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In the 1760s, Mathurin Roze opened a series of shops that boasted a special meat soup called consomme. Although the main attraction was the soup, Roze’s chain shops also set a new standard for dining out, which helped to establish Roze as the inventor of the modern restaurant.
Today, scholars have generated large amounts of instructive research about restaurants. Take
visual hints that influence what we eat: diners served themselves about 20 percent more pasta when their plates matched their food. When a dark-colored cake was served on a black plate rather than a white one, customers recognized it as sweeter and more tasty.
Lighting matters, too. When Berlin restaurant customers ate in darkness, they couldn’t tell how much they’d had: those given extra-large shares ate more than everyone else, but were none the wiser—they didn’t feel fuller, and they were just as ready for dessert.
Time is money, but that principle means different things for different types of restaurants. Unlike fast-food places, fine dining shops prefer customers to stay longer and spend. One way to encourage customers to stay and order that extra round: put on some Mozart. When classical, rather than pop, music was playing, diners spent more. Fast music hurried diners out. Particular scents also have an effect: diners who got the scent of lavender stayed longer and spent more than those who smelled lemon, or no scent.
Meanwhile, things that you might expect to discourage spending—“bad” tables, crowding, high prices—don’t necessarily. Diners at bad tables—next to the kitchen door, say—spent nearly as much as others but soon fled. It can be concluded that restaurant keepers need not “be overly concerned about ‘bad’ tables,” given that they’re profitable. As for crowds, a Hong Kong study found that they increased a restaurant’s reputation, suggesting great food at fair prices. And doubling a buffet’s price led customers to say that its pizza was 11 percent tastier.