A
cafeteria or
cafetería is a type of food service location in which there is little or no table service, whether a
restaurantA restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
or within an institution such as a large office building or
schoolA school , is an institution designed to allow and encourage students to learn, under the supervision of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
; a school dining location is also referred to as a
dining hall or
canteen (in UK English). Cafeterias are different from
coffeehouseA coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages...
s, although that is the Spanish meaning of the English word.
Instead of table service, there are food-serving counters/stalls, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths. Customers take the food they require as they walk along, placing it on a
trayA tray is a shallow platform designed for carrying things.-Description:It is larger than a salver, a diminutive version commonly used for lighter and smaller servings, and it can be fashioned from numerous materials, including silver, brass, sheet iron, wood, melamine, and Papier-mâché...
. In addition, there are often stations where customers order food and wait while it is prepared, particularly for items such as
hamburgerA hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat, usually beef, placed in an open bun or between two slices of bread...
s or
tacoA taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, mutton, shellfish, vegetables and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety...
s which must be served hot and can be quickly prepared. Alternatively, the patron is given a number and the item is brought to their table. Sometimes, for some food items and drinks, customers collect an empty container, pay at the check-out, and fill the container after the check-out. Free second servings are often allowed under this system. For legal purposes (and the consumption patterns of customers), this system is rarely or never used for
alcoholic beverageAn alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits....
s.
Customers are either charged a flat rate for admission (as in a
buffetA buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area and diners generally serve themselves. It is a popular method for feeding a large number of people with minimal staff. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
), or pay at the
check-outPoint of sales or checkout is both a checkout counter in a shop, and the location where a transaction occurs. Colloquially, a "checkout" refers to a POS terminal or more generally to the hardware and software used for checkouts, the equivalent of an electronic cash register. A POS terminal manages...
for each item. Some self-service cafeterias charge by the weight of items on a patron's plate.
As cafeterias require few employees, they are often found within a larger institution, catering to the clientele of that institution. For example,
schoolA school , is an institution designed to allow and encourage students to learn, under the supervision of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s,
collegeCollege is a term most often used today to denote degree awarding tertiary educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals...
s and their residence halls,
department storeA department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s,
hospitalA hospital is an institution for health care providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment, and often but not always providing for longer-term patient stays....
s,
museumA museum is a building or institution which houses a collection of artifacts.Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary...
s, and office buildings often have cafeterias.
At one time, upscale cafeteria-style restaurants dominated the culture of the
Southern United StatesThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, and to a lesser extent the
MidwestThe Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
. There were several prominent chains of them: Bickford's,
Morrison's CafeteriaMorrison's Cafeterias was a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants, located in the Southeastern United States with a concentration of locations in Georgia and Florida. Generally found in shopping malls, Morrison's primary competition was Piccadilly Cafeterias. It was particularly popular in Florida,...
, Piccadilly Cafeteria,
S&W CafeteriaS&W Cafeteria was a Charlotte, North Carolina-based chain of cafeteria style restaurants. The chain specialized in low-cost, southern style cookery. Branch locations were located in the Southeastern United States from Washington, D.C...
,
Apple House,
K&WK&W Cafeteria is a Southern USA chain of cafeteria-style restaurants. K&W serves traditional Southern favorites including fried chicken, turnip greens, fried okra, and homemade desserts....
,
BritlingBritling Cafeterias was a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants, originating in Memphis, Tennessee. During the late 1920s, Britling opened three cafeterias in downtown Birmingham, Alabama....
, and
Blue BoarBlue Boar Cafeterias was a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky. The first Blue Boar was opened in 1931. Once a major presence in metro Louisville and still remembered for its old downtown location on Fourth Avenue near Broadway. During the 1930s, Guion Clement Earle ...
among them.
Currently two midwest chains still exist, Sloppy Jo's Luchroom and Manny's, both located in Illinois. There were also a number of smaller chains, usually in and around a single city. These institutions, with the exception of K&W, went into a decline in the 1960s with the rise of
fast foodFast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with low quality preparation and served to the customer in a packaged form...
and were largely finished off in the 1980s by the rise of "
casual diningThis is a list of casual dining restaurant chains around the world, arranged in alphabetical order. A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere...
". A few chains — notably
Luby'sLuby's, Inc. is a cafeteria-style restaurant chain founded in 1947 in San Antonio, Texas, United States. As of November 3, 2006, Houston, Texas-based Luby's operated 128 locations, of which 126 are traditional cafeterias and two primarily serve seafood. All but seven of its locations are in Texas....
and
Piccadilly CafeteriasPiccadilly Cafeterias is a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants found primarily in the Southern United States.The company began with a single cafeteria in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1944, founded by T.H. Hamilton. Today, the chain operates 130 locations in 15 states.The company expanded in 1996 when...
