120 Fun Facts About Restaurant

What is the maximum number of Michelin stars a restaurant can hold?

Three stars is the top Michelin rating, defined as 'exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey'; the next rung down means 'worth a detour' and the lowest 'a very good restaurant in its category'.

Burger King's signature sandwich, added to the menu in 1957, is called what?

The Whopper was created in 1957 by co-founder James McLamore, who wanted a bigger burger than rivals offered; it originally sold for 37 cents.

The Michelin Guide, which awards restaurant stars, was originally published by a company that makes what?

Tyres are Michelin's business: brothers André and Édouard Michelin gave the 1900 guide away free to get France's few thousand motorists driving more and wearing out more rubber.

Every Chick-fil-A restaurant is closed on which day of the week?

Sunday closing dates from founder Truett Cathy's first diner, the Dwarf Grill, opened in Hapeville, Georgia in 1946; the devout Southern Baptist wanted staff to have a day for rest and worship.

What is the name of Wendy's signature soft-serve frozen dessert?

The Frosty has been served since the first Wendy's opened in Columbus, Ohio in 1969; the original flavour is a chocolate-vanilla blend chosen so it would not overpower a burger.

Wendy's founder Dave Thomas named the chain after whom?

His daughter Melinda Lou Thomas, nicknamed Wendy because she pronounced her own name 'Wenda' as a small child, was eight when the first restaurant opened in Columbus, Ohio in 1969.

Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 at which Seattle landmark, originally selling only coffee beans?

Pike Place Market's original 1971 store sold only whole beans and brewing equipment; Howard Schultz bought the company in 1987 and turned it into an espresso-bar chain.

Which parent company owns Taco Bell, alongside KFC and Pizza Hut?

Yum! Brands was spun out of PepsiCo in 1997 as Tricon Global Restaurants and adopted the Yum! Brands name in 2002; it is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Four Seasons restaurant opened in 1959 inside which Manhattan skyscraper?

The Seagram Building, Mies van der Rohe's bronze-clad tower on Park Avenue, housed the Four Seasons from 1959 to 2016; Philip Johnson designed the restaurant's Grill Room and Pool Room.

Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut claims to have invented which dish in 1900?

The hamburger, as Louis' Lunch tells it, was born in 1900 when owner Louis Lassen slipped a ground-beef patty between two slices of toast for a customer in a hurry.

Ray Kroc was selling what when he visited the McDonald brothers' San Bernardino restaurant in 1954?

Milkshake mixers were Kroc's line: he sold the Prince Castle Multimixer, which whipped several shakes at once, and the brothers' order for eight of them drew him west; he opened his own outlet in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955.

Which chain overtook McDonald's in 2011 to have the most locations of any brand?

Subway passed McDonald's store count in 2011. It began in 1965 as Pete's Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut, funded by a $1,000 loan from a family friend.

Delmonico's, often called America's first fine-dining restaurant, opened in 1827 in which city?

When it rebuilt on a grand scale after the Great Fire of New York, diners were told the columns by the door had been shipped from the ruins of Pompeii.

Pizza Hut was started in 1958 by two brothers studying at a university in which US state?

Kansas is home to Wichita, where brothers Dan and Frank Carney, students at Wichita State University, opened the first Pizza Hut in 1958 with $600 borrowed from their mother.

The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1971 in which city?

London's Old Park Lane hosted the first Hard Rock Cafe, opened by Americans Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton; the memorabilia tradition began in 1979 when Eric Clapton hung a red Fender above his favourite seat.

Outback Steakhouse, the Australian-themed chain, was founded in 1988 in which US city?

Tampa, Florida was home to the first Outback Steakhouse, opened in March 1988 by founders including Chris Sullivan and Bob Basham, none of whom had been to Australia; Crocodile Dundee had made the theme fashionable.

Which Chicago restaurant, opened by Grant Achatz in 2005, became famous for edible helium balloons?

Alinea opened in May 2005 in Chicago's Lincoln Park under chef Grant Achatz and partner Nick Kokonas; Gourmet magazine named it America's best restaurant in 2006, and its edible green-apple helium balloon became a signature.

