‖ restaurateur
(rɛstɔratœr)
[F., agent-n. f. restaurer: cf. restaurator.]
1. A keeper of a restaurant.
| 1796 Burke Regic. Peace iv. Sel. Wks. (1892) 305, I should still think..that the same power, which furnished all their former restaurateurs, sent also their present cooks. 1826 Best Four Yrs. France 160 We returned to the restaurateur's to dine. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xliii[i], Didn't I take opera-boxes and give her dinners at the restaurateur's? 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. ix. 185 A little dinner given..at a choice Italian restaurateur's not very far from South Belgravia. 1969 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 2 Jan. 16/3 The editor of an intellectual journal has no less claim to being functional than a restaurateur. 1976 Times 21 May 4/8 Some had robbed a retired restaurateur of goods and money. 1980 Amer. Speech LV. 91 Books of advice to restaurateurs and menu designers suggest the use of foreign languages. |
2. A restaurant.
| 1801 C. Wilmot Let. 13 Dec. in Irish Peer (1920) 13 The ‘Palais Royal’ is excessively new and entertaining... Libraries, Restaurateurs, Gambling Houses, Coffee Houses. 1804 European Mag. XLV. 360/2 That some should be restaurateurs, eating-houses, and others coffee-houses,..is excellent. 1830 Wheaton Jrnl. 385 The Restaurateurs are the houses where the Parisians dine, as they breakfast at the cafés. |