Why so many restaurants with "Grille" in their name?

[No Wikipedia Cites]

A lot of restaurants are have "Grille" in their name, like "Sunset Grille", "Rosewood Grille", think of any name and add "Grille" to it and there is some restaurant with it.

COnsidering that almost any modern restaurant has a grille in their kitchen, including Burger King, why are customers supposed to be so impressed by this?

It's like saying "Sunset Oven". Do those restaurants have something special in the kitchen, or is it just empty marketing?

[The Shroud]

I'm not sure if there's a factual answer to this, except that things are not quite as literal as you're making them. They're trying to come up with an name that is catchy overall, not advertise specific kitchen equipment. I agree that there are several restaurant concepts that are completely played out, including Bistro, Cafe, Bar and Grill, Diner, Burger Joint and Hut.

[jayjay]

I've always been amused by "bar and grill", because it's usually actually "bar and fry vat".

[Polycarp]

A "bar and grill" at one time had a very specific meaning, and was so named to conform to laws regulating such institutions.

The fact it had a grill meant that it was prepared to serve food to order, was not strictly a place for the purchase of alcoholic beverages. The degree to which the meal side and the bar side of the business was the profit center varied.

But the key point was that many municipalities had regulations limiting the hours for taverns/bars -- places where the principal stock in trade was alcoholic beverages (even if they did sell or give away pickled eggs, beer nuts, or whatever). Having a grill meant that it was able to function as a full-service restaurant, preparing hot meals, and therefore was not exclusively a place for drinking. This freed it up from the need to conform to the restrictive hours on bars.

And in many places "Grill" developed Ye Olde Finale E To Give Ye Olde Phayque-Englishe Cachet.

[UDS]

“Grill”, without the final “e”, comes from French and means (a) a gridiron or grating, (b) meat, fish, etc. which has been cooked on a hot gridiron or grating, or (c) a room where meat is so cooked. In the latter sense it is an abbreviation of “grill-room”. In that sense it has also expanded in meaning to refer to an informal restaurant, in contrast to the word “restaurant” itself, which for a long time carried connotations of formality. You went to a restaurant to enjoy a fine dining experience; you went to a grill because you needed to eat before going somewhere else.

The addition of the final “e” is, I think, largely a US phenomenon. It may be the result of an attempt by some grill-owners to avoid the downmarket connotations of the name by “frenchifying” it either to suggest antiquity (compare “shoppe” and “olde”), or to lend the word a cosmopolitan air (compare the adoption - and pronunciation - of filet in place of the older English word “fillet”). Conversely “restaurant” has largely lost whatever upmarket connotations it may have had; McDonalds describe their establishments as “restaurants”.

[Chronos]

Even if most restaurants do indeed have a grill in the kitchen, some will use it more than others. By putting "grill" in the name of the restaurant, you get an idea of what sorts of foods to expect. At a place called "So-and-so Grille", I'll expect the specialty to be some sort of burger, but probably would not expect pasta or much in the way of baked things.

[RealityChuck]

Originally Posted by UDS

The addition of the final “e” is, I think, largely a US phenomenon.

In the US, most places say "grill." In our listings, there are at least eight "grills" and only one "grille."

A "grille," OTOH, is a part of a car.

[UDS]

I didn't intend to suggest that it was universal in the US; just that, to the extent that it occurs, it mostly occurs in the US. In other words, it's more a feature of US English than of other variants.

[AppallingGael]

Originally Posted by UDS

Conversely “restaurant” has largely lost whatever upmarket connotations it may have had; McDonalds describe their establishments as “restaurants”.

Reminds me of the time a murder took place in the parking lot outside a Dunkin' Donuts. The news folk didn't want to give a free plug, I suppose, so the reader said the murder took place "outside a doughnut restaurant". I still laugh at that even as I mourn the victim.

[Really Not All That Bright]

"Grille" is a sort-of-corruption-cum-affectation (from grill), and is descended from grill room, which until about 1940 referred to the part of a restaurant where your lunch would be served.

[Tom Tildrum]

Don't anybody start getting up in my grill!