Caesar salad was invented on 4 July 1924 in a restaurant in which city?

Tijuana was where Italian-born Caesar Cardini ran his restaurant for Americans dodging Prohibition; a Fourth of July rush in 1924 ran his kitchen low and he improvised the salad tableside.

Which Copenhagen restaurant, opened by René Redzepi in 2003, led New Nordic cuisine?

Noma opened in 2003 in a converted warehouse in Copenhagen's Christianshavn; it topped the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021.

Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives began airing on Food Network in which year?

2007 was the year Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives launched as a weekly series, in April; Fieri had won the second season of The Next Food Network Star in 2006, and a one-off pilot special aired that November.

Which chain, founded in Wichita in 1921 and famous for 'sliders', is considered America's first fast-food chain?

White Castle was founded in 1921 by cook Walter Anderson and insurance man Billy Ingram; its small square burgers, steam-grilled over onions, and gleaming white buildings were meant to convince customers that ground beef was clean.

Burger King's Australian outlets trade under what different name because of a trademark dispute?

Hungry Jack's was chosen by franchisee Jack Cowin in 1971 because an Adelaide takeaway already held the Burger King trademark; the name came from a Pillsbury pancake-mix brand, Pillsbury then owning Burger King.

Before founding Taco Bell in 1962, Glen Bell ran what kind of eatery in San Bernardino?

A hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In, opened in 1948, was Glen Bell's first business; he studied the hard-shell tacos at the Mitla Cafe across the street and began selling his own in 1951.

Which US agency informally gauges storm damage by whether Waffle House is open?

FEMA administrator Craig Fugate popularised the 'Waffle House Index' after the 2011 tornado season: green means open with a full menu, yellow a limited menu on generator power, red closed.

Rainforest Cafe opened its first location in 1994 inside what?

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota housed the first Rainforest Cafe, opened by Steven Schussler and Lyle Berman in October 1994; Landry's bought the chain in 2000.

Nathan's Famous began in 1916 as a Coney Island stand selling hot dogs for how much?

Five cents bought a Nathan's hot dog in 1916, half the dime charged by Feltman's, where Nathan Handwerker had worked; he opened his stand with $300 in savings.

Which chef, working with César Ritz at the Savoy, created the kitchen 'brigade' system?

Auguste Escoffier, the 'king of chefs and chef of kings', drew on his army service to organise cooks into stations under a chef de partie, and his 1903 Le Guide Culinaire codified French cuisine.

Nando's, the flame-grilled peri-peri chicken chain, was founded in 1987 in which city?

Johannesburg was where Fernando Duarte and Robbie Brozin bought Chickenland, a Portuguese-Mozambican takeaway in the suburb of Rosettenville, in 1987; the name is Duarte's nickname and the logo the Rooster of Barcelos.

Zagat, the diner-survey restaurant guide founded in 1979, was bought in 2011 by which company?

Google bought Zagat in September 2011 for a reported $151 million, then sold it to The Infatuation in 2018; Tim and Nina Zagat had begun by polling friends about Manhattan restaurants in 1979.

Which restaurant menu innovation did Howard Johnson's build its 1930s brand on?

28 flavours of ice cream was the boast on every Howard Johnson's sign; founder Howard Deering Johnson began with a Quincy, Massachusetts soda fountain in 1925 and franchised his first restaurant in 1935.

Which rocking-chair-porched chain was founded in 1969 by a Shell Oil representative beside a Tennessee interstate?

Cracker Barrel's first store opened in September 1969 by an Interstate 40 exit in Lebanon, Tennessee, where Dan Evins modelled it on the country stores of his childhood and sold Shell petrol alongside.

In 1943 San Francisco eateries offered 'Pet Pakits' for leftovers, an early form of what?

The doggy bag grew from wartime thrift: food shortages made waste shameful, and the 1943 'Pet Pakit' cartons, nominally for feeding pets the scraps, let diners carry home leftovers for themselves.

Since 1997, which Michelin award flags good-value restaurants?

The Bib Gourmand, introduced in 1997, takes its name from Bibendum, Michelin's rotund mascot, and marks restaurants offering 'exceptionally good food at moderate prices'.

