Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
RESTAURANTEUR / RESTAURATEUR
Although you may now find both words, which refer to the proprietor of a restaurant, in the dictionary, restaurateur (without the N ) is preferred.
It seems strange that the spelling from restaurant to restaurateur would change in this way, and I have never known why. But my guess is simply that it is easier to pronounce restaurateur without the N (try it both ways and see), and so somewhere along the language timeline, the inconvenient N was dropped.
PREFERRED: Restaurateur Giovanni of Little Italy Restaurant is very supportive of community events.
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