Chicken? Ok. Duck? Sounds good. Seahorse? Maybe not.

December 27, 2020 7:56 AM

The Thermopolium of Regio V, a Roman-era fast-food stall, has been fully excavated at Pompeii and its well preserved frescoes are amazing.
posted by Mitheral (29 comments total)

More on thermopolium.
posted by Mitheral at 8:00 AM on December 27, 2020

Wow, that fresco of the nereid on the seahorse is really gorgeous.
posted by biogeo at 8:08 AM on December 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

I like the rooster the best, the colors and texture of those feathers are just perfect. If this were my establishment I would be brimming with pride over how nice it all looked!

Thermopolium are really cool and make me happy to think about. It is wonderful that this one even has traces of the food in its pots. Land snail ragout for me, absolutely.
posted by Mizu at 8:20 AM on December 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

The complete skeleton of a dog was found in the corner between the two doors of the Thermopolium (in the northwestern corner of the room).

Indeed.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:34 AM on December 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

We visited Pompeii a few years ago. We saw a couple of these "restaurants" on our trip, though not nearly as well preserved. I read in a guide that these fast-food/takeaway places were very common as it was impractical, expensive and dangerous for common folks living in small apartments to have daily fires for cooking. Makes sense to me.
posted by SoberHighland at 8:43 AM on December 27, 2020 [11 favorites]

It's incredible what a difference that vibrant color makes.
posted by trig at 9:07 AM on December 27, 2020 [11 favorites]

this is so awesome!! I was able to visit Herculaneum in 2016 and it was really cool to see these 'fast food joints' and tons of amazing frescoes and mosaics.
posted by supermedusa at 9:47 AM on December 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

"Grandmother visited me in my dream last night. She said, 'if you want to be famous, just keep doing what you're doing. If you don't want to be famous, sell your stall today and leave the city'. Strange, she was never very fond of me."
(from the diary of Nicias)
posted by hat_eater at 9:58 AM on December 27, 2020 [17 favorites]

This is great! Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by volcanoes in general and Pompeii in particular (and this started well before I was a Pink Floyd fan) I finally got to go there in 2003, but only for a few hours. I would love to spend a week there, or better yet, help out with the excavations. It really is amazing all the little details of daily life that come out as things are uncovered.
posted by TedW at 9:59 AM on December 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

The excavated stall is strikingly modern, in the sense that I could totally imagine walking up to the bar and ordering from one of the selections, pausing to admire the surprisingly nice frescoes while they dish it up, and then handing over some cash for the meal. I mean, there’s not a lot separating this experience from a Panda Express, Panera Bread, or Boston Market experience. Two thousand years ago.
posted by darkstar at 10:56 AM on December 27, 2020 [16 favorites]

I’m amused by the yellow-and-orange fast food shop. Would doodle a Pompeiian McDonalds clown if I could draw. Maybe there’s already one frescoed!
posted by clew at 11:07 AM on December 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

A mocking inscription can be found scratched onto the frame which surrounds the painting of the dog: NICIA CINAEDE CACATOR - literally “Nicias(probably a freedman from Greece) Shameless Shitter!”

I'm not an archaeologist but I gotta say my first guess would have been that the dog's name was Nicia and that he or she was, like most puppers, a shameless shitter.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:27 AM on December 27, 2020 [14 favorites]

I'm not an archaeologist but I gotta say...

it also seemed obvious to me that an inscription right ABOVE a dog saying 'shameless shitter' would, yes, be about the dog.

This is great! Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by volcanoes in general and Pompeii in particular (and this started well before I was a Pink Floyd fan)

When we were there a couple years ago we went in first thing in the morning through the Anfiteatro entrance. Most people are coming in through Ponta Marina and don't even know there's another entrance. In any case, as the name implies it is right next to the amphitheater. So we had it all to ourselves. As we walked in we heard music playing and, yes, it was Pink Floyd music blasting through some speakers hidden in the theater.

