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A footnote on pepper and un-hospitality
I should make it clear that when I write about “Americans” historically I mean “white Americans.” Although generally the application of pepper to the diner’s food suggests hospitality — this is true...
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Taste of a decade: 1890s restaurants
As the decade starts there are over 19,000 restaurant keepers, a number overshadowed by more than 71,000 saloon keepers, many of whom also serve food for free or at nominal cost. The institution of the...
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Righting civil wrongs in restaurants
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro NC (pictured) which set off a wave of similar protests across the South and turned the tide against...
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White restaurants
Whiteness in restaurants has had multiple dimensions. When it swept through the lunchroom industry in the early twentieth century the obvious intent was to denote cleanliness through the liberal use of...
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Dining by gaslight
Though it seems fairly obvious when you think about it, the development of entertainment districts post-WWII encouraged the growth of restaurant-ing in many cities across the U.S. On the minus side,...
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As the restaurant world turned, July 17
July 17 being the anniversary of my blog, I’m celebrating. In the beginning I thought a blog would be so easy. I’d browse over my notes, grab a few things, and write a post in half an hour. Hah! That...
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Name trouble: Sambo’s
You might imagine that chain restaurants would spend vast amounts of time and money researching potential names in order to pick one that would convey exactly the desired associations and nuances....
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Heroism at lunch
Actually there was no lunch. But there was plenty of heroism when four college students sat at a Greensboro NC lunch counter in February 1960. The students were told to go to the segregated snack bar...
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Name trouble: Aunt Jemima’s
Of all the Black representations found in American white-owned restaurants, the mammy figure has been by far the most common. Many women in the restaurant business of the past have been known as Mama...
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