Widespread in townships and on major roads, ancient Greek and Roman “taverns” were “taprooms” that served wine but also bread, cheese and roasted meat. Frequented by sailors, stevedores, merchants and prostitutes, they were places respectable people disdained. In Rome, the taverner’s trade was officially disapproved of and members of the Senate weren’t allowed to marry taverners’ daughters. The Christian church also frowned on taverns and made them off limits for the clergy. The growth of cities and transport fuelled by pilgrimages and trade (people on the move even then!) was already causing a proliferation of taverns in the 12th century and such places gradually attracted people from all classes. The direct descendants of the mediaeval tavern were the hostelries of the 17th and 18th centuries (in squares and high streets, at coaching stations and along main communication lines) that subsequently started to differentiate: many became simple taprooms with or without a kitchen, others concentrated on hospitality and turned into inns, whilst others again took over the role, and name, of eating houses.It was France between the 18th and 19th centuries, however, that saw the birth of the urban restaurant as we know it, characterized by individual table service and a publicly displayed list of prices. According to Grimod de la Reynière (Almanach gastronomique, 1804), the restaurant was the child of the French Revolution, which “put all good cooks at the service of the aristocracy out on the street. From then on, they decided to exploit their talents and become merchants of good cooking, under the name of restauranteurs”. Among pre-Revolution forerunners however, we should note a certain Boulanger, who in 1765, in the centre of Paris, offered a "restaurant", ie. a restorative soup, and various other dishes made with eggs and cooked meats. Such “restaurants”, which maintained the dual formula of the eating houses (both à la carte and fixed price menus), immediately won public favour and quickly spread throughout Europe and America.