Editing Restaurant (section)

=== North America ===
==== United States ====
{{See also|List of the oldest restaurants in the United States}}

[[File:Tom's Restaurant, NYC.jpg|thumb|left|[[Tom's Restaurant]] in [[Manhattan]] was made internationally famous by ''[[Seinfeld]]''.]]

In the [[United States]], it was not until the late 18th century that establishments that provided meals without also providing lodging began to appear in major metropolitan areas in the form of [[Coffeehouse|coffee]] and [[oyster bar|oyster]] houses. The actual term "restaurant" did not enter into the common parlance until the following century. Prior to being referred to as "restaurants" these eating establishments assumed regional names such as "eating house" in New York City, "restorator" in Boston, or "victualling house" in other areas. Restaurants were typically located in populous urban areas during the 19th century and grew both in number and sophistication in the mid-century due to a more affluent middle class and to urbanization. The highest concentration of these restaurants were in the West, followed by industrial cities on the Eastern Seaboard.<ref>{{citation |title=Early Restaurants in America |work=Menus: the art of dining |year=2018 |publisher=Digital Collections, University of Nevada Las Vegas |url=http://digital.library.unlv.edu/collections/menus/early-restaurants-america}}</ref>

When [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] went into effect in 1920, restaurants offering fine dining had a hard time making ends meet because they had depended on profits from selling wine and alcoholic beverages. Replacing them were establishments offering simpler, more casual experiences such as cafeterias, roadside restaurants, and diners. When Prohibition ended in the 1930s, luxury restaurants slowly started to appear again as the economy recovered from the Great Depression.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/890089872|title=Food in Time and Place : the American Historical Association Companion to Food History.|date=2014|publisher=University of California Press|others=Paul Freedman, Joyce E. Chaplin, Ken Albala|isbn=978-0-520-95934-7|location=Berkeley|oclc=890089872}}</ref>

The [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] outlawed segregation based on race, color, religion, or national origin in all public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce, including restaurants. ''[[Katzenbach v. McClung]]'', 379 U.S. 294 (1964), was a decision of the [[US Supreme Court]] which held that [[United States Congress|Congress]] acted within its power under the [[Commerce Clause]] of the [[United States Constitution]] in forbidding [[racial discrimination]] in restaurants as this was a burden to [[interstate commerce]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/CivilRightsActOf1964.pdf |title=Civil Rights Act of 1964: P.L. 88-352 |publisher=senate.gov |access-date=30 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/379/294|title=Nicholas deB. KATZENBACH, Acting Attorney General, et al., Appellants, v. Ollie McCLUNG, Sr., and Ollie McClung, Jr.|website=LII / Legal Information Institute}}</ref>

In the 1970s, there was one restaurant for every 7,500 persons. In 2016, there were 1,000,000 restaurants; one for every 310 people. The average person eats out five to six times weekly. 3.3% of the nation's workforce is composed of restaurant workers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://restaurant.org/research/economy/indicators/total-u-s-jobs |title=Total U.S. Jobs |year=2021 |website=National Restaurant Association |language=en |access-date=October 27, 2021}}</ref> According to a Gallup Poll in 2016, nearly 61% of Americans across the country eat out at a restaurant once a week or more, and this percent is only predicted to increase in future years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/201710/americans-dining-frequency-little-changed-2008.aspx |title=Americans' Dining-Out Frequency Little Changed From 2008 |date=January 11, 2017 |website=Gallup |language=en |access-date=April 2, 2020}}</ref> Before the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], The [[National Restaurant Association]] estimated restaurant sales of $899 billion in 2020. The association now projects that the pandemic will decrease that to $675 billion, a decline of $274 billion over their previous estimate.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gangitano |first=Alex |date=March 18, 2020 |title=Restaurant industry estimates $225B in losses from coronavirus |url=https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/488223-restaurant-industry-estimates-225b-in-losses-from |website=The Hill |language=en |access-date=March 23, 2020}}</ref>