(which took over the Morrison's chain), continue to fill some of the gap left by the decline of the older chains. Many of the smaller Midwestern chains, such as
MCL CafeteriasMCL Cafeterias is a chain of American cafeteria-style restaurants.-Background:The company began with a single cafeteria in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1950, founded by Charles O. McGaughey and George Laughner. MCL is an abbreviation for McLaughner's Cafeterias . Today, the chain operates 20...
centered around Indianapolis, are still very much in business.
The world's largest non-military cafeteria is in the
Brody ComplexBrody Complex is a group of six student housing buildings on the campus of Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Michigan. It is located at the far northwestern corner of the campus. The six residence halls that comprise Brody are: Armstrong Hall, Bailey Hall, Bryan Hall, Butterfield Hall,...
at
Michigan State UniversityMichigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act. Its alumni include at least six winners of the...
.
History
Perhaps the first self-service restaurant (not necessarily cafeteria) in the United States was the
Exchange Buffet in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, opened September 4, 1885, which catered to an exclusively male clientele. Food was purchased at a counter, and patrons ate standing up. This represents the predecessor of two formats: the cafeteria, described below, and the
automatAn Automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines.-Concept:...
.
During the 1893
World's Columbian ExpositionThe World's Columbian Exposition — also known as The Chicago World's Fair — was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of...
in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
, an entrepreneur named John Kruger built an American version of the
smörgåsbordSmörgåsbord is a type of Scandinavian meal served buffet-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table. In Norway it is called koldtbord and in Denmark it is called kolde bord. Smörgåsbord became internationally known as Smorgasbord at the 1939 New York World's Fair when it was offered...
s he had seen while traveling in Sweden. Emphasizing the simplicity and light fare, he called it the "
Cafeteria" - Spanish for "coffee shop". The exposition attracted over 27 million visitors (half the US population at the time) in six months, and it was initially through Kruger's operation that America first heard the term and experienced the self-service dining format.
Meanwhile, in everyday, hometown America, the chain of
Childs RestaurantsChilds Restaurants was one of the first national dining chains in the United States and Canada, having peaked in the 1920s and 1930s with about 125 locations in dozens of markets, serving over 50,000,000 meals a year, with over $37 million in assets at the time. Childs was a pioneer in a number of...
was quickly growing from about 10 locations in New York City (in 1890), to hundreds across the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(by 1920). Childs is credited with the critical innovation of adding trays and a "tray line" to the self-service format, which they introduced in 1898 at their 130 Broadway location. Childs did not change its format of sit-down dining, however. This was soon the standard design for most Childs Restaurants - and many imitators - from coast-to-coast, and ultimately the dominant design for cafeterias.
It has also been said that the "cafeteria craze started in May 1905, when a woman named
Helen Mosher opened a humble downtown L.A. restaurant where people chose their food at a long counter and carried their own trays to their tables." California does have a long and rich history in the cafeteria format - most notably the many
Boos Brothers Cafeterias, and also
Clifton'sClifton's Cafeteria, once part of a chain of Clifton's restaurants, is the oldest surviving cafeteria style eatery in Los Angeles, California, and the largest public cafeteria in the world. Founded in 1931 by Clifford Clinton, the name was created by combining the first half of "Clifford" and the...
and
Schaber's. However, the facts do not warrant the "wellspring" characterization that some have ascribed to the region. The earliest cafeterias in California were opened at least 12 years after Kruger's Cafeteria, and Childs already had several dozen locations scattered around the country. Finally,
Horn & HardartHorn & Hardart was a food services company noted for operating the first automats in Philadelphia and New York City.German-born, New Orleans-raised, Frank Hardart and Philadelphia's Joseph Horn opened their first restaurant together in Philadelphia on December 22, 1888...
, an
automatAn Automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines.-Concept:...
format chain (only slightly different from the cafeteria), was also well established in the mid-Atlantic region before 1900.
Between 1960 and 1980, the popularity of cafeteria format restaurants was gradually overcome by the emergence of the
fast food restaurantA fast food restaurant, sometimes known as a quick service restaurant or QSR, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...
and
fast casual restaurantA fast casual restaurant is a type of restaurant that does not offer full table service but promises a higher quality of food and atmosphere than a fast food restaurant. In the USA it is a relatively new and growing concept to fill the space between fast food and casual dining...
formats.
Other names
A cafeteria in a
U.S. militaryThe United States armed forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States.The history of the United States armed forces dates to 1775, even before the Declaration of Independence marked the establishment of the United States...
installation is known as a
chow hall, a
mess hall, a
galley,
mess decks or, more formally, a
dining facility, whereas in common
British Armed ForcesThe armed forces of the United Kingdom, known as His/Her Majesty's Armed Forces or sometimes the British Armed Forces, and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, encompasses a navy, an army, and an air force...
parlance, it is known as a
cookhouse or
messA mess is the place where military personnel socialise, eat, and live. In some societies this military usage has extended to other disciplined services eateries such as civilian fire fighting and police forces...
