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.

Finalist for the IACP Cookbook Award A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year A Smithsonian Best Food Book of the Year Longlisted for the Art of Eating Prize 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).

“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

This book is about the creative work of chefs at top restaurants in New York and San Francisco. Based on interviews with chefs and observation in restaurant kitchens, the book explores the question of how and why chefs make choices about the dishes they put on their menus. It answers this question by examining a whole range of areas, including chefs' careers, restaurant ratings and reviews, social networks, how chefs think about food and go about creating new dishes, and how status influences their work and careers. Chefs at top restaurants face competing pressures to deliver complex and creative dishes, and navigate market forces to run a profitable business in an industry with exceptionally high costs and low profit margins. Creating a distinctive and original culinary style allows them to stand out in the market, but making the familiar food that many customers want ensures that they can stay in business. Chefs must make choices between these competing pressures. In explaining how they do so, this book uses the case study of high cuisine to analyze, more generally, how people in creative occupations navigate a context that is rife with uncertainty, high pressures, and contradicting forces.

If you’re passionate about eating well, you couldn’t ask for a better travel companion than Alexander Lobrano’s charming, friendly, and authoritative Hungry for Paris, the fully revised and updated guide to this renowned culinary scene. Having written about Paris for almost every major food and travel magazine since moving there in 1986, Lobrano shares his personal selection of the city’s best restaurants, from bistros featuring the hottest young chefs to the secret spots Parisians love. In lively prose that is not only informative but a pleasure to read, Lobrano reveals the ambience, clientele, history, and most delicious dishes of each establishment—alongside helpful maps and beautiful photographs that will surely whet your appetite for Paris. Praise for Hungry for Paris “Hungry for Paris is required reading and features [Alexander Lobrano’s] favorite 109 restaurants reviewed in a fun and witty way. . . . A native of Boston, Lobrano moved to Paris in 1986 and never looked back. He served as the European correspondent for Gourmet from 1999 until it closed in 2009 (also known as the greatest job ever that will never be a job again). . . . He also updates his website frequently with restaurant reviews, all letter graded.”—Food Republic “Written with . . . flair and . . . acerbity is the new, second edition of Alexander Lobrano’s Hungry for Paris, which includes rigorous reviews of what the author considers to be the city’s 109 best restaurants [and] a helpful list of famous Parisian restaurants to be avoided.”—The Wall Street Journal “A wonderful guide to eating in Paris.”—Alice Waters “Nobody else has such an intimate knowledge of what is going on in the Paris food world right this minute. Happily, Alexander Lobrano has written it all down in this wonderful book.”—Ruth Reichl “Delightful . . . the sort of guide you read before you go to Paris—to get in the mood and pick up a few tips, a little style.”—Los Angeles Times “No one is ‘on the ground’ in Paris more than Alec Lobrano. . . . This book will certainly make you hungry for Paris. But even if you aren’t in Paris, his tales of French dining will seduce you into feeling like you are here, sitting in your favorite bistro or sharing a carafe of wine with a witty friend at a neighborhood hotspot.”—David Lebovitz, author of The Sweet Life in Paris “Hungry for Paris is like a cozy bistro on a chilly day: It makes you feel welcome.”—The Washington Post “This book will make readers more than merely hungry for the culinary riches of Paris; it will make them ravenous for a dining companion with Monsieur Lobrano’s particular warmth, wry charm, and refreshingly pure joie de vivre.”—Julia Glass “[Lobrano is] a wonderful man and writer who might know more about Paris restaurants than any other person I’ve ever met.”—Elissa Altman, author of Poor Man’s Feast

Take an illustrated tour of America’s stylish and historic mid-century restaurants in this volume of color photographs and vintage ephemera. Over the years, the softly lit wood-paneled interiors, starched tablecloths, curved booths, tuxedoed captains, and tableside service that once defined continental-style fine dining have given way to more contemporary trends. Yet in American cities large and small, a few historic restaurants have maintained their classic character and old-school ambiance. With vivid new color photography and fascinating vintage ephemera, Classic Dining celebrates the great mid-century restaurants that continue to thrive in New York, the greater Miami area, New Orleans, Las Vegas, the Chicago area, Los Angeles, and across the United States. This volume also includes a directory of mid-century restaurants across America.

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.

The omnichannel disruption that upended retail has finally come to the restaurant industry. Restaurateurs must shift how they think, behave, and invest to survive and thrive. Today's consumers are well-conditioned in their expectations: they want the same tech-savvy, on-demand, and frictionless interactions with restaurants that they get in every other vertical. If you think your 1,000-unit restaurant chain is too big to fail, remember that 1,000-unit Sears closed nearly all of its stores after it filed for bankruptcy in February 2019. If you think your local family independent restaurant is too beloved to fail, remember the Amazon effect changed the face of main street and traditional retailing. Delivering the Digital Restaurant explores the massive disruption facing American restaurants through first-hand accounts of food industry veterans and start-up entrepreneurs innovating the future of food. Combining sociological observations, rich industry data, and insider knowledge, Delivering paints a picture of how food is evolving and how you as a leader, owner, or operator can successfully innovate and meet the new consumer demands to capitalize on the opportunities ahead. Those who understand this digital disruption will be better positioned to embrace the innovation that consumers are demanding. Those who resist will surely be left behind.

Eat around the world with 650 of the world's best chefs. Wherever you are, youll never miss the best local diner for breakfast, the best restaurant for a business dinner, or the best place for a late night snack - and everything in between. This all-new, completely revised, third edition of the global restaurant guidebook that has sold more than 250,000 copies features more than 7,000 recommendations for more than 4,500 restaurants in more than 70 countries. Wherever you are, you'll never miss the best local diner for breakfast, the best restaurant for a business dinner, or the best place for a late night snack ? and everything in-between. With city maps, key information, reviews and recommendations from the chefs themselves, this is the guide for savvy restaurant-goers and arm chair foodies in major cities and towns worldwide. WHERE: With recommendations in more than 70 countries - from the United States to Buenos Aires from Ireland to Estonia from Greece to South Africa, discover the best eateries for your destination. CHEFS: Find out where and what the world's best chefs eat including: Jason Atherton, Shannon Bennett, Helena Rizzo, Stephen Harris, Yotam Ottolenghi, Yoshihiro Narisawa, and hundreds more. EAT: From breakfast to late night, bargain to high end - discover the best places to eat for just the right occasion.

The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings The ultimate guides to the food scene in their respective states or regions, these books provide the inside scoop on the best places to find, enjoy, and celebrate local culinary offerings. Engagingly written by local authorities, they are a one-stop for residents and visitors alike to find producers and purveyors of tasty local specialties, as well as a rich array of other, indispensable food-related information including: • Favorite restaurants and landmark eateries • Farmers markets and farm stands • Specialty food shops, markets and products • Food festivals and culinary events • Places to pick your own produce • Recipes from top local chefs • The best cafes, taverns, wineries, and brewpubs