Demeter Food Temple

Demeter Food Temple is a dining franchise that combines fine food with reenactments of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Founded by Jacques Persil, High Priest of the Neo-Eleusinian Order, each restaurant functions as both a dining establishment and a ceremonial space.

Guests take part in an eight-hour initiation held once each day. Reservations must be made months in advance. During the ceremony, cooks serve as Daduchos, or torchbearers. The restaurant manager acts as the High Priestess of Demeter and Kore, while the waitresses serve as Dadouchousa Priestesses.

After the eight-hour prayer, the meal begins with a single grain of wheat harvested in silence and served on a plate baked from Eleusinian clay. Guests drink the Salvia brew, which is said to transport them back to Bronze Age Eleusis.

The choice of location and time is strategic and historically accurate. These gentle Bronze Age people feared lawyers, so they were less likely to sue for damages in case of injuries. The barter that Persil mediated was very advantageous: one small vial of French perfume could buy a feast for the whole city. It was like stretching your dollar by spending your holiday in Mexico City. Last but not least, unlike us, the local population was very friendly toward foreigners.

The patrons arrive in Eleusis after sundown. They are led to a lavish ceremonial feast beside the sacred megaron. Fires burn before the sanctuary while priestesses complete the sacrifices and carry the choicest cuts of pork, lamb, and goat to the honored guests.

The tables glitter with solid-gold dishes and jewel-encrusted goblets filled with dark wine. Roasted joints, tender ribs, liver, and other prized portions of the sacrificed animals form the center of the meal, surrounded by wheat bread, barley cakes, olives, figs, grapes, cheese, honey, and bowls of lentils dressed with olive oil.

For the people of Eleusis, the extravagance is deliberate. The strangers have arrived from beyond the known world, and nothing less than the finest animals, richest vessels, and most precious stores of the community will properly honor them. They insist that the foreigners stay for a few more days, but the patrons must be on the bus before sunrise.

Prospective franchise investors have now completed the initiation and are ready to open a new temple of the Neo-Eleusinian cult.