Webster's defines menu as "a detailed list of food served at a meal." This
definition came out of a kinder, gentler time for the restaurant owner, a time when
competition was less fierce, tax laws were less rigid, and operation was not measured by
yield management, and the patrons knowledge and expectations were lower. The role of
the menu in a food service operation far exceeds the basic dictionary definition. It is an
oversimplification to consider the menu to be a mere list of the food items a restaurant or
food service operation has to offer. The nucleus of any food operation is its menu, but
other factors may affect sales and customer participation. The menu will be the ultimate
controlling factor as the profit center, customer attractor, and theme determiner. The
menu should not attempt to be all things to all people. The menu become the final
limitation. As a limiting factor, the menu will provide the basic guidelines that you may
have concerning space, equipment, and the personnel required for operation. When the
menu is built around a predominant menu item, for example, hamburgers, fried chicken, or
Italian food certain operational aspects of the restaurant are simplified and easier to mange
Although today about forty percent of us eat at least one meal a day away from
home, most colonial Americans never dined in restaurants even once. Restaurants in
those times were really just stores just specializing solely in the selling of food for on
premises consumption. The term "restaurant" was coined by the French in the 1760's.
Earlier the term had referred to fortifying oneself with the respect of food. Lunch wagons
evolved into diners in the early 1900's. They quit making their daily journeys through the
streets and eventually settled permanently on small parcels of land. Chain restaurants
began to appear before the inv...