Cafeteria
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
A cafeteria is a type of food
service location in which there is little or no waiting staff
table service, whether a restaurant
or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also
referred to as a dining hall or canteen (in UK English).[1]
Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses,
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 tray. In addition, there are often
stations where customers order food and wait while it is prepared, particularly
for items such as hamburgers or tacos 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 beverages in the US.
Customers are either charged a flat
rate for admission (as in a buffet), or pay at the check-out
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, schools, colleges
and their residence halls, department stores, hospitals, museums, military bases, prisons, and office buildings often have cafeterias.
At one time, upscale cafeteria-style
restaurants dominated the culture of the Southern United States, and to a lesser extent the Midwest. There were several prominent chains of them: Bickford's, Morrison's Cafeteria, Piccadilly Cafeteria, S&W Cafeteria, Apple House, K&W,
Britling, Wyatt's Cafeteria, and Blue Boar among them. Currently two midwest chains still exist,
Sloppy Jo's Lunchroom 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 food and were largely finished off in the 1980s by the rise of
"casual dining". A few chains — notably Luby's
and Piccadilly Cafeterias (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 Cafeterias
centered around Indianapolis, are still very much in business.
Michigan
State University houses the world's largest
non-military cafeteria in its Brody Complex.[2][dead
link]
History
Perhaps the first self-service
restaurant (not necessarily cafeteria) in the United States was the Exchange
Buffet in New York City, opened September 4, 1885, which catered to an exclusively
male clientele. Food was purchased at a counter, and patrons ate standing up.[3]
This represents the predecessor of two formats: the cafeteria, described below,
and the automat.
During the 1893 World's
Columbian Exposition in Chicago,
an entrepreneur named John Kruger built an American version of the smörgåsbords
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.[4][5]
Meanwhile, in everyday, hometown
America, the chain of Childs Restaurants was quickly growing from about 10 locations in New York
City (in 1890), to hundreds across the United States
and Canada
(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.[4][5]
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."[6]
California does have a long and rich history in the cafeteria format - most
notably the many Boos Brothers Cafeterias, and also Clifton's 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 & Hardart, an automat format chain (only slightly different from the cafeteria),
was also well established in the mid-Atlantic region before 1900.
Between 1960 and 1981, the
popularity of cafeteria format restaurants was gradually overcome by the
emergence of the fast food restaurant and fast casual restaurant formats.
Other
names
A cafeteria in a U.S.
military 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 Forces parlance, it is known as a cookhouse or mess. Students in the USA often refer to
cafeterias as lunchrooms, though breakfast as well as lunch is often
eaten there.[citation needed] Some school cafeterias in the United States have stages and
movable seating that allow them to be used as auditoriums. These rooms are
known as cafetoriums.
Cafeterias serving university dormitories are sometimes called dining halls
or dining commons. A food court
is a type of cafeteria found in many shopping malls
and airports
featuring multiple food vendors or concessions, although a food court could
equally be styled as a type of restaurant
as well, being more aligned with public, rather than institutionalised, dining.
Some monasteries,
boarding schools and older universities refer to their cafeteria as a refectory.
Modern-day British cathedrals and abbeys, notably in the Church of England, often use the phrase refectory to describe a
cafeteria open to the public. Historically, the refectory
was generally only used by monks and priests. For example, although the
original 800-year-old refectory at Gloucester Cathedral (the stage setting for dining scenes in the Harry Potter
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.[7]
A cafeteria located in a television
studio is often called a commissary.
NBC's commissary, The Hungry Peacock, was often joked about by Johnny Carson on
The Tonight Show.
College
cafeteria
In American English, a college
cafeteria is a cafeteria intended for college students. In British English
it is often called the refectory. These cafeterias can be a part of a residence hall or in a
separate building.[citation needed] Many of these colleges employ their own students to work in
the cafeteria.[citation needed] The number of meals served to students varies from school
to school, but is normally around 15 meals per week.[citation needed] Like normal cafeterias, a person will have a tray to select
the food that they want, but (at some campuses) instead of paying money, they pay beforehand by purchasing a meal plan.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] It is not uncommon for the entire food service operation to
be outsourced to a managed services company such as Aramark,
Sodexo
and Compass Group (under the Scolarest name in the United Kingdom).[citation needed]
The entire wiki link can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cafeteria
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