Dining Out

A global history of restaurants beyond white tablecloths and maître d’s, Dining Out presents restaurants both as businesses and as venues for a range of human experiences. From banquets in twelfth-century China to the medicinal roots of French restaurants, the origins of restaurants are not singular—nor is the history this book tells. Katie Rawson and Elliott Shore highlight stories across time and place, including how chifa restaurants emerged from the migration of Chinese workers and their marriage to Peruvian businesswomen in nineteenth-century Peru; how Alexander Soyer transformed kitchen chemistry by popularizing the gas stove, pre-dating the pyrotechnics of molecular gastronomy by a century; and how Harvey Girls dispelled the ill repute of waiting tables, making rich lives for themselves across the American West. From restaurant architecture to technological developments, staffing and organization, tipping and waiting table, ethnic cuisines, and slow and fast foods, this delectably illustrated and profoundly informed and entertaining history takes us from the world’s first restaurants in Kaifeng, China, to the latest high-end dining experiences.

Over the years, Boston has been one of America's leading laboratories of urban culture, including restaurants, and Boston history provides valuable insights into American food ways. James C. O'Connell, in this fascinating look at more than two centuries of culinary trends in Boston restaurants, presents a rich and hitherto unexplored side to the city's past. Dining Out in Boston shows that the city was a pioneer in elaborate hotel dining, oyster houses, French cuisine, student hangouts, ice cream parlors, the twentieth-century revival of traditional New England dishes, and contemporary locavore and trendy foodie culture. In these stories of the most-beloved Boston restaurants of yesterday and today - illustrated with an extensive collection of historic menus, postcards, and photos - O'Connell reveals a unique history sure to whet the intellectual and nostalgic appetite of Bostonians and restaurant-goers the world over.

The best appetizers, salads, sandwiches, entrees, desserts, and cocktails from America's favorite eateries. This is the first guide to focus exclusively on the more than 35 ofthe popular chains that make up the American restaurant landscape (including Chili's, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, TGIFriday's, and Cracker Barrel). The restaurants are divided into categories by food type and ethnic origin, as well as food options for special-needs diners: vegetarian and vegan, low-calorie, low-salt, gluten-free, and more. Featuring reviews, interesting facts, and helpful tips to help readers get the most out of their casual dining experience, this book includes such categories as: *Breakfast and lunch specialties *Appetizers, salads, and entrees *Desserts, drinks and cocktails *Special considerations (family-friendly and restricted diets)

Provides calorie count and nutritional analysis for appetizers, entrées, desserts, and beverages at 75 restaurants.

From Applebee's to TGIFriday's, Americans chain restaurant might not get reviewed by Zagat but there is a damn good reason they are so incredibly successful. They offer dishes that Americans want to eat. As does this book. It presents recipes for making chain favorites at home for less money.

A searing expose of the restaurant industry, and a path to a better, safer, happier meal. In the years before the pandemic, the restaurant business was booming. Americans spent more than half of their annual food budgets dining out. In a generation, chefs had gone from behind-the-scenes laborers to TV stars. The arrival of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and other meal delivery apps was overtaking home cooking. Beneath all that growth lurked serious problems. Many of the best restaurants in the world employed unpaid cooks. Meal delivery apps were putting restaurants out of business. And all that dining out meant dramatically less healthy diets. The industry may have been booming, but it also desperately needed to change. Then, along came COVID-19. From the farm to the street-side patio, from the sweaty kitchen to the swarm of delivery vehicles buzzing about our cities, everything about the restaurant business is changing, for better or worse. The Next Supper tells this story and offers clear and essential advice for what and how to eat to ensure the well-being of cooks and waitstaff, not to mention our bodies and the environment. The Next Supper reminds us that breaking bread is an essential human activity and charts a path to preserving the joy of eating out in a turbulent era.

An insider's view of the restaurant business, including behind-the-scenes looks, writing reviews of restaurants, details on specific foods, and favorite restaurants as chosen by food critics.