Which Boston restaurant, open since 1826, is the oldest continuously operating in the US?

Union Oyster House opened in 1826 in a Boston building dating from about 1716; Daniel Webster was a regular at its semicircular oyster bar, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 2003.

Oysters Rockefeller was invented at which New Orleans restaurant, family-run since 1840?

Antoine's, founded in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore, saw his son Jules create Oysters Rockefeller in 1899, naming it for John D. Rockefeller because the sauce was so rich; the kitchen also invented pompano en papillote.

Which McDonald's sandwich did Cincinnati franchisee Lou Groen create in 1962?

The Filet-O-Fish was devised in 1962 by Lou Groen, whose Cincinnati franchise served a largely Catholic neighbourhood that shunned meat on Fridays in Lent; it joined the national menu in 1965.

In 2001 Pizza Hut pulled off a publicity stunt by having a pizza delivered to what destination?

The International Space Station received the pizza in May 2001 aboard a Russian Progress resupply craft; Pizza Hut paid roughly a million dollars and used salami, since pepperoni would not survive the trip.

Tom Monaghan's brother traded his half of the future Domino's Pizza to Tom in exchange for what?

A Volkswagen Beetle, the used car the brothers delivered pizzas in, was what Jim Monaghan took for his half of DomiNick's in 1961; Tom renamed the business Domino's in 1965.

Which chain, founded in 1965 in Manhattan, is often credited as one of America's first singles bars?

TGI Fridays began when Alan Stillman bought a First Avenue bar with $10,000, half borrowed from his mother, hoping to meet the airline stewardesses in his neighbourhood; the name is short for 'Thank God It's Friday'.

Why did Hooters' six founders incorporate their Clearwater, Florida chain on 1 April 1983?

They expected it to fail, so the six founders picked April Fools' Day as a joke on themselves; the owl logo plays on the other meaning of the name.

Katz's Delicatessen on the Lower East Side charges a penalty fee if a customer loses what?

Their entry ticket, handed to every customer at the door, tallies what they order, and losing it costs a $50 fee; the deli, open since 1888, staged the famous When Harry Met Sally scene.

Nachos are named after which restaurant worker, who improvised them for US officers' wives in 1943?

Ignacio Anaya, nicknamed 'Nacho', was maître d' at the Victory Club in Piedras Negras; with the cook absent, he fried tortilla pieces and topped them with cheese and pickled jalapeños.

Thomas Keller's Yountville, California restaurant is named after what former business in its building?

A steam laundry run by a French family occupied the 1900 stone building in the early twentieth century; Sally and Don Schmitt opened it as The French Laundry in 1978, and Keller bought it in 1994.

Le Procope, opened in Paris in 1686 by a Sicilian cook, is famous as one of the world's oldest what?

Cafés of the modern kind date from Le Procope, founded by Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli; Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot drank coffee there, and Benjamin Franklin visited during his years in Paris.

In-N-Out's 1948 drive-through was the first in California to let drivers order via what?

A two-way speaker box, built by founder Harry Snyder himself, let drivers order at the Baldwin Park stand he opened with his wife Esther in October 1948; the first menu had burgers, fries and drinks.

Which Madrid restaurant, founded in 1725, is listed by Guinness as the oldest in the world?

Sobrino de Botín, on Calle de Cuchilleros, roasts suckling pig in a wood-fired oven dating from its 1725 opening; Hemingway has Jake and Brett dine there in the last pages of The Sun Also Rises.

The Big Mac was created in 1967 by franchisee Jim Delligatti in which state?

Pennsylvania franchisee Jim Delligatti launched the Big Mac in Uniontown in 1967 for 45 cents; it went nationwide in 1968, and The Economist later built its Big Mac Index on the sandwich's near-universal availability.

Colonel Sanders was commissioned as an honorary Kentucky Colonel in 1935 by whom?

The state governor, Ruby Laffoon, commissioned Sanders as a Kentucky Colonel in 1935, when he was running a roadside café at a Shell station in Corbin; Governor Lawrence Wetherby renewed the honour in 1950.

What did Denny's discover when it closed for Christmas for the first time in 1988?

