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Famous in its day: The Bakery
Louis Szathmary’s restaurant, The Bakery, opened in Chicago at a time when restaurant going in that city was not a very exciting proposition. Amidst the steak and potatoes of 1963, its pâté,...
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Chocolate on the menu
Chocolate concoctions have always been found in the dessert section of restaurant menus. Right? You’ve already figured out that I’m going to say no. But, naturally, it’s a bit more complicated than...
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Farm to table
We might imagine that in the past the food served in restaurants was grown or raised fairly close to where it was consumed, perhaps that it came from farm to table without delay. Undoubtedly this was...
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Why the parsley garnish?
Nothing decorated more restaurant plates in the 20th century than parsley, most of it by all accounts uneaten. Why use so much of what nobody wanted? The best answer I can come up with is that parsley...
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Taste of a decade: 1970s restaurants
In the 1970s the restaurant industry and the custom of eating in restaurants grew rapidly. The decade was the gateway to the present in many ways. Despite economic woes (recession and inflation), the...
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Celebrity restaurateurs: Pat Boone
Few celebrities become deeply involved in the restaurants that bear their names. That was true of the singer Pat Boone, who was known to visit his namesake restaurants occasionally and to sing and...
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Basic fare: bread
Bread has always been basic to restaurants ranging from the lowliest hash house to the most elegant French dining room. This was made evident in 1912, for instance, when Los Angeles drafted a city...
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Basic fare: French fries
I suspect that in the 19th century more Americans ate French fried potatoes at home than in restaurants. Boiled, baked, and mashed potatoes were more common on restaurant menus than fried potatoes of...
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Fast food: one-arm joints
The wooden one-arm chair was a characteristic feature of the “quick lunch” type of eating place which became the popular choice for businessmen around the turn of the last century. The chairs were...
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Taste of a decade: 1960s restaurants
Americans grew wealthier, traveled more, and demanded more exotic cuisine. Yet there were few trained restaurant cooks. Convenience food – in the guise of continental dishes (as in pineapple =...
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Why the parsley garnish?
The best answer I can come up with is this: parsley sprigs are there to fill a perceived absence — of color or volume — on the plate. Parsley is, of course, not the only garnish around but it has...
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