French cuisine is often considered the epitome of haute cuisine, perhaps because French chefs founded the modern restaurant and are said to have invented the word “restaurant” itself. Many etymologists and historians attribute the origins of both to A. Boulanger, a Parisian soup maker who opened in 1765. Boulanger ran a bouillon restaurant. Bouillon is a so-called restorative meat and vegetable soup, derived from the French word restaurer, meaning “to restore, refresh.” This act was not entirely revolutionary, since other chefs were selling healing soups in “health food stores” around the same time. However, Boulanger’s approach was different in that he offered a menu of other meals at a time when most taverns and food stalls offered only one option determined by the chef. The boulanger’s concept of seating diners and allowing them to choose their favorite meals exploded in popularity after the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, as kitchen workers who had once served aristocratic households opened their own dining rooms or joined new eateries. By 1804, French diners could choose from over 500 restaurants across the country.
Some historians dispute this long-standing theory about the origins of restaurants, arguing that there aren’t many historical documents to prove that boulangers were real people. Others believe that attributing the public dining establishment to French ingenuity is not entirely accurate, since humans have been offering their culinary talents to hungry masses for millennia. Consider, for example, that about 700 years before restaurants opened in France, Chinese chefs in big cities like Kaifeng and Hangzhou customized menus to appeal to traveling businessmen looking for familiar meals. Or, consider that excavations at Pompeii in 79 AD revealed ornate food stalls called thermopolia, where hungry Romans could choose from a variety of prepared dishes. Despite the different names, clever humans have been selling snacks to each other for a long time.
The first diner in America was mobile
While most diners in the U.S. today are stationary establishments, the first greased spoon in the country was more akin to a modern-day food truck. First called a “night lunch wagon” in 1872 by Rhode Island inventor Walter Scott, the horse-drawn carriages served hot meals to late-night workers and party-goers who wanted food after other restaurants had closed. Soon after, inventive restaurateurs developed mobile eateries with seating, some of which provided both food and transportation for hungry diners trying to get around town. By the 1890s, trains began to adopt the concept (previously ticket holders were responsible for preparing their own food), and dining cars emerged to serve food to patrons on long journeys across the growing West. However, the original dining cars quickly fell out of fashion, and maintenance costs, city bans, and competition from brick-and-mortar restaurants forced many operators out of business by the early 1900s. The surviving establishments moved their carts to permanent locations, some of which resembled the original carts or were converted railroad dining cars. Its iconic appearance remains to this day.
The history of the restaurant
According to an oft-told account first published in 1853, the first restaurant was opened in 1765 by a Parisian named Boulanger. His shop on the Rue de Pouly near the Louvre served primarily bouillonnette, or “restorative soup.”
The word comes from the Latin “restaurare,” which means “to renew.”
In addition to being a soup monger, Boulanger was also a man with a sense of humor. His shop’s motto was a Latin invitation: “Venite ad me omnes qui gasto laboratis et ego vos restaurabo,” which translates to “Come to me, all you who suffer from stomach pain, and I will heal you,” a play on words alluding to both the restorative power of his soups and Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Possible Christ complex aside, Boulanger appears to have had good business sense and a comforting, restorative soup. His business model was successful, and a word describing the restorative quality of his soups has come to refer to establishments like Boulanger’s. (The French word “restaurant” for Boulanger’s soups comes from the Latin “restaurare,” meaning “to regenerate.”)
As an aside, not all was well after that in Paris. As these restaurants spread and diversified, they encroached on the territory of the traiteurs (caterers who served prepared food to people without their own kitchens). The traiteurs (which translate to “those who serve food”) reportedly sued the boulangers but lost, securing the boulangers’ legacy. The traiteurs’ legacy lived on too; they were borrowed into Italian to become trattoria, the root of the word trattoria (the common Italian word for “restaurant”), and the building of many an American restaurant seeking a marinara that tastes just as good as the old-world marinara.
So that’s the history of the word restaurant, but of course it doesn’t cover all the “restaurants” out there – the places you go when you don’t feel like cooking. The topic is too broad for a modest article like this, but if we focus on English words, we can see that Boulanger’s restaurant was not the first “restaurant” based solely on ancient vocabulary. The Oxford English Dictionary’s Historical Thesaurus lists six words for “restaurant” from the mid-15th century to the time of Boulanger’s Soup: eating house, victimling-house, cook’s shop, treat-house, suttling-house (especially for soldiers), and chop shop.
It seems we are once again confronted with the English language’s obsession with the French. Restaurant sounds more appetizing than any other word. Help yourself.
