Today, I thought I would illuminate the history of the hospitality business, and it's inherent link to the middle class. There are a lot of people in this business, and very few know from whence the industry came.
The term restaurant comes from the French, restaurer- v. to restore. Originally used to refer to a hearty soup, the term restaurant was first applied to an eating establishment in the 1760's by a Parisian soup- seller named Boulanger. Oddly, his name means baker. (Only a couple of people will get why I found this so interesting. The first restaurant was a SOUP SHACK!) The existence of restaurants, in Alexandria and Jerusalem, is mentioned in a book published in 1883 by Alfred Edersheim entitled "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah." That would make restaurants older than Christianity.
Restaurants grew out of the inns, taverns, and market food stands that we have known from antiquity. These inns and taverns usually catered to the travelling merchant class, and locals would rarely eat there (with the exception of the market stands.) In China, restaurants have existed since the 11th century (Song dynasty.)
Many cultural anthropologists have linked the rise of restaurants to the rise of other activities that require a burgeoning middle class with disposable income to survive, such as, theatrical stage drama, gambling, and prostitution, the first hospitality trade. The first restaurant ,as we have come to know it (i.e. Individual tables for partys, set business hours, set menus, etc.) was opened in Paris in 1782 by a leading food writer and gastronomic authority named, Antoine Beauvilliers. He later wrote "L'art de Cuisinier." (1814). Now, let's explore the relationship between the middle class and the hospitality business.
As I stated before, many cultural anthropologists believe the rise of the restaurant, as well as other service industries, is directly linked to the rise of the middle class. Some cultures call it the merchant class, others, the bourgeoisie, but whatever it's called, the hospitality trade couldn't survive without it.
For our demonstration, we assume three things to be true:
1. Poor people can't afford to eat out.
2. Rich people, though they can afford to eat out, do not make up a large enough part of the population to support a thriving hospitality trade on their own.
3. In our highly specialized society, those who can't, won't, prefer not to, or don't have the time to cook (or clean, or do the laundry, or paint the house, etc.), and who have disposable income, would gladly pay to have these things done for them.
Imagine you own a restaurant in a town with a population of 1000. In this town, like many countries today, there is no middle class.Your goal is to serve fifty people per day, which is five percent of the population. This pays the bills, and makes a small profit for the business. On the first day of business, if everybody who can afford to eat there does (the wealthy), ten people come in. That's the top one percent of the population. The rest of the town cannot afford to eat at your restaurant. That's ninety percent of the population, that you can't even market to!
Now take the same town, and give it a thriving middle class constituting 59 percent of the population. That makes your customer base 600 people, including the wealthy, who can afford to eat at your restaurant. Now you only need to get 1/12 of your customer base to eat there daily, to hit your 50 people per day. Your restaurant can now prosper!
The hospitality industry has taken a huge nose dive these past couple of years, due to the bad economy and it's overwhelming effect on the middle class. Everyone needs to realize, politicians and economists especially, that the middle class is the "engine of consumption" that powers our economy.
That's it for today. I got the comment page working, so don't forget to send me your comments and tales of insanity.
Love, Peace, and Bacon grease!
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