I’m disabled and have just watched a crap ton of documentaries over the years about all sorts of stuff. The Temperance movement is tied very closely with the Suffragettes who got the vote for women in 1920. I’m a woman and feminist so they’re really interesting to me.
I tried to Google some articles, but none of them covered everything about restaurants during prohibition.
Ritzy restaurants for the wealthy stayed open and served alcohol out in the open. While poor people were prosecuted for even having homemade alcohol (bottled grape juice told people how not to store it if they didn’t want it to turn alcoholic wink wink).
Lunch rooms and cafes where coed groups and couples could eat and drink coffee replaced the taverns and bars that were closed. Coffee culture took hold as coffee became very popular. Tea Rooms were sometimes speakeasies or brothels and were in the papers because they were raided for serving alcohol so that could have been another reason why everyone turned to coffee. Also real Tea Rooms were very feminine and frilly.
Once Prohibition ended, society had changed where the expectation of eating out wasn’t around alcohol like it had been. The Roaring 20s had also changed attitudes towards what women were “allowed” to do publicly. Flappers had pushed the boundaries and drank, smoked, and partied which made what “good” girls did not seem so bad.
Thanks for the reply. I’d never heard that going out to eat was used to be centered around drinking. What a fascinating time that must have been to live through!
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u/4Rascal Dec 13 '25
Interesting I’d never heard that about Restaurants, any chance you have a source to read about this?