How restaurants came about

2010/02/05

Compiled by Nicholas Choo, 14, Petaling Jaya

THE earliest restaurant recorded still in existence today, is the Sobrino de Botin in Madrid, Spain. According to The Guinness Book of Records, this restaurant opened in 1725. However, the Sobrino de Botin is not the first restaurant even. The early ancestors of the restaurant in England were the medieval taverns and cook shops. The taverns only served on a fixed hour and price every day, and usually had only one dish, dubbed the “ordinary”. While cook-shops provided cooked meat for take-outs, some occasionally provided dine-in dishes.

By the 16th century, Englishmen of all classes were getting into the habit of dining out. Taverns offered a healthy variety of fixed price meals, wine, ale, and tobacco. Women, however, were not allowed in. Famous English taverns were the Falcon, popularly visited by actors, and the Mermaid, a favourite of William Shakespeare. The coffee house emerged in the mid 1600s. In the beginning, it only provided imported coffee, chocolate and tea of sorts. Wine, ale and hot meals were later added to the menu, taking over the jobs of the taverns in some ways.

While the English may have started the food industry in this manner, the country where restaurants were born was most likely France. In 1765, a soup vendor named Boulanger started offering diners more than the usual “original” dishes. The term “restaurant” was then used, meaning “a food which restores”. This term referred to the rich, highly flavoured soups served. Local Parisians were so delighted with the opening of such a shop that plenty more started to spring up around Paris. Back in England, by the end of the 19th century, the tavern was replaced by restaurants and tea houses. The first tea house was established in 1884. At that time, they only served tea but later they started offering full meals. Tea houses immediately became popular with women, who for the first time had a chance to dine-out without the company of men. Meanwhile, the lower classes turned to eateries called “dives” which were located underground, hence the name. In America, the earliest restaurants appeared in Philadelphia at around 1680. Among the first was the Blue Anchor Tavern. New York’s Francues Tavern was a popular watering hole for many during the Revolutionary Times, and was also the site where George Washington made his farewell speech to his troops. Amazingly, this tavern is still running today, and still keeps its original name. Self-service eateries, called cafeterias, first became popular in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. It was a major advancement in American dine-out services. Nowadays, dining has evolved to such an extent that restaurants can be found in extraordinary places.

A good example is our very own Seri Angkasa Revolving Restaurant located on the top floor of the Kuala Lumpur Tower, which serves a variety of buffet dishes. Maybe the next time you savour the delicacies in a dine-out shop, indulge more, as it has travelled through hundreds of years of history to arrive at your table.

(Source: http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/history-of-restaurants)