The restaurant as we know it was invented in Paris around the late 1700s. Foreign visitors called the city’s restaurants the “most peculiar” and “most remarkable” things. At a traditional inn or tavern, you ate what was served, at a communal table, around set mealtimes. But now, at a restaurant, you got to sit at your own table, at any old time, and order what you wanted to eat. The ability to choose your food also required another newfangled technology: a menu, to organize and inform you of your options.
Read Full Article »
