Ten Restaurants That Changed America

by Paul Freedman

From Delmonico's to Sylvia's to Chez Panisse, a daring and original history of dining out in America as told through ten legendary restaurants Combining a historian's rigor with a foodie's palate, Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco's fabled the Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone's, or chronicling the rise and fall of French haute cuisine through Henri Soule's Le Pavillon, food historian Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. Freedman also treats us to a scintillating history of the then-revolutionary Schrafft's, a chain of convivial lunch spots that catered to women, and that bygone favorite, Howard Johnson's, which pioneered on-the-road dining, only to be swept aside by McDonald's. Ten Restaurants That Changed America is a significant and highly entertaining social history.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Food History, American History, Food Writing

563 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2016

About the author

Paul H. Freedman is the Chester D. Tripp Professor of History at Yale University. He specializes in medieval social history, the history of Spain, the study of medieval peasantry, and medieval cuisine.

His 1999 book Images of the Medieval Peasant won the Medieval Academy's prestigious Haskins Medal.

~~

Professor Freedman specializes in medieval social history, the history of Spain, comparative studies of the peasantry, trade in luxury products, and history of cuisine.

Freedman earned his BA at the University of California at Santa Cruz and an MLS from the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He earned a Ph.D. in History at the same institution in 1978. His doctoral work focused on medieval Catalonia and how the bishop and canons interacted with the powerful and weak elements of lay society in Vic, north of Barcelona. This resulted in the publication of The Diocese of Vic: Tradition and Regeneration in Medieval Catalonia (1983).

Freedman taught for eighteen years at Vanderbilt University before joining the Yale faculty in 1997. At Vanderbilt, he focused on the history of Catalan peasantry, papal correspondence with Catalonia and a comparative history of European seigneurial regimes. He was awarded Vanderbilt’s Nordhaus Teaching Prize in 1989 and was the Robert Penn Warren Humanities Center Fellow there in 1991-1992. During that time he published his second book, Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia (1991).

Since coming to Yale, Professor Freedman has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in History, Director of the Medieval Studies Program and Chair of the History Department. He has offered graduate seminars on the social history of the Middle Ages, church, society and politics, and agrarian studies (as part of a team-taught course).

Freedman was a visiting fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Geschichte in Göttingen in 2000 and was directeur d’Études Associé at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris in 1995. He also published his third book, Images of the Medieval Peasant (1999) and two collections of essays: Church, Law and Society in Catalonia, 900-1500 and Assaigs d’historia de la pagesia catalana (writings on the history of the Catalan peasantry translated into Catalan).

More recently Freedman edited Food: The History of Taste, an illustrated collection of essays about food from prehistoric to contemporary times published by Thames & Hudson (London) and in the US by the University of California Press (2007). His book on the demand for spices in medieval Europe was published in 2008 by Yale University Press. It is entitled Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. Freedman also edited two other collections with Caroline Walker Bynum, Last Things: Death and the Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (1999) and with Monique Bourin, Forms of Servitude in Northern and Central Europe (2005).

A Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, Freedman is also a corresponding fellow of the Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona and of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His honors include a 2008 cookbook award (reference and technical) from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (for Food: The History of Taste) and three awards for Images of the Medieval Peasant: the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy (2002), the 2001 Otto Gründler prize given by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, and the Eugene Kayden Award in the Humanities given by the University of Colorado. He won the American Historical Association’s Premio del Rey Prize in 1992 (for The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia) and shared the Medieval Academy’s Van Courtlandt Elliott prize for the best first article on a medieval topic in 1981.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weighty, intense, and amazing. The author delivers exactly what the title promises - examinations of ten restaurants that - for whatever reason - changed America. Not the ten historically best, not the ten most famous, not the ten most influential, yet nevertheless ten fascinating stories.

Every chapter not only looks at the restaurant in question but places it in context for its place and time. No PR puff pieces here.

Capped with an Epilogue that explores in more depth five themes of modern dining that were touched on individually throughout the book, we see how concepts that we now take for granted were innovated and how ideas we now find innovative were first being espoused over a century ago.

