The Origins of Bistro: This Being the Complete, Definitive and Final Story
This dispatch on Bistros has been an interesting quest for me personally and I refer to it as the “definitive and final” story only because it will never be. No Cossack sword can slash this story from the mighty hands of persistent, inquisitive culinary etymologists. My quest continues to go where no man has yet gone before. Space and Cossacks – you can already see the linkage. The one thing we do know with absolute certainty is that the origin of the word Bistro is uncertain and still very much discussed.
Thanks to history, there is yet another twist to this story. One that has founds its way into popular culture and probably because it has some drama to it and it involves wine. The argument that is put forth is that the word Bistro stems from the Russian word быстро (bystro) which means ‘Hurry’. Russian Cossack soldiers, ever thirsty and hungry, occupied Paris in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars and were not allowed to drink on duty so they would try and sneak a quick drink before any of their superiors arrived. So it’s not like they were relaxing on the Avenue, they were in a hurry and would demand that French civilians serve them quickly, shouting the word that evolved into the neologism ‘Bistro’ at them.
Here is a further twist to the story. The Cossacks occupied Montmartre first when invading Paris, using the altitude of Montmartre and their cannons to send their calling cards crashing through the city. La Mère Catherine Restaurant, in Montmartre, has a plaque on its wall that says “March 30, 1814 here the Cossacks first launched their famous “Bistro” and thus on this summit occurred the worthy ancestor of our Bistros.” But Monsieur, a small problem. The first recorded use of the word appears in 1884, almost seventy years later, and in 1892 (as “bistrot”) long after the Cossacks were in Paris having a good time (ant they weren’t all visiting the Louvre either.) So the absence of the word for almost seventy years would indicate this story to be, well factually strained, colorful at best and maybe even a PR stunt. I don’t definitively know. Wordhounds are used to terms that lurk in the lexicographical shadows for decades before they ever become popular. The 70-year gap is maybe just too much for a Cossack shouting “bistro” to be easily accepted. It’s a great story.