There always have been taverns, inns, takeout places. If you have an urban society, you need to have places where people who, say, are from the countryside and going to […]
Tag: restaurants
Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture
by Rebecca L. Spang From the publisher: Why are there restaurants? Why would anybody consider eating to be an enjoyable leisure activity or even a serious pastime? To find the […]
History of Howard Johnson’s: How a Massachusetts Soda Fountain Became an American Icon
by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco From the publisher: Howard Johnson created an orange-roofed empire of ice cream stands and restaurants that stretched from Maine to Florida and all the way to […]
Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s
by Ray Kroc From the publisher: Few entrepreneurs can claim to have radically changed the way we live, and Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food-service automation, […]
Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World
by Sharon Hudgins From the publisher: All aboard for a delicious ride on nine legendary railway journeys! Meals associated with train travel have been an important aspect of railway history […]
Culinarians: Lives and Careers from the First Age of American Fine Dining
by David S. Shields From the publisher: He presided over Virginia’s great political barbeques for the last half of the nineteenth century, taught the young Prince of Wales to crave mint […]
How steak became manly and salads became feminine
When was it decided that women prefer some types of food – yogurt with fruit, salads and white wine – while men are supposed to gravitate to chili, steak and […]
A history of women in restaurants
Men far surpassed the number of women eating away from home through most of the 19th century. But, slowly more dining rooms reserved for women appeared. Usually on the second […]
Penny restaurants fed the hungry during the Depression
“Penny restaurants” began in the late 19th century in cities across the United States. Usually operated as charitable programs to provide inexpensive meals to the needy, these eateries became most […]
Why So Many Diners Look Like Train Cars
Diners started out on wheels. In the late 19th century, street carts selling snacks and lunches had morphed into roving lunch wagons. While some lunch wagons sported Gilded-Age decor, such […]