Restaurant

Restaurant






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


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


A restaurant operator is called a restaurateur; both words derive from
the French verb


restaurer.




History




Restaurants developed in 13th Century Hangzhou, a
cultural, political and economic center during China's Song
Dynasty. With a population of over 1 million people, a culture of
hospitality and a paper currency, Hangzhou
was ripe for the development of restaurants. Probably growing out of the tea houses
and taverns
that catered to travellers, Hangzhou's
restaurants blossomed into an industry catering to locals as well. Restaurants
catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious
requirements. Even within a single restaurant much choice was available, an
account from 1275
writes of Hangzhou
restaurants:


"The people of Hangzhou are very difficult to please.
Hundreds of orders are given on all sides: this person wants something hot,
another something cold, a third something tepid, a forth something chilled; one
wants cooked food, another raw, another chooses roast, another grill".^[1]


In the West, whilst inns
and taverns were
known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at
travellers, and in general locals would rarely eat there. Restaurants, as
businesses dedicated to the serving of food, and where specific dishes are
ordered by the guest and generally prepared according to this order, emerged
only in the 18th century. 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 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. It was first
applied to an eating establishment in around 1765 founded by a Parisian soup-seller
named Boulanger. 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.


Restaurants became commonplace 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
in Greek islands
are often situated right on the beach. This is an example from Astipalea.


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.


Typically, 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).

Specific types of restaurant



Brasserie, bistro, pub




In France, a
brasserie
is a café
doubling as a restaurant and serving single dishes and other meals in a relaxed
setting. A bistro
is a familiar name for a café serving moderately priced simple meals in an
unpretentious setting, especially in Paris; bistros have
become increasingly popular with tourists. Mainly in the UK
and other countries influenced by British culture, the pub (short for public
house) today serves a similar dual menu, offering beer and other alcohol along
with basic food fare. Traditionally, pubs were primarily drinking
establishments, whereas the modern pub business relies on food as well, to the
point where so-called gastropubs are known for their high-quality "pub
food".

Dining car




Main article: Dining car









An
interior view of a Denver and Rio Grande Western
Railroad dining car, circa 1927.


A dining car (British English: restaurant car) or diner
(but not "diner car," except in uninformed parlance) is a railroad passenger
car that serves meals on a train in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It
is distinct from other types of railroad food-service cars that do not
duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, principally cars of various
types in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either
within the car or elsewhere in the train. While dining cars are less common
today than they were in the past, they still play a significant role in
passenger railroading, especially on medium- and long-distance trains.

Fast food restaurants




Main article: Fast-food restaurant


In the U.S.,
fast-food restaurants and take-outs have become so widespread that the traditional
standard type is now sometimes referred to as a sit-down restaurant (a retronym). A
common feature of fast food restaurants is a lack of cutlery or crockery, the
customer is expected to eat the food directly from the disposable container it
was served in using their hands.


There are various types of fast-food restaurant:

• one
  collects food from a counter and pays, then sits down and starts eating
  (self-service restaurant); sub-varieties:
  
  
  
  • one
    collects ready portions
    
  • one serves
    oneself from containers
    
  • one is
    served at the counter
    
    
    
    • a special procedure is that one first pays at the cash desk,
      collects a ticket and then goes to the food counter, where one gets the
      food in exchange for the ticket
      
    
    
  
  
• one orders
  at the counter; after preparation the food is brought to one's table;
  paying may be on ordering or after eating.
  

Family style



"Family style", or
sometimes called table d’hôte
("host's table") in France, are restaurants that have a fixed menu
and fixed price, usually with dinners seated at a communal table such as on
bench seats. More common in the 19th and early 20th century, they can still be
found in rural communities, or as theme restaurants, or in vacation lodges.
There is no menu to choose from, rather food is brought out in courses, usually
with communal serving dishes, like at a family meal. Typical examples can
include crab-houses, German-style beer halls, BBQ restaurants, hunting/fishing
lodges. Some normal restaurants will mix elements of family style, Restaurant guides




Main article: Restaurant
rating









Restaurants
offering ethnic food have spread all over North America and Australia in
the past few decades. One of many Italian restaurants in the Heights commercial
district of North Burnaby, British
Columbia, Canada


Restaurant guides list the best places to eat. One of the most famous of
these, in Western Europe, is the Michelin
series of guides which accord from 1 to 3 stars to restaurants they perceive to be of
high culinary merit. Restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide are formal,
expensive establishments; in general the more stars awarded, the higher the
prices. In the United States,
the Mobil Travel Guides
and the AAA rate restaurants on a similar 1
to 5 star (Mobil) or diamond (AAA) scale. Three, four, and five star/diamond
ratings are roughly equivalent to the Michelin one, two, and three star ratings
while one and two star ratings typically indicate more casual places to eat. In
2005, Michelin released a New York City guide, its first for the United States.
The popular Zagat Survey compiles individuals' comments about
restaurants but does not pass an "official" critical assessment. The
Good Food Guide, published by the Fairfax Newspaper Group in Australia, is
the Australian guide listing the best places to eat. Chefs Hats are awarded for
outstanding restaurants and range from one hat through three hats. The Good
Food Guide also incorporates guides to bars, cafes and providores. It is
released yearly.


Nearly all major American newspapers employ restaurant critics and publish online
dining guides for the cities they serve. American newspaper restaurant critics
typically visit dining establishments anonymously and return several times so
as to sample the entire menu. Newspaper restaurant guides, therefore, tend to
provide the most thorough coverage of various cities' dining options.

Economics




In economics,
restaurants are the end of the supply
chain in the foodservice industry. There is usually much competition
in most cities since barriers to entry are relatively low, which means that for
most restaurants, it is hard to make a profit. In most First World
industrialized countries, restaurants are heavily regulated to ensure the
health and safety of the customers.^{[citation needed]}


The typical restaurant owner faces many obstacles to success, including
raising initial capital, finding competent and skilled labour, maintaining
consistent and excellent food quality, maintaining high standards of safety,
and the constant hassle of minimising potential liability for any food
poisoning or accidents that may occur.


Additionally, when economic conditions change—for example an increase in
gasoline prices—households typically spend less on dining out.


In 2006, there are approximately 215,000 full-service restaurants in the United States, accounting for $298 billion, and
approximately 250,000 limited-service (fast food) restaurants, accounting for
$260 billion, according to the 2006 U.S. Industry & Market Outlook
by Barnes
Reports.