Yale University Library News

Ten Restaurants That Changed America

February 3, 2017

All are welcome to join us on February 14 at 4:30 pm in the Sterling Memorial Lecture Hall for the for the latest lecture in the Arts and Humanities Book Talk series, Ten Restaurants that Changed America by Paul Freedman.

Combining a historian’s rigor with a foodie ’s palate, 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 The Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone’s, or chronicling the rise and fall of French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé’s Le Pavillon, food historian Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. Freedman also treats us to a scintillating history of the then-revolutionary Schrafft’s, a chain of convivial lunch spots that catered to women, and that bygone favorite, Howard Johnson’s, which pioneered midcentury, on-the-road dining, only to be swept aside by McDonald's. From Delmonico’s to Sylvia’s to Chez Panisse, a daring and original history of dining out in America as told through ten legendary restaurants.

Light refreshments will be available at 4:00 pm with the talk starting at 4:30 pm.