Restaurant

Restaurant (pronounced res-ter-uhnt (non-U), res-tuh-rahnt (non-U) or res-trahnt (U))

A commercial establishment where meals are prepared and served to customers.

1821: An invention of American English from the French restaurant, originally "food that restores", noun use of present participle of the verb restaurer (to restore or refresh) from the Old French restorer.  The French verb restaurer corresponded to the Latin restaurans & restaurantis, present participle of restauro (I restore), (the more familiar form in Latin being restaurāre (to restore)) from the name of the “restorative soup” served in the first establishments.  The term restaurant to describe the “restorative soup” was defined in 1507 as a "restorative beverage" and in correspondence in 1521 to mean "that which restores the strength, a fortifying food or remedy".  One who runs a restaurant is called a restaurateur; the Italian spelling ristorante was attested in English by 1925.

Modern capitalism has a proliferation of terms to describe variations of the restaurant, some ancient, some recent creations; they include bar, diner, joint, inn, outlet, saloon, cafeteria, grill, hideaway, dive, canteen, lunchroom, chophouse, eatery, pizzeria, drive-in and luncheonette.  The restaurant, in the sense now understood as a place where the public come to sit at tables and chairs and order food from a menu and are served their choices by a waiter is relatively new in culinary history, not emerging until the late eighteenth century.

One interesting (and specific) use of restaurant is to refer to hospitals.  Those who essentially starve themselves for professional reasons (models, ballerinas and others), not infrequently faint, officially "from exhaustion" but actually from their malnourished state.  Sometimes this means they get to go to "the restaurant" (hospital) where as well as relaxing, they can enjoy iv fluids and thus gain the necessary nutrition without having to eat a thing.

Origins

Lindsay Lohan in leather, arriving at Bobby Flay’s New York restaurant Gato, 2014.

Although all or some of the “official” history may be apocryphal, the story is that in 1765, a Monsieur Boulanger, (also known as Champ d'Oiseaux or Chantoiseau) opened his shop in Paris near the Louvre on either the rue des Poulies or the rue Bailleul (the history is unclear).  There he sold restaurants (or bouillons restaurants), meat-based consommés which gained their name from their intended purpose to "restore" a person's strength.  The word restaurants, rich, thick broths or soups, had since medieval times been used to describe any of a variety of rich bouillons made with chicken, beef, roots, onions, herbs, and depending on the region and season, spices, sugar, toasted bread, barley, butter, and even exotic ingredients such as dried rose petals, Damascus grapes, and amber.  Monsieur Boulanger’s bouillons proved popular but he also had a flair for advertising, placing in his window a sign saying: Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis et ego vos restaurabo (Come to me all who suffer from pain of the stomach and I will restore you.), the play on words an allusion to both the restorative quality of his broths and, from scripture, Jesus' invitation found in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Seeking to expand his customer base and increase revenue, he began serving roasted leg of lamb with white sauce, thereby infringing the monopoly of the caterers' guild.  While there had long been places where customers could be served a variety of food, Monsieur Boulanger’s establishment was the first where there was a formal, printed menu, a concept previously a preserve of the guild.  The guild filed suit, and to the surprise of the Parisian legal and culinary establishments, the courts ruled in favor of Boulanger and the restaurant (établissement de restaurateur), in its modern form, emerged from this decision.  Historians usually suggest the first “real restaurant" (in the modern understanding of the word) was La Grande Taverne de Londres in Paris, founded by Antoine Beauvilliers (1754-1817) in either 1782 or 1786, combing as it did the “four essentials” of fine dining: (1) an elegant room, (2) gourmet cooking, (3) a fine cellar and (4) professional waiters.

Epicure, Le Bristol Paris, 112 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France.