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Is the restaurant an ideal total social phenomenon for the contemporary world? Restaurants are key sites for practices of social distinction, where chefs struggle for recognition as stars and patrons insist on seeing and being seen. This text brings together anthropological insights into these postmodern places.
Three sisters. An inherited Nantucket restaurant. One year before they can sell. Jill lives a glamorous life in Manhattan as a co-owner of a successful executive search firm. Never married, she is in her mid-thirties and lives in a stunning, corner condo with breathtaking views of the city and Hudson river. Everyone thinks there's something going on with her partner, Billy, because as a workaholic, she spends more time with him than anyone else. There never has been, but Jill is starting to wonder if there could be. Emma lives in Arizona and is an elementary school teacher and an aspiring photographer. She met her college professor husband, Peter, in grad school and they've been married for fifteen years. In recent years, she's noticed that Peter has grown distant. But when he shares a surprising secret, she doesn't see it coming and her world is turned upside down. Mandy has two children and is married to her college sweetheart, Cory, who runs a wildly successful hedge fund from Nantucket. Now that the children are older, Mandy has more free time and is eager to do more than just volunteer with local charity events. But Cory doesn't want her to work. He thinks it doesn't reflect well on him and appearances are everything to Cory. Though when Mandy finds something unusual in his gym bag, she begins to question what is really going on. The girls are stunned when they learn about the restaurant, Mimi's Place and the condition their grandmother added to the will, leaving the restaurant equally to Mandy, Emma, and Jill--and also to Paul, the chef for the past twelve years, and Emma’s first love.
“An emotional trip down memory lane for those of us who count our favorite restaurants as cherished personalities and members of our family.” —Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack From romantic spots like Le Bernardin to beloved holes-in-the-wall like Corner Bistro, John Donohue renders people’s favorite restaurants in a manner that captures the emotional pull a certain place can have on the hearts of New Yorkers. All the Restaurants in New York is a collection of these drawings, characterized by their appealingly loose and gently distorted lines. These transportive images are intentionally spare, leaving the viewer room to layer on their own meaning and draw connections to their own memories of a place, of a time, of an atmosphere. Featuring an eclectic mix of 100 restaurants—from Minetta Tavern to Frankies 457 and River Café—this charming collection of drawings is accompanied by interviews with the owners, chefs, and loyal patrons of these much-loved restaurants. “I love John’s spare, romantic, quirky portrayals of iconic New York restaurants so much that I purchased over a dozen of his prints to hang around my office. These places come to define our lives in New York—that job right next to Balthazar, that boyfriend who lived above Prune, that interview that took place at ‘21’ . . . They deserve this spotlight, this tribute.” —Amanda Kludt, Editor in Chief, Eater “John Donohue is the Rembrandt of New York City’s restaurant facades. His collection is an invaluable, evocative guide to the ever-changing, slowly vanishing landscape of the city’s great dining scene. It belongs on the bookshelf of every devout chowhound and fresser.” —Adam Platt, Restaurant Critic, New York magazine
Featuring a new chapter on ten restaurants changing America today, a “fascinating . . . sweep through centuries of food culture” (Washington Post). Combining an historian’s rigor with a food enthusiast’s palate, Paul Freedman’s seminal and highly entertaining 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 Mandarin; evoking the poignant nostalgia of Howard Johnson’s, the beloved roadside chain that foreshadowed the pandemic of McDonald’s; or chronicling the convivial lunchtime crowd at Schrafft’s, the first dining establishment to cater to women’s tastes, Freedman uses each restaurant to reveal a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. “As much about the contradictions and contrasts in this country as it is about its places to eat” (The New Yorker), Ten Restaurants That Changed America is a “must-read” (Eater) that proves “essential for anyone who cares about where they go to dinner” (Wall Street Journal Magazine).
A complete rundown on how successful restaurateurs, teaming up with architects and designers, ply their craft. Martin E. Dorf presents 18 in-depth case studies of such successful restaurants as Scoozi, Union Square Cafe, and Chinois, along with personal interviews with their owners, chefs, architects, designers, kitchen planners, and consultants. 168 illustrations.
