It seems something inseparable from our Mediterranean culture. Like so many other things, we owe our irrepressible fondness for socializing with a drink in hand to our Greco-Roman ancestors. They were the ones who brought to Hispania their custom of having a drink of wine with something solid to accompany them before or after doing their work, leisure or business. Architects of urban development in old Iberia, they transformed our old cities perched on hills, uncomfortable and narrow, for new, larger ones, designed following a logical grid, in which the most popular public buildings and private establishments could be located with some ease. .
Due to this pragmatic need to take advantage of the time between management and management, coupled with the general austerity of the citizens in gastronomic matters (very far from the gluttony with which the Church demonized Roman high society), new municipalities and colonies were created fast food and drink establishments that appeased the appetite on the way to make a sacrifice in the Forum, a bath in the thermal baths or a business meeting in the Basilica. The complex hotel industry of an ancient Roman city had various offers:
The Caupona It was a quick drink store and ready-made cold foods – usually wine, cured meats, cheeses or pickles – that you could drink or take away. There were no benches or tables, but an outdoor bar where customers for an ace could warm up with a glass of wine and something to nibble on.
Caupona
A little bigger was the Thermopolium . In addition to a wide L-shaped interior marble bar with several dolia (deep clay containers) embedded in it to keep certain stews, drinks or "tapas" at the optimum temperature, it had stools and tables inside or outside the premises and slaves to serve them. In these shops you could eat something hot and drink a good pitcher of warm wine for less than a sestertius . Although generally modest, there were quite large ones, decorated with frescoes and with capacity for more than fifty people. The plebs ate sitting at the table, like us. Only citizens belonging to the wealthy classes ate lying down at the banquets of the various festivities that marked the calendar.
As both types of "restaurants" were integrated into the urban commercial fabric of the ancient cities, they had the same name as the rest of the shops, tabernae; It is the only business whose name has lasted more than two thousand years... Over time, this type of small fast food business, also known generically as popinae , expanded their services allowing, for a modest price, customers to sleep in small cubicles and even satisfy other appetites with the local slaves, entering into full competition with the brothels (which we will see in detail in a new installment of this series )
domustaberna
Finally, a traveler who came to the city from afar to carry out his business, rites or management could eat and sleep in other larger and more comfortable establishments. Stabula it was called the stable with cubicles on the upper floor and a large dining room, being the Hospitia a kind of hostel without stables with several bedrooms. The great communication routes, such as the Via Augusta , they had a network of Mansio (probably comes from the Latin verb form manere, “place to spend the night during a journey”), a modern day hotel for passing soldiers and merchants. The services provided to the traveler were equivalent to a current service station (mutatio ) They were equipped with stables, spare parts for cars and a veterinarian, a thermal space, rooms and a large dining room. At the beginning, these establishments were controlled by the army, being governed by an officer called mansionarius . There was one every natural day of thirty mille passuum (about forty-five kilometers)
We haven't changed much these last two thousand years; We continue to enjoy staying with a friend before or after some management in the center and have some grilled cuttlefish tacos spread with oil, garlic and chopped parsley, some slices of turboleta ham or some olives soaked in savory with a good drink of wine from Lauro... yes, in good company, if the gods allow us.
Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló.