The following timeline features just a few high points in the story of the restaurant, which has taken on so many forms and become so much a part of daily life. In the great Sung dynasty cities, Kaifeng and Hangchow, a fully developed restaurant-going culture flowers. In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales , a group of travelers enjoy a jolly meal at an inn. Afterwards, their host secures their further patronage by encouraging them to engage in a tale-telling contest. China Tourism becomes a popular pastime.
People travel for curiosity and enjoyment, and restaurants are in demand.
They also offer take-out food and are frequently called upon to cater events at wealthy patrons' homes. As in the Old World, there are plenty of public houses in Colonial America that are popular gathering places for men. England The first known reference to Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse on Tower Street appears in a London paper. Lloyd's clientele includes so many merchant shipowners and maritime insurance agents, who meet there to do business, that it becomes increasingly identified as the place to conduct insurance transactions. Lloyd's of London .