The Invention of the Restaurant - Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, With a New Preface

As Spang explains, during the 1760s and 1770s, sensitive, self-described sufferers made public show of their delicacy by going to the new establishments known as "restaurateurs' rooms" to sip bouillons. But these locations soon became sites for extending frugal, politically correct hospitality and later became symbols of aristocratic greed.