A must read for any historian, sociologist, chef, or fan of fine dining.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. Started off liking this book. Then ended up barely skimming the last 100 pages or so. The concept is not just about the ten restaurants the author identifies as being particularly influential in America, it's also a social history of times and places from long ago to the present. Some chapters were really strong, but others were not ... to the point where they felt poorly written and often boring. His discussion of the key French restaurants was really good (Delmonico's, Le Pavillon) was really good; the mass-market restaurants not bad (Schrafft's, Howard Johnson's). I felt he had a tough time writing about the most unique places: Sylvia's, Chez Panisse.

I had high expectations for this book based on its strong start, but felt really let down as I made (plowed) my way through it.

The reproductions of old menus was very cool ... amazing what fine food used to cost way back when!

[Ensiform · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chronological overview of ten of the most influential and important (not necessarily the best) restaurants in America, from the traditional to the start of a new cuisine. Freedman, surprisingly a professor of medieval history, delves into the development, food, and personalities behind the original Delmonico's; Antoine's (still going strong and family-run after 175 years); Howard Johnson's; the candy-store-turned-comfort-food-haven Schrafft's; Mamma Leone's; the stuffy, French martinet-run Le Pavillon; The Four Seasons (somehow elegant despite being the brainchild of the P.T. Barnum of themed restaurant ideas); the Mandarin; the Harlem soul food staple Sylvia's; and Alice Waters' farm-friendly Chez Panisse. Along this tour de force of American diets, Freedman discusses the changing values of what fine dining means, resources lost to scarcity, the rise of women dining in public, the impact of slavery and Prohibition on cuisine, and much more.

It's a very thorough examination of American culture. Freedman, clearly a dedicated scholar, appears to have read everything: every menu from the past century, every review, every book or article that mentions dining or ingredients or restaurants. His prose, if not exactly pure poetry, is careful and measured. Over the course of the book, several themes emerge. One is the American predilection for convenience, quantity, and variety of flavor over authenticity, quality, and craft. Traditionally, a Puritanical streak in Americans has exhorted them to look down upon unseemly dedication to gastronomy and to pursue cheap options and "efficient blandness." These sentiments have been recorded by European travelers dating back to the birth of the country. This boils down to "over-eating but under-thinking." As Freedman notes, success in American life has never been dependent on "restrained good taste." Another theme is the unquestioned hegemony of French cuisine in the high end, and its only recent decline and usurpation by Asian and South American cuisines. Another theme is the recent transformation of high dining from rare, difficult, and expensive ingredients (terrapin, wild duck) to local and fresh ingredients. There is thus nowadays a fidelity to the chef and the ingredients, not to traditions, codes, and authority. In this domain, informality implies authenticity. In sum, there is a gold mine of historical curiosities about how we eat and think about eating in this book, but more importantly, it helps us see where we've been and where we may yet go.

[David Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that will keep giving for years to come. Do you want to remember all the flavors of Howard Johnson's ice cream? That information is here. The origin of the chop suey craze? Asked and answered. The original name for Baked Alaska? Alaska, Florida (impress your cruise tablemates with that one.) Which restaurant changed its typewriter ribbons with the seasons? The Four Seasons, of course. Can one restaurant review launch a place into decades of success? Ask Sylvia's. When did Chez Panisse become more American than French? The menus are here to demonstrate it. What ingredient does the original Oysters Rockefeller NOT contain? Spinach. The sign of a grand French restaurant's final decline? Seeds not removed from the lemon wedges. The place that did huge business in salads and ice cream? Ladies-favorite Schrafts, whose Andy Warhol Sundae commercial came too late to save it. The biggest story of all may be the one told through Mamma Leone's of how Italian food rose from romantic bohemian fare to surpass French cooking as our dominant cuisine. The author is at his best here in telling the individual stories of each of the ten successful restaurants he chose for inclusion. The illustrations, menus and even recipes aid digestion of what is surely the tastiest book ever written about dining out in America.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book! It looks at a series of restaurants throughout American history. Paul Freedman, the author, says of his goal: "Reading about the ten restaurants gives me a sense of American diversity, and how these different experiments expressed a sense of love that is the basic ingredient of any major endeavor."

