The Original Themed Restaurants Were A Terrifying Journey Into The Afterlife - Tasting Table

"Though themed restaurants hit a heyday in the 1990s, such establishments can still be pretty fun (we're always in for a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe). After all, these restaurants are often built around concepts that can be easily translated into a great experience. For example, ESPN's sports-themed spot or Planet Hollywood's memorabilia-heavy celebration of entertainment. But if you've ever wondered what started this idea of themed restaurants, you're not alone - because we wondered, too."

"After some digging, we found some information that's unsettling at best, and downright bizarre at worst. In fact, you can trace the idea for themed restaurants back to the late 19th century in Paris, which was a strange time all around. Back then, a trio of cabarets popped up in Montmartre. Here, the idea was that as you ordered your cocktails and enjoyed your evening out on the town, you were escorted through the afterlife."

"Since the 1870s, Paris had been the site of another gruesome spectacle: The bodies at the Paris morgue. In theory, bodies were publicly displayed in the hopes they would be identified, or their deaths solved. People being people, it turned into an ultra-macabre hotspot for sightseeing, and what better way to wrap up the evening than a cabaret experience of the afterlife?"

Themed restaurants originated in late 19th-century Paris where a trio of Montmartre cabarets staged immersive afterlife experiences for patrons. Guests ordered cocktails and were escorted through theatrical simulations of death and the afterlife. The prevalence of publicly displayed corpses at the Paris morgue from the 1870s created an ultra-macabre sightseeing attraction that inspired these venues. Restaurateurs translated public fascination with mortality into entertainment by recreating morgue-like entrances, processions, and death imagery to thrill audiences. Cabaret du Néant exemplified the trend by presenting an entrance resembling a Parisian morgue and centering its theme on nothingness and death.

Read at Tasting Table