Restaurant Management and Operations

The first restaurant ever was called a “public dining room” and originated in France. Throughout history France has played a key role in the development of restaurants. The first restaurant ever that actually consisted of patrons sitting at a table and being served individual portions, which they selected from menus, was founded in 1782 by a man named Beauvilliers. It was called the Grand Taverne de Londres. However, this was not the beginning of the restaurant concept .
The first restaurant proprietor is believed to have been one A. Boulanger, a soup vendor, who opened his business in Paris in 1765.

He sold soups at his allnight tavern on the Rue Bailleul. He called these soups restorantes (restoratives), which is the origin of the word restaurant . Boulanger believed that soup was the cure to all sorts of illnesses. However, he was not content to let his culinary repertoire rest with only a soup kitchen. By law at the time, only hotels could serve “food” (soup did not fit into this category). In 1767, he challenged the traiteurs’ monopoly and created a soup that consisted of sheep’s feet in a white sauce. The traiteurs guild filed a lawsuit against Boulanger, and the case went before the French Parliament. Boulanger won the suit and soon opened his restaurant, Le Champ d’Oiseau.

In 1782, the Grand Tavern de Londres, a true restaurant, opened on the Rue de Richelieu; three years later, Aux Trois Fr` eres Provenc ¸aux opened near the Palais-Royal. The French Revolution in 1794 literally caused heads to roll—so much so that the chefs to the former nobility suddenly had no work. Some stayed in France to open restaurants and some went to other parts of Europe; many crossed the Atlantic to America, especially to New Orleans.