RESTAURANT

The restaurant as we know it—a general eating-place for residents and travelers alike—is an institution of comparatively recent origin. Though there have been inns and taverns and hotels from time immemorial, they were in the old days (except for liquid refreshments) designed chiefly for the entertainment of travelers. We find evidence that so early as the sixteenth century some of the citizens of Paris had discovered the ease and convenience of dining in hotels, for a pamphlet of that period, entitled ‘‘A Treatise on the causes of high prices,’’ bitterly a ailed certain establishments for their example of luxurious living and its effect on the habits of the community, but this condition was apparently peculiar to Paris and even there the houses so favored were exceptional and their customers drawn from a limited cla . There were also rdti eries in the larger cities of France at a very early date, and traiteurs from about the sixteenth century, but the rétis series were forbidden by law to sell anything except roast meats, and the traiteurs anything except ragouts, or stews, so their busine was largely confined to selling roasts and stewed meats to be carried away by their customers. The word ‘‘restaurant’’ originally signified only ‘‘restorative,’’ or ‘‘strene then ing,’’ and it is still employed in those senses also in France—a ‘‘restaurateur’’ may be either a ‘‘restorer’’ of paintings, or the keeper of a ‘‘restaurant.’’ It first attained culinary significance in the sixteenth century, being applied then to a spiced broth— a ‘“‘restorative’’ beverage—introduced by a Dr. Pali y. Later it was applied to various other ‘‘restorative’’ or ‘‘strengthening’’ foods, especially to gravy soups, bouillons, and similar preparations. The first public eating-place which resembled the modern restaurant and was so designated, was that opened by a M. Boulanger in Paris in 1765. Boulanger equipped the interior with a number of little marble-top tables similar to those found in many modern cafés and there he served his customers with bouillon, poulet au gros sel (plain boiled chicken sprinkled with coarse salt), and eggs. He met with succe ; from the start and soon added roast meats, stews, and various other dishes. — His example was speedily copied, and the century and a half since the establishment of his initial venture has seen a steady increase in the number of restaurants in every part of the civilized world.