra scarcely looks like a highly skilled hospitality...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Toothpicks
Although toothpicks have many uses in the home, their career as a tool for picking teeth is mostly associated with restaurants. And, like so many aspects of restaurant history, their story says a lot...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Basic fare: bread
Bread has always been basic to restaurants ranging from the lowliest hash house to the most elegant French dining room. This was made evident in 1912, for instance, when Los Angeles drafted a city...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Diary of an unhappy restaurateur
Edmund Hill began working in his father’s bakery and restaurant full-time in 1873 when he was 18. His help was needed because of his father’s poor health. He wanted to go on to Yale, yet he devoted his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What would a nickel buy?
At a self-service restaurant in the town where I live, the menu includes a simple dish of beans and rice for only $1.25. It’s not steak but it’s better than a candy bar for anyone who is hungry but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hot chocolate at Barr’s
Even in a good-sized, prosperous city as Springfield MA was in the late 19th century, a chance to sit down and be served a cup of hot chocolate or other refreshments was hard to come by. Other than...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Menu vs. bill of fare
The short version is that Bill of Fare is English and Menu is French, and up until the 1920s the use of Bill of Fare was standard, but by the 1930s it had been almost universally supplanted by Menu. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Soup and spirits at the bar
In the 1970s the National Park Service reconstructed the historic late-18th-century City Tavern in Philadelphia for use as a restaurant. An article that describes how the tavern was to be furnished...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Find of the day: J.B.G.’s French restaurant
Last weekend I went to an antique paper show sponsored by the Ephemera Society of America where there were books and every sort of printed thing — maps, advertising cards, tickets, menus, postcards,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
See it, want it: window food displays
To the degree that restaurants are about theater, food is one of the starring players. Putting it on stage has long been considered a way to sell it. There are many opportunities to display food, one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At the sign of the . . .
Taverns and inns of the Colonial and Early American eras were ancestors to hotels, providing the all-important trio of beds, food, and alcoholic drinks. But they also supplied inspiration to eating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
High-volume restaurants: Crook & Duff (etc.)
Luxury restaurants are more likely to become memorialized by time, but often ordinary restaurants have a history that is equally rich and played a more significant role in the everyday functioning of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Famous in its day: Partridge’s
I began this post intending to present some of the history of Partridge’s restaurant that is advertised on many Victorian trade cards of the 1870s and 1880s, such as the one shown above. Despite their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cooking with gas
As part of my research into how restaurants worked in past times, I’ve looked into their cooking methods, in particular the kind of fuel they used. Like all nuts and bolts questions, it has been...
View Article