Many restaurants had no locks because Denny's had been open around the clock for decades; the 1988 Christmas closure was the chain's first, and some outlets had to have locks fitted before staff could leave.

Recognisably modern restaurants first appeared in Kaifeng and Hangzhou during which Chinese dynasty?

Song dynasty cities such as Kaifeng and later Hangzhou had, from the eleventh century, establishments with menus, waiters and a choice of dishes; Paris had no equivalent until the 1760s.

A restaurant in St Peter's Abbey in which Austrian city claims to have served since AD 803?

Salzburg's St Peter Stiftskeller sits inside the Benedictine abbey founded by St Rupert around 696; its 803 claim rests on a mention by Charlemagne's scholar Alcuin, and it is famed for the Salzburger Nockerl dessert.

The first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened in 1952 in which state?

Franchisee Pete Harman in South Salt Lake also introduced the cardboard bucket in 1957, and the recipe of 11 herbs and spices remains a trade secret.

Ruth Fertel bought a New Orleans steakhouse in 1965 founded by an entrepreneur with which surname?

Matulich was the surname of Chris Matulich, who opened Chris Steak House in 1927; Fertel mortgaged her home to buy it in 1965, and after a 1976 fire forced a move she became Ruth's Chris.

Rao's, the East Harlem Italian restaurant famous for near-impossible reservations, opened in what year?

1896 was when Charles Rao opened the ten-table restaurant at 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue; its tables are held by regulars on standing bookings, and Frank Pellegrino later co-owned it.

The world's first automat, with coin-operated food windows, opened in 1895 in which city?

Horn & Hardart brought the idea to Philadelphia in 1902 with machines shipped from the same Berlin factory, and once ran forty of them in Manhattan alone.

El Bulli received over two million requests each season for how many places?

8,000 diners a season was all El Bulli could seat, opening roughly six months a year under Ferran Adrià near Roses on the Costa Brava; it closed as a restaurant on 30 July 2011.

The first drive-through, Red's Giant Hamburg, opened in 1947 in which Missouri city?

Springfield's Red's Giant Hamburg, on Route 66, opened its drive-through window in 1947 under Sheldon 'Red' Chaney; McDonald's did not add one until 1975, in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

The title 'sommelier' derives from an Old Provençal word for a person who did what?

Drove pack animals is the root sense: a saumalier handled the beasts of burden carrying a lord's supplies, and the word came to mean the officer in charge of provisions and then of wine.

What price did flyers advertise for Herb McDonald's first Las Vegas all-you-can-eat buffet in 1946?

One dollar bought the Buckaroo Buffet at the El Rancho Vegas, where publicist Herb McDonald laid out cold cuts late at night to keep gamblers from leaving; other casinos soon copied the idea.

In which city did Walter Scott sell food from a horse-drawn wagon in 1872, starting the American diner?

Providence, Rhode Island was where Walter Scott parked his wagon outside the Providence Journal offices, selling sandwiches, pies and coffee to night workers after the restaurants had closed.

The Texas chuckwagon, ancestor of the food truck, was created in 1866 by which rancher?

Charles Goodnight rebuilt a surplus Studebaker army wagon with a hinged 'chuck box' of shelves and drawers to feed cowboys on the 1866 drive that opened the Goodnight-Loving Trail.

What was the ancient Roman counter-service eatery, a forerunner of fast food, called?

Thermopolium, from Greek for 'a place where something hot is sold', describes Pompeii's counters with dolia jars set into the masonry for serving hot food and wine; dozens survive there.

Who opened La Grande Taverne de Londres, often called Paris's first luxury restaurant?

Antoine Beauvilliers, a former officer of the Comte de Provence's household, ran the restaurant in the rue de Richelieu; Brillat-Savarin praised him as the first to offer an elegant room, smart waiters and a fine cellar.

Roughly how many copies of the first, free Michelin Guide were handed out in 1900?

35,000 copies were printed for the 1900 debut, a pocket guide of nearly 400 pages listing mechanics, petrol sellers, hotels and maps, and given away free until 1920.

What prompted André Michelin to start charging for the guide in 1920?