. Students in the USA often refer to cafeterias as
lunchrooms, though breakfast as well as lunch is often eaten there. Cafeterias serving university dormitories are sometimes called
dining halls or
dining commons. A
food courtA food court is a plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining...
is a type of cafeteria found in many
shopping mallA shopping mall, shopping centre or shopping center is a building or multiple buildings consisting of a complex of shops representing leading merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a convenient parking area – a modern,...
s and
airportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
s featuring multiple food vendors or concessions, although a food court could equally be styled as a type of
restaurantA restaurant prepares and serves food and drink to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
as well, being more aligned with public, rather than institutionalised, dining.
Some
monasteriesMonastery , a term derived from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος - monasterios denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer Monastery (plural: monasteries), a term derived from the Greek word μοναστήριον, neut. of μοναστήριος - monasterios...
,
boarding schoolA boarding school is a school where some or all pupils not only study, but also live during term time, with their fellow students and possibly teachers. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board", that is, food and lodging...
s and
older universitiesAncient university is a term used to describe the medieval and renaissance universities of England and Scotland that have continued to exist.-Great Britain:The ancient universities in United Kingdom are, in order of formation:...
refer to their cafeteria as a
refectory**For the Cypriot village see Trapeza, Cyprus.A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places it is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
. Modern-day British
cathedralA cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
s and
abbeyAn abbey , is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community....
s, notably in the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
, often use their the phrase
refectory to describe a cafeteria open to the public. Historically, the
refectory**For the Cypriot village see Trapeza, Cyprus.A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places it is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
was generally only used by monks and priests. For example, although the original 800-year-old refectory at
Gloucester CathedralGloucester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Undivided Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the river...
(the stage setting for dining scenes in the
Harry PotterHarry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter, together with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
movies) is now mostly used as a choir practice area, the relatively modern 300-year-old extension, now used as a cafeteria by staff and public alike, is today referred to as the
refectory.
College cafeteria
A
college cafeteria is a term in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that denotes a cafeteria that is designed to serve college students at the university. In the UK the word
refectory**For the Cypriot village see Trapeza, Cyprus.A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places it is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
is often used. Also see the different meanings of the word
collegeCollege is a term most often used today to denote degree awarding tertiary educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals...
around the
Anglosphere-Definitions:According to a post on Word Spy, a blog on unusual words, the term was first used by author Neal Stephenson in his 1995 novel The Diamond Age. Stephenson did not use the term in any specific geopolitical sense but rather to describe a fictional race called the Atlantans who, when...
. These cafeterias can be a part of a residence hall or in a separate building. Many of these colleges employ their own students to work in the cafeteria. The amount of meals served to students varies from school to school, but is normally around 20 meals per week. Like normal cafeterias, a person will have a tray to select the food that they want, but instead of paying money, they pay beforehand by purchasing a meal plan.
The method of payment for college cafeterias is commonly in the form of a meal plan, whereby the patron pays a certain amount at the start of the semester and the details of the plan are stored on a computer system. Student ID cards are then used to access the meal plan. A meal plan is not necessary to eat at a college cafeteria however. Meal plans can vary widely in their details to best fit the needs of the students. Typically, the college tracks the student's usage of their plan by counting either the number of pre-defined meal servings, points, dollars, or number of buffet dinners. The plan may give the student a certain number of any of the above per week or semester and they may or may not roll over to the next week or semester.
Many schools offer several different options for using their meal plans. The main cafeteria is usually where most of the meal plan is used but smaller cafeterias, cafés, restaurants, bars, or even fast food chains located on campus may accept meal plans. A college cafeteria system often has a virtual monopoly on the students due to an isolated location or a requirement that residence contracts include a full meal plan. It is not uncommon for the entire food service operation to be outsourced to a managed services company such as
AramarkAramark Limited, known commonly as Aramark, is an American food, facilities, and clothing provider, supplying businesses, courts, educational institutions, health care providers, and armed forces. It is headquartered in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Aramark is the 19th largest employer on...
, Sodexo and
Compass GroupCompass Group plc , a British company, is a leading food service business. It provides catering services to many types of institutions, which include: schools, hospitals, prisons, airports, companies and resident healthcare homes. It is headquartered in Chertsey, Surrey to the south west of London...
(under the Scolarest name in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
).
See also
- Automat
An Automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines.-Concept:...
- Café
A café , also spelled cafe, is an informal restaurant offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. This differs from a coffee house, which is a limited-menu establishment which focuses on coffee sales. Depending on the jurisdiction, a café may be licensed to serve alcohol. The term...
- Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages...
- Coffee shop
Coffee shop or coffeehouse can refer to:* Coffeehouse, a place where coffee is sold and consumed* Coffeehouse , an event designed to raise awareness for a cause* Kopi tiam, a version of the Coffeehouse common in Singapore and Malaysia...
- Food court
A food court is a plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining...
- Hawker centre
A hawker centre or food centre is the name given to open-air complexes in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore housing many stalls that sell a variety of inexpensive food...
- Refectory
**For the Cypriot village see Trapeza, Cyprus.A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places it is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...