The restaurants selected? Some great names and some surprises. The places: Delmonico's (America's first "great" restaurant), Antoine's (a Creole restaurant), Schrafft's ( a restaurant designed for women), Howard Johnson's I designed to be predictable and dependable as a chain), Mamma Leone's (an Italian restaurant), Sylvia's (soul food in Harlem), Le Pavillon (a major French restaurant from the mid-20th century), The Four Seasons (as Freedman puts it, "The Epitome of Modern"), and Chez Panisse.

One of the themes is the change in fortunes of these restaurants. Some simply did not adapt to a new era, others lost key actors who helped the place flourish. But what makes this special is the detailed description of how each of these worked and the role of key actors/acrtresses for each). There is a personalism that makes this work enticing.

All in all, a fine volume on the tradition of American restaurants and their place in the society of their times. . . .

[Kristi Mast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting look, not at the ten best, but rather the ten most iconic and influential restaurants in America. I found it especially interesting given my previous research into the evolution and dominance of French cuisine across the Western world. Freedman does a good job of reckoning the impact of restaurants across the spectrum from higher end places like the Four Seasons and Chez Panisse to more pedestrian restaurants like Mama Leone’s and Schrafft’s. This book is not just about the evolution of restaurants in America, but also illuminates the evolution of Americans themselves along the way.

[melody]

IM FREEEEE BESTWORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE ❤️❤️

i had so much fun reading this 400+ page behemoth of a book- i called it my weighted book because like a weighted blanket, it would put me to sleep <3 i would not recommend this to people not already interested in the subject, but it does make a compelling argument for how restaurants reflect american culture and history.

i enjoyed the subchapters with each restaurant- in learning about the new orleans restaurant antoine’s, you also learn about the origins/meaning of creole. the chapter on schrafft’s was also about the role of women in dining and why women-only restaurants gained popularity at the time. when reading about harlem restaurant sylvia’s, i also learned the origins of the term “soul food” and how southern food became racialized as a cuisine. i learned so many interesting facts about history and culture that i cannot wait to be completely insufferable about

while this was written 9 years ago, it doesn’t feel outdated- i’d love to read about paul freedman’s thoughts on the dubai chocolate labubu (no seriously i want to know his thoughts on delivery/ghost kitchens, increasing cost of food in america vs. elsewhere)

i wish there was more acknowledgement and commentary on the toxic nature of restaurant culture, i think it would’ve been interesting to connect that to american culture specifically. there were probably a lot of awful and abusive chefs at the restaurants features and while it was briefly mentioned, it was hardly an indictment or meaningful critique. it feels like the elephant in the room, and you cannot discuss the success of these restaurants while ignoring the harassment and abuse they were built on

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Disdain for gastronomic pretentiousness has often influenced politics. During the 1840 presidential campaign, the incumbent Martin Van Buren was portrayed as routinely eating fricandeau de veau and omelette soufflé, or in another attack, enjoying pâté de foie gras from a silver plate followed by soupe à la Reine sipped from a golden spoon. His opponent, William Henry Harrison, an aging hero of the War of 1812, was extolled for his simple tastes, by contrast, favoring raw beef without salt, and he adopted a campaign image of a "hard cider man." In fact, Van Buren was the son of a tavern keeper, while Harrison was a member of the priveleged class, but mere facts are often unimportant in politics. Harrison deftly exploited American anxiety about luxury and snobbery and won the election, though he would die within a month of taking office, the raw beef and hard cider perhaps having taken its toll. American history evolves, but it repeats certain patterns and prejudicial inclinations in such a way that more than 160 years later, George W. Bush's presidential campaign mocked John Kerry's fluent French while the wealthy, dynastic president's man-of-the-people image was carefully nurtured by publicizing his love of pork rinds."

Ten Restaurants That Changed America is an exhaustively researched history of dining in America, mostly focused on restaurant dining as illustrated by the ten restaurants of the title, but also touching on home cooking trends as influenced by these restaurants. Weighing in at 500 pages, including text, photos and menus, recipes from each of the restaurants, notes, bibliography, and index, it's by turns fascinating and tedious.

