Courtesy : Hospitality industry

A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., 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 lunchroom (in American English). Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, although the English term came from Latin American Spanish, where it had and still has the meaning “coffeehouse”. # ISO certification in India

Instead of table service, there are food-serving counters/stalls or booths, either in a line or allowing arbitrary walking paths. Customers take the food that they desire as they walk along, placing it on a tray. In addition, there are often stations where customers order food, particularly items such as hamburgers or tacos which must be served hot and can be immediately prepared with little waiting. Alternatively, the patron is given a number and the item is brought to their table. For some food items and drinks, such as sodas, water, or the like, customers collect an empty container, pay at the check-out, and fill the container after the check-out. Free unlimited second servings are often allowed under this system. For legal purposes (and the consumption patterns of customers), this system is rarely, if at all, used for alcoholic drinks in the United States. # ISO certification in India

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. In universities and colleges, some students pay for three meals a day by making a single large payment for the entire semester. # ISO certification in India

As cafeterias require few employees, they are often found within a larger institution, catering to the employees or clientele of that institution. For example, schools, colleges and their residence halls, department stores, hospitals, museums, places of worship, amusement parks, military bases, prisons, factories and office buildings often have cafeterias. Although some of such institutions self-operate their cafeterias, many outsource their cafeterias to a food service management company or lease space to independent businesses to operate food service facilities. The three largest food service management companies servicing institutions are Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo. # ISO certification in India

At one time, upscale cafeteria-style restaurants dominated the culture of the Southern United States, and to a lesser extent the Midwest. There were numerous prominent chains of them: Bickford’s, Morrison’s Cafeteria, Piccadilly Cafeteria, S&W Cafeteria, Apple House, Luby’s, K&W, Britling, Wyatt’s Cafeteria and Blue Boar among them. Currently, two Midwestern chains still exist, Sloppy Jo’s Lunchroom and Manny’s, which are both located in Illinois. There were also a number of smaller chains, usually located 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 all-you-can-eat buffets and other casual dining establishments. A few chains—particularly Luby’s and Piccadilly Cafeterias (which took over the Morrison’s chain in 1998)—continue to fill some of the gap left by the decline of the older chains. Some of the smaller Midwestern chains, such as MCL Cafeterias centered on Indianapolis, are still in business. # ISO certification in India

History[edit]

Childs Restaurant, Philadelphia, PA, circa 1908

Perhaps the first self-service restaurant (not necessarily a cafeteria) in the U.S. 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. This represents the predecessor of two formats: the cafeteria, described below and the automat. # ISO certification in India

During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, entrepreneur John Kruger built an American version of the smorgasbords 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 U.S. population at the time) in six months, and it was because of Kruger’s operation that the United States first heard the term and experienced the self-service dining format. # ISO certification in India

Hospital cafeteria tray line server in Port Charlotte, Florida

Meanwhile, in mid-scale United States, the chain of Childs Restaurants quickly grew from about 10 locations in New York City in 1890 to hundreds across the U.S. and Canada by 1920. Childs is credited with the innovation of adding trays and a “tray line” to the self-service format, 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 ultimately the dominant design for cafeterias. # ISO certification in India

It has been conjectured that the ‘cafeteria craze’ started in May 1905, when Helen Mosher opened a downtown L.A. restaurant where people chose their food at a long counter and carried their trays to their tables.^[6] California has a long history in the cafeteria format – notably the Boos Brothers Cafeterias, and the Clifton’s and Schaber’s. The earliest cafeterias in California were opened at least 12 years after Kruger’s Cafeteria, and Childs already had many locations around the country. Horn & Hardart, an automat format chain (different from cafeterias), was well established in the mid-Atlantic region before 1900. # ISO certification in India

Between 1960 and 1981, the popularity of cafeterias was overcome by the fast food restaurant and fast casual restaurant formats.

Outside the United States, the development of cafeterias can be observed in France as early as 1881 with the passing of the Ferry Law. This law mandated that public school education be available to all children. Accordingly, the government also encouraged schools to provide meals for students in need, thus resulting in the conception of cafeterias or cantine (in French). According to Abramson, prior to the creation of cafeterias, only some students were able to bring home-cooked meals and able to be properly fed in schools. # ISO certification in India

As cafeterias in France became more popular, their use spread beyond schools and into the workforce. Thus, due to pressure from workers and eventually new labor laws, sizable businesses had to, at minimum, provide established eating areas for its workers. Support for this practice was also reinforced by the effects of World War II when the importance of national health and nutrition came under great attention. # ISO certification in India