Chronography of Restauarnts
Page last
modified 19/12/2021
See
also Food and Drink (Pizzas and pizza outlets covered
here)
13/9/2000,
The French court handed down the verdict in the Jose Bove McDonalds trial. Mr Bove
got three months.
12/8/1999, Local sheep
farmers in Millau, Southern France, led by Mr. Jose Bove, attacked and demolished a partly-built McDonalds restaurant. This was
in response to US restrictions on the import of Roquefort cheese, which was
itself in retaliation for European restrictions on imports of hormone-fed beef,
which affected US farmers. Roquefort production employed some 1,300 people in
the Millau area and annual sales to the US were 440 tonnes. The US imposed a 100% import
duty on Roquefort, sending its price in Washington DC up from US$ 30 to US$ 60
per kilo, and US sales of this cheese dwindled to zero.
19/6/1997,
The fast food chain McDonalds won a
partial victory in its McLibel case against two environmental campaigners.� The judge decided it was true that McDonalds
targeted its advertising at children, who then pestered their parents to visit
McDonalds.
31/1/1990, The first McDonalds in Russia opened in
Pushkin Square, Moscow.
1986,
The Pret a Manger chain was founded in London.
14/1/1984, Ray Kroc, US business entrepreneur who developed the
McDonalds fast food chain, died aged 81.
16/12/1980, Harland �Colonel� Sanders,
founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken
chain, died aged 90.
1975, The first McDonalds Drive Thru� opened.
1/10/1974. The first McDonalds
opened in London,
heralding the UK�s fast-food revolution.
1964, Colonel
Sanders now had over 600 licencees. Sanders, now aged 74, now sold the franchise
for US$ 2 million, plus an annual US$ 40,000 salary for life for acting as a
�goodwill ambassador�.
1969, Dave
Thomas opened the first Wendy�s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant
in Ohio, USA.
1962, The first Taco Bell restaurant was opened in Downey, California, by
Glenn Bell. He had previously operated the Taco Tias and El Taco chains.
7/1/1959, Jean-Michel
Lorain, French chef, was born.
1955, The Colonel
Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken chain began when restauranteur Harland Sanders,
aged 65, traveless across the USA setting up franchises with his particular
blend of herbs and spices.
9/4/1955, Ray
Krok bought the McDonalds burger restaurant franchise from its
owners, Richard and Mac McDonald. Kroc was impressed with the McDonald
sbbusiness model, but saw ways to cut costs further. The menu was streamlined,
machinery used more intensively, and the burgers made more cheaply. The first of
the modern McDonalds restaurants was in Des Plaines, Chicago � or � 15/4/1955,
San Bernardino, California. In 1961 Kroc bought the ownership of the chain from
the McDonalds brothers for US$2.7 million. By 1963 McDonalds sales of
hamburgers amounted to over 1 billion. Kroc died in 1984 worth over US$ 500
million.
1954,
In Britain
J Lyons opened the first Wimpy burger restaurant. The name Wimpy was taken from
ther burger-eating character in Popeye.
1953,
25/10/1933, Lyons opened its Corner House fast food restaurant in
London. It could seat 2,000 people.
1930,
As house sizes grew and more domestic appliances sbecame available, eating for
the lower and midle classes shifted from restaurants to the home table.
Restaurant eating became increasingly an upper clsass pursuit. The relatoive
dcost of a resturanat meal compared to the same one at home rose form 25% extra
in 1930 to 280% extra by 2014. However
over this period, female labour participation rates also rose markedly, so the
opportunity or shadow costs of hoime cooking � the time spend preparing and
cleaning up � rose, making even it economic to eat out even as relative
restaurant meal costs to home meal costs rose.
20/12/1928. Harry Ramsden
started his first fish and chip restaurant in a hut near
Bradford, West Yorkshire, which soon became the most famous in the world.
1926, Michelin
Stars, for top restuarants, were instituted.
1919, The first Indian-cuisine restaurant in London opened.
5/10/1902, Ray Kroc, businessman who
developed the McDonalds chain, was born (died 1984)
1900,
Michelin began their restaurant guides.
Published in Paris, by tyre producers Andre and Edouard Michelin, restaurants got 3 stars
(worth a special jurney), 2 stars (worth a detour) or 1 star. The idea was to
get motorists to drive more, wearing out their tyres.
4/9/1885. The world�s first
cafeteria opened, in New York.
1765, The first �restaurant� opened in
the Champ d�Oiseaux, Paris, France. Its sign said Venite ad me, omnes qui stomach laboratis,
et ego restaurabo vos (come to me all those whose stomachs grumble, and I
will restore you). Restaurant owners are therefore restaurateurs (restorers),
not restauranteurs.
1762, Fraunces Tavern, the oldest
restaurant in New York (still trading� in
2021) opened.
1742, Wittons Fish Restaurant opened in
London. By now (see 1642) the idea was gaining ground that the wealthy might
eat out at restaurants too. Cities were becoming safer, and also starting to be
places of conspicuous consumption, where the rich might flaunt their wealth,
their ostentatious clothes, jewellery, etc. This flaunting might also involve
ordering more food than was actually desired or consumed.
4/3/1634. Samuel Cole
opened the first tavern in America, in Boston, Massachusetts. The wealthy, however, in America and in
Europe, preferred to eat at home, where se=rvants would do the cooking and
cleaning up.
1170, Londoners could now purchase
ready-cooked game, meat and fish to eat elsewhere.
100 AD, The poor in Roman cities would not have their own
kitchens at home. For hot food they visited a thermopolium, lof hot food store; not so different to the takeaways
much used in less affluent urban areas today. In Pompeii, 79 AD, it has been
estimated that there was one takeaway per 60-100 people, a higher ratio than in
many major cities today. The lower social status of these establishments led Cicero
and Homer
to compare them to brothels.