Restaurants featured are:
Delmonico's -- first "real" restaurant in U.S., French cuisine, NYC (1827-1923)
Antoine's -- ostensibly French restaurant with Creole influence, New Orleans (1840-present)
Schraffts -- chain of alcohol-free restaurants marketed to women, NYC (1906-1980s)
Howard Johnson's -- chain of family restaurants focused on cleanliness and uniformity, started in MA, spread nationwide (1925-present, only one restaurant remains open of the more than 1,000)
Mama Leone's -- Italian restaurant, first critically aclaimed "ethnic" restaurant, NYC (1906-1994)
The Mandarin -- Chinese restaurant that elevated Chinese cuisine above "chop suey," San Francisco (1960-2006)
Sylvia's -- "Soul Food" restaurant that brought Southern home-cooking style food into the main stream, Harlem, NYC (1962-present)
Le Pavillon -- French restaurant that reintroduced classic French cuisine and influenced a new generation of chefs, NYC (1941-1971)
The Four Seasons -- most expensive restaurant ever built that introduced the concepts of seasonal dining and the "power lunch," NYC (1959-2016, but planning to reopen in new location)
Chez Panisse -- initially French-influenced casual restaurant featuring set menu that pioneered local food and Californian/New American cuisine, Berkeley (1971-present)

[Luisa Rossina Villani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this book is now a few years old, it still stands out as a helpful examination of food trends and historical landmarks of restaurant dining in the US through the 20th century. It helped put several things in context for me, like why I can’t find a decent French restaurant anymore. One thing or food landmark not covered was the advent of sushi into American culture in the 1980s, but since this book focused more on trends from early American history, it mostly covered trends that went from the east cost to the west, with the exception of The Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco and how Alice Waters pioneered California cuisine from Berkeley. Sushi in the US was a west coast to east coast movement, and was probably more diffuse, not having one particular restaurant that spearheaded or was the harbinger. I could be completely wrong about that, because I’m not a historian. Which is why I found this book both thoughtful and entertaining.
… I need to add that I enjoyed this book very much. Things that were floating in my cultural subconscious became clear when the author fixed them to specific landmarks and dates. I feel I gained knowledge from reading this work.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an easy fun read, and I learned a few things. Most of us already know the broad outlines of what is presented here - the invention of the modern restaurant in Paris, the long enduring equation of fine dining with French cuisine, the growth of the restaurant business in the United States, particularly in New York and then its spread across the country, the development of clean, predictable chain restaurants targeted at women and families, the growth of ethnic restaurants, and then modern trends such as local ingredients, farm to table, celebrity chefs and molecular gastronomy.

It's certainly possible to question the choice of the ten restaurants featured here. When I named them for my wife, she immediately came up with two other important trendsetting restaurants that were not on the list. It would have been possible to tell an equally true and compelling story of American restaurants with a completely different list, but I didn't feel that there was any omission so glaring that it made the story materially incomplete.

Mr. Freedman's strongest point is that none of the restaurants that he describes are true exemplars of the kind of cuisine that they purport to serve. Every American French, Italian or Chinese restaurant is always before all else an American restaurant and can never be fully authentic, first because the locally available ingredients are always different, but also because local customer tastes are different, because the commercial requirements of every town and every business are different from one another and most importantly because every successful restauranteur has his or her own individual style. This is actually a great thing because it produces innovation and excellence.

[Dj · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is more aimed at the fine dining establishments of the US, it touches on how they not only changed the culture of dinning out, but also the way Americans looked at food in general. Of the ten restaurants in the book there was only one that I had ever been in or even heard of for that matter. It is the only one that could be considered main line as far as dinning goes, Howard Johnson's. The side of the road dinning that many in my age range ate at during road trips across the country. They are all gone now, in a way it is sad, but at the end they weren't what memory misses, so most likely not that great a loss.

