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The American Dining Experience

Throughout this brief six week course we have talked about the role restaurants and other dining establishments have played in American society. From hosting first dates to hosting mob hits, restaurants serve a major role in how individuals interact with one another. We have learned that the smilingly innocent countertop lunch establishment may have a dark prejudiced past, that the local Greek Diner may have played a major role in normalizing race relations in the deep south, that an outwardly typical American housewife can revolutionize cuisine in an entire nation. This course is has taught me that it is important to view history through an academic lens, for example, the current event piece on a Starbucks manager calling the police on two African-American Men for simply sitting down in their establishment has roots in a long history of segregation and racism in restaurants in the United States. These Arts & Humanities readings give context to how certain actions may unknowingly further decades long traditions or marginalization and discrimination. Through these texts we also learn the importance cuisine has in forming cultural identities for many immigrant groups, whose cuisine and restaurants not only serve as ties to their heritages but also helps them integrate them into their new homes and communities. These ethnic dining establishments are often the only opportunity many people have to experience the cultures and cuisines of other people of the world, thus they are a very important part of building a thriving multicultural society, in which everyone benefits from being able to experience different cultures than their own. Without taking this course I would not be ale to gauge how critical and important of a role restaurants and other dining establishments play in shaping and defining the American cultural experience.

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In this Al Green song, we are given insight into how restaurants can serve as sanctuaries for individuals in society. It shows how despite going through the trials and tribulations of everyday life. People all have their own place of sanctuary and shelter in the form of their favorite bar, coffeehouse or diner.

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In this classic Billy Joel ballad, we learn of Brenda and Eddie a couple struggling in and out of love. This shows how restaurants serve a role in society as a safe haven and meeting place were individuals of different groups and communities can all interact and have a reprieve from the outside world.

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Here in this poem we are brought attention to the struggle faced by those members of the Civil Rights Movement. Looking back now it is truly shocking the struggle these men and women faced, for “just a stool in a lunch counter”, and the right to simply be served.

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Here we see the dark history of racism and discrimination in restaurants in America. We see a Lunch counter protest, in which people are protesting for their rights to simply sit down at eat, be ridiculed, assaulted and discriminated. This image alone gives insight into the racialized history of dining in America.  

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In this short story by Charles Dickens, we read about the lives of “old boys”, men who frequent restaurants in their local area. We see insight into the minds of these men who see waitress as objects of sexual attraction rather than human beings, an testament to the reality of gendered spaces in restaurants.

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Here we see the murder of notorious mobster Paul Castellano outside Sparks Steakhouse in New York City. This serves as an example of gendered violence playing out at a restaurant, the hyper masculinity exhibited by these mobsters is commonplace in dining establishments, as many a ‘hit’ was taken place at diners and restaurants all over the US.