Seeing copies propping up a workbench in a garage convinced André Michelin that 'man only truly respects what he pays for'; the 1920 edition sold for 7 francs and dropped paid advertising.

In which year did the Michelin Guide begin awarding stars to restaurants?

1926 brought the first Michelin stars, when a single star marked a 'fine dining establishment'; the fuller ranking followed in the early 1930s, with Paris rated from 1933.

Which city's debut Michelin Guide, for the 2008 edition, awarded more stars than any other city's?

Tokyo's first guide, the 2008 edition, awarded 191 stars to 150 restaurants, more than any other city and well ahead of Paris, which had been the star capital.

Which British chef first earned Michelin's top rating, then handed back his stars in 1999?

Marco Pierre White reached the top rating in 1995 at The Restaurant in the Hyde Park Hotel, Knightsbridge, aged 33, and gave the stars back in 1999, saying he was being judged by people with less knowledge than him.

What award did the Michelin Guide begin giving to hotels in 2024?

Keys, given in tiers like the stars, were introduced in France in April 2024 and extended to other countries that year; criteria include architecture, service, character, value and contribution to the setting.

Commercial production of American 'lunch wagons' began in 1887 in which Massachusetts city?

Worcester was where Thomas H. Buckley's factory turned out lunch wagons by the hundred, including his ornate 'White House Cafe' models, and shipped them to operators across the country.

Glasgow's Shish Mahal claims its owner invented which curry-house favourite with a tin of tomato soup?

Chicken tikka masala, by this account, began when chef Ali Ahmed Aslam improvised a sauce to please a customer who found his chicken tikka too dry.

Yoshiaki Shiraishi came up with conveyor belt sushi after watching what move along a factory line?

Beer bottles gliding through an Asahi brewery gave him the idea. Short of staff at his small sushi bar, he opened the first conveyor restaurant in 1958.

Tavern on the Green, the Central Park restaurant, occupies an 1870 structure first put up to house what?

Grazing sheep lived there: it was the fold for the flock that cropped Sheep Meadow, and it opened as a restaurant only in 1934.

The TV drama The Bear follows chef Carmy Berzatto as he runs a Chicago shop famous for which sandwich?

Italian beef is the speciality of The Original Beef of Chicagoland, the family shop Carmy later turns into a fine-dining restaurant called The Bear.

Teressa Bellissimo is credited with first serving which bar snack at her family's Anchor Bar in 1964?

Buffalo wings, in the best-known telling, were a quick late-night snack she made when her son's friends turned up unannounced at the bar.

Le Beccherie, a restaurant in Treviso in northern Italy, is widely credited with creating which dessert?

Tiramisu was devised there by the owner's wife, Alba di Pillo, and pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto. The name means 'pick me up'.

Ithaa, a restaurant where guests dine 5 metres below the sea surface, is in which island nation?

Maldives is home to Ithaa, whose name means 'mother of pearl'. A transparent acrylic roof gives its 14 diners a 270-degree underwater view.

The exterior of Tom's Restaurant in Manhattan stood in for Monk's Café in which long-running sitcom?

Seinfeld showed the diner's whole neon sign in early episodes, then cropped out the word 'Tom's' so that only 'Restaurant' remained.

In Pixar's Ratatouille, Remy the rat secretly cooks in the kitchen of which Paris restaurant?

Gusteau's is named after Remy's late idol, a celebrated chef, and the rat gets into its kitchen by teaming up with the garbage boy, Linguini.

Fortune cookies, a staple of Chinese restaurants in the US, most likely began with immigrants from which country?

Japan is the likeliest source: a similar fortune biscuit, tsujiura senbei, was baked there in the Edo period, long before the cookie caught on in California.

The Cobb salad is named after the owner of which Hollywood restaurant, where it became the signature dish?

The Brown Derby legend says its owner, who had not eaten until near midnight, tossed kitchen leftovers together with bacon and French dressing.

Which Venice haunt of Ernest Hemingway, declared a national landmark in 2001, is the home of the Bellini and carpaccio?

Harry's Bar, by its own account, exists because young American Harry Pickering repaid a 10,000-lire loan from barman Giuseppe Cipriani with 50,000.

