America’s Restaurant Gallery chronicles the history, growth, and success of the American restaurant and foodservice industry, while paying homage to its century-long role of advancing the American Dream.
The inspiration came from the donation of The Elliot Group Memorabilia Collection, a collection of around 300 restaurant industry artifacts, to the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.
As the philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the NRAEF exists to enhance the restaurant industry’s service to the public through education, community engagement and promotion of career opportunities. The NRAEF works to attract, develop and retain a career-oriented professional workforce for the restaurant industry. In 2016, the restaurant and foodservice industry is projected to provide a record 14.4 million jobs, making it the nation’s second-largest private sector employer.
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is the largest foodservice trade association in the world and supports over 500,000 restaurant businesses. In partnership with state restaurant associations, the NRA works to empower all restaurant owners and operators to achieve more than they thought possible.
We highly encourage contributions to the Gallery and urge restaurants, foodservice professionals and leaders in the industry to visit our submission page for guidelines and contact information.
Multiple submissions of memorabilia and artifacts are encouraged to ensure the online Gallery is continually engaging, surprising and full of diverse content about our industry – distinctive memories, historical information, iconic milestones, achievements and imagery of memorabilia representing years and milestones of restaurant excellence.
Right now, the Gallery is most visible online on this website. However, the gallery may be made available via traveling exhibitions and at industry events in the future. Much of the content is also displayed at the National Restaurant Association/National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s headquarters in Washington, DC.