A day (two for us) of seeing Pompeii and then another day having perfect pizza in Napoli makes for an unforgettable trip.
posted by vacapinta at 12:16 PM on December 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

The cacator is a person, not a dog. "Shameless" is a euphemistic translation for cinaedus, which means someone who practices anal sex. And you probably wouldn't name a dog Nicias, which was a common man's name -- it'd be like calling your dog Steve or Kevin.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 12:31 PM on December 27, 2020 [11 favorites]

This is great! Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by volcanoes in general and Pompeii in particular

me too, since childhood! one of the (many) things I loved about Naples is that no matter where you are in the city Vesuvius is there just looming over everything, a constant and not-so-subtle reminder of history, and of future potential...

also the pizza omg drooooool.
posted by supermedusa at 12:41 PM on December 27, 2020

So many of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries have him (or, later, Flavia Albia) hanging out at these kinds of stands; it's great to see photos of them.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:47 PM on December 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

"Shameless" is a euphemistic translation for cinaedus, which means someone who practices anal sex.

So it's a crappy translation? Well, bugger.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:47 PM on December 27, 2020 [20 favorites]

“Nicias(probably a freedman from Greece) Shameless Shitter!” This was probably left by a prankster who sought to poke fun at the owner, or by someone who worked in the Thermopolium.

Nicias probably kept telling them the McFlurry machine was down
posted by redct at 2:04 PM on December 27, 2020 [7 favorites]

The bones belonging to at least one other individual, which were discovered inside a large dolium, and were probably positioned in this way by the first excavators, are still to be investigated.

Well, we can only hope the bones weren't put in the dolium by the thermopolium's cooks.
posted by Transl3y at 2:13 PM on December 27, 2020

Reminds me of eating my way around LA based on the paintings on the taquerias and carnicerias-- the ones with cartoon pigs in chefs hats serving up platters of ham and sausage were very good.
posted by winesong at 2:36 PM on December 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

also the pizza omg drooooool.

Isn't that the truth? The most memorable pizza of my life; just outside Herculaneum, a large bubbled, crispy disk pooled with olive oil around cheesy islands, floating whole basil leaves.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 5:07 PM on December 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

it'd be like calling your dog Steve or Kevin.

I have had both a cat named Steve and a dog named Kevin.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:22 PM on December 27, 2020 [25 favorites]

And the garum is still fresh
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:22 PM on December 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

Well, as fresh as ever.
posted by hat_eater at 9:25 PM on December 27, 2020 [10 favorites]

What amazes me is that, still, in many parts of the world today, this is a pretty normal-looking, utile and well-decorated food stall.
posted by not_on_display at 10:35 PM on December 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Oh absolutely, not_on_display, it’s such a good design for its purpose. The first time I saw pictures of one (food history is a lifelong special interest of mine) I thought the thermopolium looked exactly like this delicious Indian buffet place I used to go to in high school whenever I could convince my friend to give me a ride. It’s the perfect arrangement for pots of warm fragrant food! That Indian place was great because it had a line of dishes that went from “yes white girl you will like this butter chicken” down to whatever interesting super spicy thing the owner’s mom made that day on the far end. I slowly worked my way from one end to the other, expanding my palate over time. It even had painted tiles all on the front displaying ingredients, and firewood tandoor ovens for fresh naan in the space that big pot is in the top image in the article Mitheral links in their first comment here.
posted by Mizu at 11:47 PM on December 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

Fast food in ancient times, just never occurred to me. Now however I'm wildly intrigued. Also of interest though, where did people errr eliminate their bodily waste? Trench latrines? What about home as opposed to public? Where there laws governing waste and it's disposal? I'm totally fascinated.
posted by evilDoug at 7:57 AM on December 28, 2020

Are you sure you want to know, evilDoug? Be forewarned, communal sponges come into it.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 11:24 AM on December 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

A good ten years back, we took a family trip to Italy. My wife and I spent a day at Ostia Antica, a port city that was abandoned after the port silted up and everybody moved to where the port was now, leaving, well, a city. Every part of the city that was made of stone is still there, and it really does still feel like a city -- like, if you have a sense of how cities work, you can tell what neighborhood you are in.

Anyway, we found a taverna, and I stood behind the bar, and it felt just like standing behind any other bar I ever tended bar at. We have a bunch of photos on my Facebook. I got the feeling that, if I learned Latin and the drinks that Romans liked, I probably could have done a pretty competent job serving food and booze two thousand years ago.

posted by Xiphias Gladius at 4:31 PM on December 28, 2020 [11 favorites]