Brennan's restaurant in New Orleans created which rum-sauced dessert in 1951, naming it after the owner's friend?

Bananas Foster honours Richard Foster, who chaired the city's Crime Commission. Ella Brennan and chef Paul Blangé adapted it from her mother's home recipe.

Which Oscar-winning actor co-founded the Nobu restaurant group after urging chef Nobu Matsuhisa to open in Tribeca?

Robert De Niro was turned down when he first asked in 1989, because Matsuhisa wanted to establish his Los Angeles restaurant first. He asked again years later, and the first Nobu opened in 1994.

Which chef's 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential gave an unfiltered look at life in high-end restaurant kitchens?

Anthony Bourdain grew the book out of a magazine essay, and named George Orwell's account of 1920s Paris restaurant work as an influence on its tone.

Which chef gives struggling restaurants one week to turn around in the British series Kitchen Nightmares?

Gordon Ramsay plays troubleshooter for a week, then returns a few months later to see how the business has fared without him.

Which 1942 Edward Hopper painting shows four people seen through the window of a downtown diner?

Nighthawks was bought by the Art Institute of Chicago for $3,000 within months of being finished.

Which chef opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1971, helping to launch California cuisine and farm-to-table dining?

Alice Waters named it after a character in Marcel Pagnol's Marseille trilogy, and later founded the Edible Schoolyard at a Berkeley middle school.

Which chef's Fat Duck restaurant in Bray is known for snail porridge and a dish that includes an audio element?

Heston Blumenthal opened it in a 16th-century cottage in 1995. The dish with the audio is called Sound of the Sea.

The word restaurant, which in French once named a meat broth, comes from a verb meaning what?

To restore is the sense of the French verb restaurer: the first Paris restaurants sold bouillon, a broth of meat and egg said to bring back health and vigour.

Deep-dish pizza was invented in 1943 at which Chicago restaurant founded by Ike Sewell and Richard Riccardo?

Pizzeria Uno's original pizza chef, Rudy Malnati, has also been credited with developing the recipe, and his sons later opened deep-dish restaurants of their own.

Paul Bocuse's family restaurant, which kept Michelin's top rating for 55 years, sits near which French city?

Lyon was his base, and the Bocuse d'Or, a biennial contest sometimes seen as the unofficial world championship for chefs, carries his name.

Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana, twice named the world's best restaurant, is in which northern Italian city?

Modena is its home, and the restaurant came top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants ranking in both 2016 and 2018.

Which Paris restaurant gives a numbered certificate to every diner who orders its signature pressed duck?

La Tour d'Argent owes the custom to Frédéric Delair, its owner in the 1890s. The restaurant claims to date from 1582, but offers no documents to prove it.

Which Manhattan restaurant, a pre- and post-theater hangout, is known for the Broadway caricatures on its walls?

Sardi's first paid for them in meals: to attract customers, its founder hired Russian refugee Alex Gard to draw the portraits in exchange for free food.

Which celebrity chef opened the first Spago, his flagship restaurant, on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in 1982?

Wolfgang Puck built Spago into a worldwide name for California cuisine, and took it to the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1992.

Kirby's Pig Stand, which opened in Dallas in 1921, was the first American restaurant of which type?

Drive-in dining began there. The chain was popular for its pig sandwich and Texas toast, and closed its last official restaurant in 2006.

Which chef, known for creating culinary foam, ran the kitchen at El Bulli on Spain's Costa Brava?

Ferran Adrià began his career in 1980 as a dishwasher at a hotel, and shut El Bulli for good in July 2011.

Which dish of apples, celery and walnuts is credited to Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel of a Manhattan hotel?

Waldorf salad was first made for a charity ball at the Waldorf-Astoria, and the original recipe had no walnuts: just apples, celery and mayonnaise.

What do restaurants call the fee charged for serving a bottle of wine that a guest has brought in?

Corkage, also known as a corking fee, lets diners bring their own wine. Australia and New Zealand coined the label BYO for places that offer it.

Which kind of drink, usually dry rather than sweet, is served before a meal to stimulate the appetite?