This book is more about change in how we view dinning and food than any real in depth history of the places that are mentioned. A little different than what I was expecting but a very intriguing read.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book that makes valid points on how restaurants and the experience of dining have a place in American history. The Four Season restaurant cost more to create than the Guggenheim museum?! *Mind Blown*

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

In choosing to read this work, which has been on the TBR list ever since it was published, I mostly wanted to learn something about the legendary Delmonico's. What you basically get is an examination of the conflicting axis of American commercial cooking, between the rise and fall of French cuisine (a world-wide phenomena), the contrasting American desire for both reliability and variety (which tends to blunt an emphasis on excellence), and, not emphasized enough in a lot of the comments I've seen, the evolution of restauranteering as a business. I found this very enlightening, though there is a bit of unevenness from case study to case study. Also, even though this book is less than 10 years old, it's already feeling a little dated, in that the chef-centric trend in American cooking dealt with in the epilog appears to have taken a hard hit, even before the impact of the COVID pandemic.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an extensively researched work and really explained why these ten restaurants were and remain the most influential in America. I learned a lot about each establishment, and about the time and place in which it developed. The author thoroughly documented his information and provided wonderful illustrations throughout. Unfortunately I don’t think this book had an editor. I found many grammatical errors throughout, which was distracting and made it seem like the book was put together quickly and sloppily. I found these mistakes and I am by no means an editor. They were mostly simple errors- an “and” when there should have been an “an”; two ‘thes’; words spelled incorrectly. An editor, or even spellcheck, should have picked these up. It was distracting and detracted from the book's legitimacy. There were also unfinished thoughts, and references to information that was not there. For instance, in the section on the Mandarin, the author noted that Mme. Chiang could not sell alcohol because only a US citizen could obtain a liquor license. On the next page he said that she opened in a new location with a fully stocked bar. I searched for some reference to her obtaining citizenship, or somehow acquiring a license but could find nothing. It should have been explained. But other sections were very neat and tidy, like the chapter on Sylvia’s.
I really enjoyed the epilogue as a great source of information about restaurants in general in the past and especially current trends and practices.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give this book five stars.

An excellent, informative, and detailed look at ten restaurants that had an impact on American history. There are many things we take for granted about restaurants and cuisine, and so this look at the development of that in the dynamic of history, change and the future is a neat idea to study. Kudos to the author for a richly detailed look at these individual restaurants and the people who made them what they were.

You'll even find things you might not have known. The great French Canadian chef Jacques Pepin actually worked for Howard Johnson's for ten years, developing menu items.

And Chinese Hot & Sour Soup was unknown in this country until Cecelia Chiang of The Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco brought it over after World War 2.

All in all, a terrific read.

[Pixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, it wasn't a good read. The first chapter -- and I had been looking forward to learning more about Delmonico's -- was so snoozy I had to put it down and then when I finally picked it back up because it was going to be due at the library I had to skip that chapter to keep moving. Then I just skimmed the last couple of chapters. I don't think it was very compellingly written, nor did it deliver on the "restaurants that changed America" promise of the title. It was more "restaurants that reflected what was going on in America at the time." Some of the more historical restaurants seem to have been chosen because there was plenty of source material for that particular restaurant, not because it was necessarily "the one." It felt like I was reading somebody's very long college paper.

[Elaine Ober · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this remarkable book only 3 stars because its readability is severely undermined by its design. The book is physically larger than it should be; there is a second color in use that is such a dark green it is indistinguishable from the black; the type size/leading and the wide type page make tracking extremely difficult; much eye strain!
But there is so much fascinating information -- and excellent illustrations -- that it is worth the struggle. The book is so much more than a discussion of 10 restaurants. It is a full-blown culturla history of American foodways, organized and made manageable by working through the lens of the 10 restaurants.
Stick with it -- but don't be surprised if it takes much longer to read than you'd expect.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The author profiles the people and food offered by ten restaurants that while not necessarily regarded as the finest of their time (though in a couple of cases they were), but are noteworthy because they reflected what was popular or drove innovation. He focuses on the people behind the scenes as well as the food, and adds historical context around societal attitudes towards women and ethnic minorities. I love reading menus, and found the full color menu examples fascinating.

Do not be intimidated by the size of this book because it is written in an engaging and oftentimes humorous style.

[Thomas Nevins · Rating 3 out of 5]

a heavy volume written about the rise and sometimes fall of 10 iconic american restaurants from le pavillon to hojo's......pretty in depth about the owners, cooks, menus and facilities....i found what we used to eat, canvasback ducks, sweetbreads etc very interesting, the writer likes loooong words and there are many of them...interesting, longish..

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so disappointed in this book. It is written so poorly that I "just-can't-take-it-anymore". It's repetitious not just among the subjects, but within each chapter on the same restaurant. Not worth the slog that it turned into.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

every chapter started strong and got bogged down in overly complex details that seemed to wander aimlessly through the history of a food trend.