From the public television host, a tour of the US’s oldest and greatest dining spots—with “delightful tales, delicious recipes, and hundreds of photographs” (Ted Allen, host of Food Network’s Chopped). Come along on a pilgrimage to some of the oldest, most historic restaurants in America. Each is special not only for its longevity but also for its historic significance, interesting stories, and, of course, wonderful food. The oldest Japanese restaurant in the country is profiled, along with stagecoach stops, elegant eateries, barbecue joints, hamburger shops, cafes, bars and grills, and two dueling restaurants that both claim to have invented the French dip sandwich. The bestselling author and host/producer of Barbecue America shares the charm, history, and appeal that made these establishments, some as many as three hundred years old, successful. Each profile contains a famous recipe, the history of the restaurant, a look at the restaurant today, descriptions of some of its signature dishes, fun facts that make each place unique, and beautiful photos. It’s all you need for an armchair tour of one hundred restaurants that have made America great. “Browne spent three years traveling more than 46,000 miles to profile the 100 restaurants, inns, taverns and public houses he selected as being the most historic, most interesting and most successful.” —Orlando Sentinel “It is Browne’s exploration of the history behind each place that I found most interesting...The White Horse Tavern gave him the Beef Wellington recipe. Peter Luger, the legendary Brooklyn Steakhouse, shared one for German Fried Potatoes and Katz’s Delicatessen in New York City offered Katz’s Noodle Kugel. And, Ferrara in Little Italy in New York City parted with its cannoli recipe.” —Sioux City Journal “Ask any chef: It’s not easy keeping a restaurant alive for a week, let alone a year or a decade. So what does it take to last a century? After five years of criss-crossing the country and gobbling up regional specialties from chowder to chili, Rick Browne reveals the answer to that question.” —Ted Allen, host of Food Network’s Chopped
The New York Times Bestselling Book--Great gift for Foodies “The best, funniest, most revealing inside look at the restaurant biz since Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.” —Jay McInerney With a foreword by Mario Batali Joe Bastianich is unquestionably one of the most successful restaurateurs in America—if not the world. So how did a nice Italian boy from Queens turn his passion for food and wine into an empire? In Restaurant Man, Joe charts a remarkable journey that first began in his parents’ neighborhood eatery. Along the way, he shares fascinating stories about his establishments and his superstar chef partners—his mother, Lidia Bastianich, and Mario Batali. Ever since Anthony Bourdain whet literary palates with Kitchen Confidential, restaurant memoirs have been mainstays of the bestseller lists. Serving up equal parts rock ’n’ roll and hard-ass business reality, Restaurant Man is a compelling ragu-to-riches chronicle that foodies and aspiring restauranteurs alike will be hankering to read.
Offering a complete view of every aspect of the dining experience, restaurant critic and food columnist Steven Shaw serves up all the dish on how to get the most from the restaurant experience.
It’s happening in attics, garages, living rooms, parking lots and wine cellars across the nation – underground restaurant chefs are taking the food scene by storm, one dinner at a time. They’re throwing fabulous dinner parties at the drop of a hat for a hodge-podge of guests in offbeat, roving locations. They’re evading the cops, enticing the food-obsessed, and making headlines ("Restaurants on the Fringe, and Thriving"!). In short, they’re reinventing the dining experience. No wonder foodies are falling hard for the underground eating experience. And in Secret Suppers, LA Times journalist Jenn Garbee takes readers into this underground gourmet world as it’s taking place in Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Manhattan, Des Moines, Austin, and Sonoma County. Whether it’s steaks prepared in the parlor fireplace of a townhouse, or bacon-wrapped-bacon served on the deck of a charming little house in a sunny Seattle neighborhood, or a white-tablecloth affair set in an open field in Santa Barbara—chefs and food lovers are circumventing the restaurant altogether to cook what they want, to reinvent the serving ambiance whenever the whim strikes, and to attract the most adventurous diners. Sort of akin to speakeasies from an earlier era, some underground restaurants are the best-known secrets in town.
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.
