Cabarets started as Paris restaurants that charged by the plate
Before it meant smoky stages and a sly master of ceremonies, a cabaret was simply a smarter kind of Paris eatery, with tablecloths and food priced per plate rather than per mug. The satirical nightclub version only arrived in 1881, when a Montmartre entrepreneur opened Le Chat Noir.
The word itself is old. It traces back to Picard or Walloon terms for a small room, camberete or cambret, recorded in the 12th century, and a 1275 document from Tournai contains the first written kaberet. In Middle Dutch the word came to mean a cheap inn. Behind it may lie an early form of chambrette, a little room, or a Norman French word for a tavern, ultimately from Late Latin camera, an arched roof.
By the late 15th century Paris had cabarets, and by the end of the 1500s they were the fashionable place to eat out. They also became hangouts for literary talent: La Fontaine, Molière and Racine drank at the Mouton Blanc. From 1773 poets, painters and musicians gathered at Le Caveau on rue de Buci to write and sing songs together, until 1816, when the authorities shut it because its regulars had been lampooning the royal government in verse.
Music moved in with the 18th-century café-chantant, where diners were entertained by singers or magicians. The Café des Aveugles beneath the Palais-Royal was known for its small band of blind musicians, and by 1900 Paris counted over 150 such venues.
Rodolphe Salis, a theatrical agent, created the modern form when he opened Le Chat Noir in Montmartre in 1881. He hosted in person, styling himself a gentleman-cabaretier and opening each night with a monologue skewering the rich, the deputies of the National Assembly and the day's news. The mix of satire and music drew bankers and bohemians alike, and the room grew so crowded that at midnight on June 10, 1885, Salis led his customers down the street to bigger premises at 12 rue de Laval. A young Erik Satie paid his bills there as house pianist. Today the label stretches to burlesque, drag and solo singers with a pianist, though audiences still usually sit at tables rather than dance.
Source: Cabaret