[Michael Berman]

Interesting, but waaaayyy too long and detailed. Can't finish.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. The author includes the chain Schrafft's because it was the first to cater to middle-class women who dined alone or with female friends. Before that, restaurants catered to men, and women eating alone were sometimes assumed to be prostitutes.

The author's ten restaurants are in New York City, the Bay Area, and New Orleans, plus there are two chain restaurants that had locations in several states. So this is not a comprehensive history of American restaurants, but it isn't meant to be.

The audiobook reader mispronounces a lot of words but correctly pronounces the name of my birthplace, Quincy, so he will forever have a special place in my heart. (The Massachusetts Quincy sounds like QUIN-zee, while the Illinois one sounds like QUINCE-y.)

The author refuses to make predictions about the future of restaurants except to say that the foie gras burger and the cronut will soon be unfashionable and the idea of pre-paying for restaurant meals is appalling.

[Andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Freedman outlines the evolution of America’s culinary tastes with the histories of ten iconic American restaurants from Delmonico’s to Chez Panisse. In the telling he also covers the five major food trends of the last 100 years:

• The decline of French authority in American restaurants
• The rise of the celebrity chef
• The farm-to-table movement and the importance of fresh, locally sourced food.
• The rising influence of Asia in American cuisine
• The new informality in America’s dining experience

Along the way the reader gets a nostalgic glimpse of Howard Johnson’s with their fried clams and 28 flavors of ice cream, Schraft’s the ultimate “ladies who lunch” restaurant, the singing waiters at Mama Leone’s, the austere elegance of The Four Seasons, and many, many more.

If you like to eat out, you’ll love this book.

[AJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't get very far in this one: First you need to be a weight lifter to read this, it's about 20 lbs. Second, other than menus and decor, this book hardly teaches you much about history and goes into significant details about foods such as turtle and where it came from, and reiterates that to you multiple times, then as a second half of a phrase gives you a motherlode of information, such as "the red velvet line was created at delmonicos when the elite would come into the restaurant and the regulars wanted to gawk at them. Anyway, back to the terrapin." No, not back to the goddamn turtle again, I want more velvet rope!

But alas, i got more turtle and here I am, not reading any more.

[Edy Gies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the history of a place in ___ things and that is basically what this book was. I had never heard of the Mandarin, but of course I'm familiar with P.F. Changs. I know what a Delmonico's steak is, but I didn't know the history of the restaurant. I know that restaurants have changed and that Chez Panisse was instrumental in that change. One thing that I learned is that when women couldn't eat at restaurants unattended, other shops opened up that were luxurious ladies' ice cream saloons, and this translated into the ice cream parlor. Frankly, I am done with ladies' tea events. From now on, I will only consume ice cream at ladies' social events. One of the most interesting parts of the book was the epilouge.

[Jan Reatherford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book both fascinated and frustrated me. I enjoyed the information and history provided but I found lengthy details of menu options to be a bit tedious for my taste (no pun intended). It seems that American cuisine is really just a mixture of many cultures, putting a spin on other cuisines, resulting in an American version of another country’s staple. There are few, if any, true dishes originating as simply American.
The emergence of restaurants (it’s hard to imagine a time when they didn’t exist) and their influence on so many aspects of society is fascinating. Imagine a time when women couldn’t dine out unless accompanied by a man!
The author clearly states that the restaurants featured are not necessarily the best but they are responsible for influencing and impacting the history of the restaurant industry.
I noted in some other reviews that the book was long and heavy so I checked it out as an e-book avoiding the issue of a heavy book.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is authoritative,comprehensive, and unpretentious.
I’m not a foodie and I’ve eaten not even 1% of the dishes listed, but I love reading someone who’s a scholar of a subject, loves the material, and has enough down home sense to make a subject approachable without condescension.

[Rachel Rickard Rebellino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating look at why we eat what and how we eat.

[Carol Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed very much. What set this book apart was the history/information on each restaurant, but the milieu in which it developed and why the particular restaurant was cselefted to be emblematic of the era. I learned quite a bit and found it to be an interesting, fun read.