Courtesy : School of Hospitality and Catering White Paper

History

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 smörgås bords he had seen while traveling in Sweden. Emphasising 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. 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.

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

Other names

Food court style cafeteria in a Port Charlotte, Florida high school

A cafetorium of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Academy in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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, often abbreviated to DFAC, whereas in common British Armed Forces parlance, it is known as a cookhouse or mess. Students in the United States often refer to cafeterias as lunchrooms, which also often serve school breakfast. Some school cafeterias in the U.S. and Canada have stages and movable seating that allow use as auditoriums. These rooms are known as cafetoriums or All Purpose Rooms. In some older facilities, a school’s gymnasium is also often used as a cafeteria, with the kitchen facility being hidden behind a rolling partition outside non-meal hours. Newer rooms which also act as the school’s grand entrance hall for crowd control and are used for multiple purposes, are often called the commons.# ISO certification in India

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 institutions, especially schools, have food courts with stations offering different types of food served by the institution itself (self-operation) or a single contract management company, rather than leasing space to numerous businesses. 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.# ISO certification in India

A cafeteria located within a movie or TV studio complex is often called a commissary.