Restaurants

Food and Recipes » Meal Ideas » Restaurant Guide

Restaurants
By. Mar

A restaurant is an establishment that serves prepared food and beverages to be consumed on the premises. The term covers a multiplicity of venues and a diversity of styles of cuisine.

Restaurants are sometimes a feature of a larger complex, typically a hotel, where the dining amenities are provided for the convenience of the residents and, of course, for the hotel to maximise their potential revenue. Such restaurants are often also open to non-residents.

History
The term restaurant (from the French restaurer, to restore) first appeared in the 16th century, meaning "a food which restores", and referred specifically to a rich, highly flavoured soup.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Sobrino de Botin in Madrid, Spain is the oldest restaurant in existence today. It opened in 1725.

The modern sense of the word was born around 1765 when a Parisian soup-seller named Boulanger opened his establishment. The first restaurant in the form that became standard (customers sitting down with individual portions at individual tables, selecting food from menus, during fixed opening hours) was the Grand Taverne de Londres, founded in 1782 by a man named Beauvilliers.

Whilst inns and taverns were known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at travellers, and in general locals would rarely eat there. The restaurant became established in France after the French Revolution broke up catering guilds and forced the aristocracy to flee, leaving a retinue of servants with the skills to cook excellent food; whilst at the same time numerous provincials arrived in Paris with no family to cook for them. Restaurants were the means by which these two could be brought together — and the French tradition of dining out was born. In this period the star chef Auguste Escoffier, often credited with founding classic French cuisine, flourished, becoming known as the "Cook of Kings and the King of Cooks."

Restaurants then spread rapidly across the world, with the first in the United States (Jullien's Restarator) opening in Boston in 1794. Most however continued on the standard approach (Service à la française) of providing a shared meal on the table to which customers would then help themselves, something which encouraged them to eat rather quickly. The modern formal style of dining, where customers are given a plate with the food already arranged on it, is known as Service à la russe, as it is said to have been introduced to France by the Russian Prince Kurakin in the 1810s, from where it spread rapidly to England and beyond.

Types of restaurants

Restaurants range from unpretentious lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and wines in a formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing. In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal, or even in rare cases formal wear.

Standardly customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving. In finer restaurants there will be a host or hostess or even a maître d'hôtel to welcome customers and to seat them. Other staff waiting on customers include busboys and sommeliers.

Depending on local custom, a tip of varying proportions of the bill (often 10–20%) may be added, which (usually) goes to the staff rather than the restaurant. This gratuity might be added directly to the bill or it may be given voluntarily.

Restaurants often specialise in certain types of food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme. For example, there are seafood restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants. Generally speaking, restaurants selling "local" food are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign origin are called accordingly, for example, a Chinese restaurant and a French restaurant..

Depending on local customs and the establishment, restaurants may or may not serve alcoholic beverages. Restaurants are often prohibited from selling alcohol without a meal by alcohol sale laws; such sale is considered to be activity for bars, which are meant to have more severe restrictions. Some restaurants are licensed to serve alcohol ("fully licensed"), and/or permit customers to "bring your own" alcohol (BYO / BYOB).

Users Reading this article are also interested in:

Infusions Restaurants, by James Murray
The Toronto Restaurants, by Clint Jhonson
Japanese Restaurants, by Tom Takihi

Top Searches on Restaurant Guide:

• Seafood Restaurants Boston

• French Restaurants

About The Author, Mar

Related pages: Restaurants, restaurant definition, Mexican food, and Chinese food.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license.
Article Submission made possible by: http://www.articles-submit.com
Courtesy of:Reserve Domain

Restaurant Guide

•	Learn to Cook Your Favorite Restaurant Recipes
•	Copycat Restaurant Recipes
•	Two Bennigans Restaurant Recipes
•	Sydneys Best Restaurants - A Whirlwind Tour
•	Restaurant in Parramatta - Inside Out Restaurant
•	Choosing the Right Restaurant for You
•	Good Restaurants
•	Restaurant Recommendations: Best 5 Restaurants in Mesa
•	Milpitas Restaurants- Historically Delectable!
•	Having a Successful Restaurant
•	Restaurants in Meadowvale, Mississauga
•	Official Secret Restaurant Recipes
•	Finding The Perfect Romantic Restaurant In Norwich
•	Taleo Restaurant Is Something Special
•	Toronto Restaurants Famed For Best Food Styling
•	Indian Restaurants In Sugarland Texas
•	Make Your Party A Smash Hit
•	Enjoy Delicious Cuisines
•	Worcester Restaurants
•	Discount Dining in a city near you
	» More on Restaurant Guide

FoodEditorials Meals Resources offers ideas for Breakfast Meals, Lunch Meals & Dinner Meals. Find out all you need to know about Meal Planning for daily meals. Also, browse through the Restaurant Guide to find out out the best places for Food like Pasta and Steaks.

Need faster Access? Try our Local Hosting Sites

Asia : Singapore - Malaysia - Indonesia | America : USA