ISSUE 18, HISTORY, Part 1: First American Restaurants

The Age of the Restorator

The Restorators

The Age of the Restorator

In July of 1793 the first restaurateur in the United States announced himself under the cognomen Julien.  A chef formerly attached to the French diplomatic legation, Julien opened his “Restorator” opposite the Quaker Meeting House on Leverett’s Lane in Boston.  Though he characterized this public house a hotel, Julien intended something different than any hotel then operating in the Western hemisphere.  It was a “Resort, where the infirm in health, the convalescent, and those whose attention to studious business occasions a lassitude of nature, can obtain the most suitable nourishment.” [“Restorator,” Columbian Centinel (July 10, 1793), 3.] Spiritous liquors were banned as was gaming.  Instead there were foods and beverages sufficiently sumptuous to inspire those whose indisposition robbed them of appetite to pick up knife and fork and partake: “Excellent wines and cordials, good soups and broths, pastry, in all its delicious variety, alamode Beef, Bacon, Poultry, and, generally all other refreshing viands.” 

            Julien had hit upon the one way to make a pleasure palace palatable to the sumptuary puritans of Boston:  medicalize fine dining and drinking.  He noted that this model of eatery had been productive of great benefits in European cities.  This was truly a restaurant, not a hotel, not a tavern, an inn, or a coffeehouse. 

            Julien’s Restorator enjoyed success from the first—and it must be said not simply as a resort for the infirm.  Boston’s young bachelors found the wines and beef as salubrious as advertised and flocked, forcing Julien to move to more extensive quarters on the corner of Milk Street and Dalton Lane in August 1794. He was perspicuous enough to advertise an hygienic reason for doing so, “as it is agreeably situated to receive the fresh air—which is so necessary for the convalescent and strangers” [“Boston Restorator,” American Apollo (August 21, 1794), 3.] Presumably strangers had not acclimatized to the fetid miasmas of Boston. 

            Success breeds competition.  In September 1796 Mess’rs Dorival and Deguise opened a “New Restorator” near the Boston Exchange by Oliver’s Dock. It differed from Julien’s establishment by offering the “best and purest of Liquors.”  Pastries and proteins were announced, vegetables too, “dressed in the American and French modes.” The proprietors echoed Julien’s promise that the food would prove nutritive to invalids, particularly the daily supplies of “rich, and well-seasoned Brown and other Soups” [“New Restorator,” Massachusetts Mercury (September 2, 1796), 4]. Deguise jettisoned Dorival six months later, and moved to a more central location, at Liberty Square.  He elaborated his offerings in greater detail: “Best Soups of every kind, Pastry in all its varieties, Beef Steak in perfection, Calves Feet, Jellies, fryed and stewed Oysters; Cookery of every description.” He promoted his alcohol too—Cognac, Brandy, Holland Gin—and wines, “Old Pedro Madeira, Sherry, Malaga, ‘Porto, Champaigne, and best bottle Claret.” (Note the emphasis on fortified wines in this list.) [“Restorator, Liberty Square,” Independent Chronicle (February 27, 1797), 3].

            Another rival appeared in 1796, Le Rebour, “Cook from Paris,” who opened the Shakespear Hotel and Restorator on Water Street. The bill of fare was familiar: soups, pastries, meats, “liquors of various kinds,” prepared in the “American, English, or Paris style.”  His point of distinction?  Confections, jellies, brandied fruits. [“Shakespear Hotel,” Polar-Star (November 29, 1796), 1]. Johannes Baptista Le Rebour’s Shakespear Hotel and Restorator would operate for four years on Water Street gaining a local reputation for its green turtle Soup and Old Madeira.   In November 1800, Le Rebour moved his business to Salem, taking up a building on Norman Street. [“Restorator,” Impartial Register (November 6, 1800), 3]. A year later Joseph B.Baker, former steward of the Hotel and Coffee House in Boston, would open a rival Restorator at 4 Ladd Street, touting his Gravey and Brown Soup.  [“Restorator,” United States Oracle (December 5, 1801), 3].

            Later in 1797 two Restorators opened in Philadelphia, the first outside of Boston.  Both were opened by French pastry chefs, and both promised the most cosmopolitan sort of hospitality  Mns. Bossee opened the Hotel du Café du Caveau with $1 per person dinner with Bourdeaux wine at 3:00 p.m. daily for contracted boarders.  He also ran an ordinary for drop in clientele at half price and no fine wine.  Wine was his selling point, and he boasted have “100 cases of WINE OF MEDOC and LAFITTE”   [“Hotel du Café du Caveau,” Aurora General Advertiser (November 4, 1797), 3]. Stephen Simonet, a pastry chef, had operated a cook shop offering savory pies on Market Street since 1791.  When Bossee opened his Restorator, Simonet decided to rebrand and retool his operation.  Simonet’s Restorator specialized in savory pastry—pot pies and oyster pies—and cold collations, meringues, tongue, brioches.  While he maintained a sit down service, a portion of his premises was retail space.  Since Simonet was arguably the initiator of restaurant culture in Philadelphia, I have treated his career at greater length in The Culinarians. 

            Other Restorators opened outside of Boston before the close of the century. In March 1799 Joseph Taunzan announced that his Restorator in Daniel Street, Portsmouth New Hampshire would supply households with delivered dinners as well as serve diners.  The only foods he names particularly are pastries, confectioneries, “Pound and all other kinds of Cakes,” suggesting that he was more a sugar baker than a chef de cuisine.  [“Joseph Taunzan,” Oracle of the Day (March 30, 1799), 3].

            Despite the burgeoning competition, Julien’s Restorator remained the standard by which any eating house in New England was judged. It constantly replenished its soup offerings. In May of 1797 Julien offered Turtle Soup, made of the green Caribbean sea turtle.  “Much has been said upon the efficacy of this Soup, in purging the blood, and many celebrated physicians have recommended it.  Those who wish for the benefit of this excellent Soup—are informed, that it is prepared with the most particular care; that it is clear, pure, light and transparent; without any kind of high seasoning.” [“Boston Restorator,” Independent Chronicle (May 15, 1797), 1].

 Its status as an institution can be judged by its appropriation by writers as a metaphor for a literary space where the finest thoughts were served.  In column 1 of “The Restorator” published in the Massachusetts Mercury in March 1801 the literary Boniface observed, “In imitation of Mr. Julien, I mean to open a house of public entertainment, where every intellectual epicure may be gratified with his favorite dish.  The moralist shall be feasted with ethics, the philologist with criticism, and the weak and delicate palates of beaus and ladies shall be indulged with remarks on dress and fashion.” [“The Restorator, No. 1,” Massachusetts Mercury (March 27, 1801), 1.”].

            In July 1805, Julien died, aged 52, in Boston.  The institution he founded lived on, both the original premises, and the numbers of imitators tht had emerged and continued to emerge in New England.