Thank the Romans for Fast Food
by Bob Brooke

Most people today believe that the concept of fast food began in the mid 20th century. In fact, it goes back well over 2,000 years to ancient Rome. Beginning with hamburger stands in the 1950s, the concept of today’s fast food has exploded into a variety of outlets, including franchises selling everything from hamburgers to an assortment of chicken dishes to food trucks to food delivery services, selling almost any kind of food imaginable—all prepared and cooked for others to eat without the bother of cooking and cleaning up.

And so it was also for the ancient Romans, except they called their outlets thermopolia—fast food shops and stalls selling all sorts of foods—to be eaten while standing at a counter or taken back home to eat.

Most thermopolia had a straight or L-shaped food counter into which sat six large earthenware jars, called dola, filled with tempting delicacies such as beans, chickpeas, and dried fruits, from which customers could purchase prepared food, often from an open-fronted shop facing directly onto the street. Some dola may have had stored grain, nuts, dried legumes, wine, or other ingredients rather than cooked food kept permanently warm.

A customer could approach from the street, speak to the seller across the counter, pay for a small portion of food or drink, and eat nearby or carry the food away. Some thermopolia were very small, while others had back rooms, storage spaces, or seating areas. A few were decorated with painted panels, religious images, or advertisements, which suggests that these establishments weren’t always bare, miserable places but active commercial spaces that tried to attract customers’ attention and repeat business.

Fancier thermopolia would also be decorated with frescoes. These frescoes depicted a range of Roman mythological and religious imagery, as well as images and scenes of day to day life in the ancient city. Like modern advertisement, thermopolia frescoes were not only artistically oriented, they served a practical function. The images depicted in fresco could signify what that thermopolium was selling—fish, poultry, baked goods, etc. Thermopolia frescoes grabbed the customers’ attention much like advertising signs to today.

Others were faced with colored plaster, marble fragments, or painted decoration, giving even a small shop a more attractive public face. Decoration could be practical as well as ornamental. Painted images might signal what was sold, appeal to the gods, or simply make the shop memorable in a crowded street where many businesses competed for attention.

Against the back wall was a grand aedicule, serving as a lararium for the household gods—those Lares, alongside the protective spirit dubbed Genius, the shrewd Mercury, god of commerce, and Dionysus, the god of wine. Just a stone's throw from this bustling food stop was the owner’s private abode, complete with its own entrance and a lush garden in which he grew aromatic herbs, ensuring that every dish was full of flavor.

The thermopolium’s regular customers were the residents who lived in the nearby insulae—Roman apartment buildings—especially those living on the upper floors. Most didn’t have cooking facilities, so many would frequent one of the many thermopolia. The seller usually knew which customers wanted wine, which wanted something cheap and filling, and which wanted to bargain or linger too long.

The popularity of thermopolia was closely linked to the realities of Roman housing. Many urban residents didn’t live in spacious houses with well-equipped kitchens, storerooms, servants, and dining rooms. In cities, poorer residents often lived in rented rooms on the upper floors of Roman insulae, where cooking could be inconvenient, smoky, cramped, or dangerous. A small charcoal brazier might be possible, but a proper kitchen wasn’t guaranteed, and open flame in a crowded apartment block brought an obvious risk of fire.

Fuel was costly and preparing even simple food required time, utensils, storage, and water. A person working long hours in a shop, workshop, port, construction site, market, or household might find it easier to buy a hot dish, a cup of wine, or bread with something savory than to prepare a meal from scratch.

Roman thermopolia complemented markets, bakeries, wine shops, taverns, and street stalls. The Roman city was full of small transactions, and food was often bought in modest quantities for lack of storage. A customer might buy bread from one place, wine from another, a hot snack from a counter, and a few vegetables or olives from a stall in the open-air market. Thus, thermopolia were part of a wider food network rather than isolated curiosities.

A prepared-food counter could serve a laborer on a break, a traveler arriving late, a shopkeeper who could not leave his premises for long, or a resident whose rented room offered no place to cook. Some establishments had seating areas where customers could linger, while others were more like takeaway counters.

Unlike modern fast-food outlets, thermopolia weren’t standardized franchises with a fixed menu and uniform branding. Each one depended on its location, owner, local customers, nearby businesses, available ingredients, and the money people in the neighborhood were willing to spend.

The exact menu of a thermopolium varied. Unfortunately, the archaeological evidence doesn’t always allow reconstruction of every dish with confidence. And recipes were usually vague. The types of foods most likely sold at thermopolia included bread, stews, legumes, olives, cheese, eggs, sausages, preserved fish, fruit, nuts, watered wine, warm drinks, and simple hot dishes.

Thermopolia owners made humble food more appealing by adding salt, herbs, vinegar, oil, and sauces. Garum and other fish sauces were common features of Roman cuisine, and cheaper versions may have flavored ordinary food as well as elite dishes. Olive oil, too, could soften bread, enrich vegetables, and make legumes more satisfying, especially in regions where olives and olive oil were available.

The food wasn’t luxurious, but it was immediate. It could be eaten at the counter, in a back room, outside in the street, or carried away to a workplace.

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