After the exposition closed, some of the Asian and North African restaurateurs decided to stay on in their host city. Soon the exotic allure of foreign cuisine attracted Parisians from all walks of life, and became a permanent fixture of the city's growing constellation of gourmet and specialized restaurants. Just as Parisian aesthetic taste was willing to admire a certain "barbaric splendor" in non-European forms of architecture, so they expanded this same burgeoning internationalism to include the pleasure of the palette.