Apéritif comes from the Latin verb aperire, 'to open'. Its counterpart served after the meal is the digestif.

Which French term describes a restaurant menu of multi-course meals with only a few choices at a fixed price?

Table d'hôte literally means 'the host's table'. Such a menu may also be called prix fixe, French for 'fixed price'.

Which formal waiting style has staff transfer food from a platter to each guest's plate, always from the left?

Silver service is the British name for it: meals arrive on platters rather than plated in the kitchen, and the waiter works with a serving fork and spoon.

Serving dishes one after another, rather than laying them all out at once, is a style named after which country?

Russia gave its name to service à la russe, which slowly displaced the older French custom of loading the table with tureens and platters that often went cold.

In guéridon service, where do restaurant staff carve, finish or flambé a dish for the diner?

On a tableside cart, itself called a guéridon, which works as a portable workstation for carving meat, tossing salads and creating desserts.

Sabrage, a ceremony often linked in legend to Napoleon, means opening a bottle of what with a sword?

Champagne can be opened with the dull side of a sabre, though today it is most often done with a special unsharpened sword made for the job.

A wine waiter pours an old red wine slowly into a decanter chiefly to leave what behind in the bottle?

Sediment stays in the original bottle while the clear wine passes into the decanter, which is why decanters suit wines that are laden with deposits.

The maître d'hôtel, who manages the public part of a formal restaurant, has a French title meaning what?

Master of the house is the literal meaning. The same person may be called the head waiter, host or waiter captain, or simply the maître d'.

What is the name of the small cup in which restaurants traditionally serve espresso?

Demitasse is French for 'half cup': the cups are small because espresso is strong and concentrated. A cup of the same size, the finjan, is traditional for Turkish and Arabic coffee.

Which pizza-and-arcade chain was founded in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell, a co-founder of video game maker Atari?

Chuck E. Cheese was the first family restaurant to combine food with arcade games and animated shows. Bushnell wanted arcades to reach beyond pool halls.

Arby's takes its name from the sound of the letters R and B, which stand for what?

Raffel brothers Forrest and Leroy founded the chain in Ohio in 1964, settling on the name only because their first choice, Big Tex, was already in use.

Popeyes founder Al Copeland said he named the chain after a detective in which Gene Hackman film?

The French Connection features detective 'Popeye' Doyle, not the cartoon sailor, although the chain later licensed the sailor for its marketing for 35 years.

Which breakfast chain announced in 2018 that it would flip the last letter of its name to promote its burgers?

IHOP briefly became IHOb to counter the idea that it was still mainly a breakfast place. Its full name is International House of Pancakes.

At which chain do staff flip the Blizzard upside down to show how thick the frozen treat is?

Dairy Queen policy is that one Blizzard per order gets flipped by the employee. The name itself refers to the treat being so thoroughly cold and thick.

Which Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain was co-founded in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1964 by an ice hockey player?

Tim Hortons outlived its founder: investor Ron Joyce took over operations after Horton died in 1974, and it grew into Canada's largest quick-service chain.

Olive Garden began in 1982 as a restaurant unit of which packaged-food company, later spun off as Darden?

General Mills spun off its restaurant holdings in 1995 as a stand-alone company named after Bill Darden, the man who had founded Red Lobster.

Texas Roadhouse, despite its name, opened its first steakhouse in 1993 in a shopping centre in which state?

Indiana is where it began, in the town of Clarksville, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, the Kentucky city where the chain has its headquarters.

Jollibee, a chain established in 1978 by Tony Tan Caktiong, is the top fast-food restaurant of which country?

Philippines-born Jollibee is best known for its Chickenjoy fried chicken and for Jolly Spaghetti, a sweet Filipino take on the pasta dish.

The seafood chain Long John Silver's, founded in Kentucky in 1969, takes its name from a character in which novel?

Treasure Island, the R. L. Stevenson adventure, supplied the name when the first restaurant opened in Lexington in August 1969.

The French dip sandwich, served with its cooking juices, was created at one of two rival restaurants in which US city?

Los Angeles has two rival claimants, Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet and Philippe the Original, and Philippe's even carries the claim in its logo.