Outrageous-Door8924 t1_jaxm682 wrote on March 4, 2023 at 9:19 PM

How were restaurants made "more accessible to the middle class [and not just the wealthy]" after the Great Depression and WW2?

This comment by a deleted account over on Ask Historians mentions that era as the time when France lost ground as the capitol of restaurants and fine dining, while, simultaneously, the restaurant industry in America became more accessible to the middle class.

OsoCheco t1_jb9qlgw wrote on March 7, 2023 at 2:19 PM

It's weird take. Why wouldn't restaurants be accessible? There always were food-serving places, for all income levels. It doesn't really matter if you call them restaurants, pubs, cafeterias, guest house etc.

The change after WW2 wasn't really related to restaurants, but to the general increase of prosperity, when even middle class people suddenly had surplus income.