Cafeteria

CAFETERIA. Cafeterias are popular and up-to-date res taurants which supply meals at the lowest cost by allowing the people using them to wait upon themselves. An institution of American origin and development, the cafeteria has so increas ingly fixed itself in public favour that there are now thousands in the United States.

Previous to their introduction there were no restaurants in which a light luncheon could be quickly obtained. Discouraging small orders, restaurant owners did not attract customers who de sired little food. Between the high-priced and the general run of restaurants there were few attractive medium-grade eating places where small quantities of appetizing food could be secured at slight outlay. Most of the so-called moderate-priced restau rants in cities ere in cramped quarters, and too frequently their surroundings were as disagreeable as the food was unreliable.

Expected tipping of waiters was a drain upon the resources of large numbers of people working for small pay. The tipping cus tom became particularly irksome as the cost of living advanced out of all proportion to salaries. With but a short interval for lunch, men and women, girls and boys working in shops and offices also wanted some spare time for themselves in the noon hour. The self-service system did away with all delay. Besides the regular patrons, there is in the large cities a floating population which generally lunches at all hours. The system is practically unknown in Great Britain.

Origin of the Cafeteria.

The beginnings were somewhat crude. The Exchange Buffet was established in New York city in 1885. But its system was for men only, and consisted of customers having their orders filled at a central counter and con veying their dishes to other counters, where they ate standing. In 1891, J. R. Thompson opened a restaurant at State and Polk streets, Chicago. It combined the supplying of a variety of hot foods with the self-service plan.

In July, 1925, the Journal of Home Economics published the results of a questionnaire it had sent out as to the time and place of the cafeteria's inception. According to the findings, the first convincing demonstration was apparently made in Chicago, and the motive was semi-philanthropic.

Early in the '9os several social and philanthropic organizations in that city conceived the idea of assisting working girls to get cheaper meals by allowing them to wait upon themselves, and eat at tables in a congenial atmosphere. Among these pioneer cafe terias were the Ogontz club in the Pontiac building, the nearby Wildwood club maintained by Miss Kirkland's school, and the Klio Association's Noon-Day Rest, started in 1893 at No. 4 East Monroe street. These places were open only to girl mem bers who paid a small weekly charge for luncheons. The cost was held down by renting an upper floor, by serving smaller por tions than customary at the ordinary restaurant and by doing away with the need for waiters. The plan's advantages were per ceived by the Young Women's Christian Association, which soon opened cafeterias in Kansas city and in other cities.

Commercial Value Established.

The commercial possibili ties of the cafeteria idea shortly became evident. Experiments had shown the urgent need of such restaurants for both men and women. Mrs. Knox, one of the first managers of the Noon-Day Rest, opened and successfully managed a cafeteria opposite Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. It was, however, in Los Angeles that the cafeteria's first noted development came. Impressed by the popularity of one of the Chicago clubs, Miss H. S. Mosher, of Michigan, in May 1905, opened a cafeteria in Hill street, Los Angeles. In its first stages, a cigar box was used as a cash register and the other fittings were likewise rudimentary. But these deficiencies were overlooked in the eagerness of crowds to give their patronage where the food could be seen and selected. The novelty made such a sensation that the Los Angeles news papers commented briskly on the spectacle of citizens balancing trays filled with savoury dishes. More cafeterias were opened in Los Angeles, then the plan spread to San Francisco and rapidly eastward to other cities.

Its Great Proportions.

The cafeteria proved so successful that individual concerns expanded increasingly into big corpor ations. J. R. Thompson's original single restaurant was supple mented by the opening of other restaurants, and in 1916 the John R. Thompson Company was organized. In 1926 it operated 112 restaurants throughout cities in the Middle West, South and East, and in that year served approximately 61,000,oco meals. It has a main commissary in Chicago and a branch commissary in New York city. The Exchange Buffet Corporation in 1926 operated 34 restaurants in New York city and vicinity; its new type of restaurants have the comforts of high-grade restaurants; patrons are allowed to enjoy their meals at tables and the catering is to both men and women. The Waldorf system, which is a consoli dation of various concerns, had in 1926 a series of 132 lunch rooms in many New England cities and in some important cities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Pig-'n Whistle Company in the same year had a chain of 13 high-class restaurants in Pacific coast cities.

The most striking development of the self-service restaurant is that of the Automats, run by the Horn and Hardart Company. The name automat was adopted because the plan, which was first tried out in Germany, provided for dropping nickels in slots, thereby opening a container and releasing the food. From this original idea the company branched to the supplying of hot meals served at counters by attendants and paid for by the requisite coins dropped in slots. In its newer restaurants the automats are a combination of this mode and of the cafeteria, the lower floor devoted to coin machines, the upper to self-service from counters, with payment to a cashier. In 1926 the Horn and Hardart Company was operating 32 automat restaurants in New York city. In addition to the company-operated chains there are many cafeterias owned by individuals and firms or conducted by organizations. There are also co-operative cafeterias.

Cafeterias in Industrial Plants.

In their welfare work for employees, beginning generally about the year 1915, many of the great industrial corporations in the United States provided cafe terias in their factories. An investigation made by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and published in Bulletin 25o in February 1919, showed that 224 corporations with a total of more than 830,00o employees had installed cafeterias, restaurants or lunch rooms. Of the 112 cafeterias in these establishments, 98 were under company management, a half-dozen were run by con tractors and eight by employees. Somewhat more than a fourth of the employees used the cafeterias and restaurants. Since then cafeterias have increased in industrial establishments.