See title. When I’ve had occasions to be in the Southern U.S., I’ve seen many. Elsewhere, few to none.
Why is there such a niche for them in one region but not another?
It seems they are filling a market space similar to that of the “Home Meal Replacement” places such as Applebees or Ruby Tuesday, but more casually and possibly at a lower price point.
And if high-end restaurants in the big cities outside the South are doing land office business with meatloaf and mac and cheese and other 'comfort food," why no appetite for a menu like this?
Uh… lemme see.
Durham, North Carolina, when I left in 2000… 4 of these.
Akron, Ohio when I got here in 2000… right around 4 that I can think of.
I’m calling strawman.
If “cafeteria” means you pick up food, take it the register, pay for it, and then seat yourself… well, there are quite a few of those around where I live in Silicon Valley. I’d hardly call that “The South”. There is certainly a factual answer to the question of the number of cafeteria style restaurants in different parts of the country, but I’m not sure how one would find that information.
If we’re talking about these types of places, there are a bunch of them in Manhattan, especially around the financial district. Some of my favorites are Cafe World and Cafe Exchange downtown, Cafe Metro which is a chain with a few locations in midtown, and Cafe Manhattan on 45th Street.
My guess: continued popularity of sit-down dishes in the south that are not nearly so popular in other regions and that don’t adapt well to fast food. You know, grits, biscuits & sausage gravy, etc.
If I’ve got you right, I think you’re describing what I would call a buffet – steam tables, fill your own plastic container with whatever combination of sixty items you want, pay by the pound?
My definition of cafeteria is, well, Luby’s or Morrisons. You pick up a plastic tray and cutlery. You go down a line attended by servers, who upon request will plate (on a real plate) you an entree and some sides, then you pick up a dessert (pre-plated), and grab a plastic glass and use the fountain to pour the tea or soft drink of your choice. The cashier adds up the cost of what you’ve selected and you pay, then go to an (individual or communal) table and eat. Then you bus your dishes.
Basically, a lot like your college caf. but with no pre-paid meal plan.
And, as for food, I think of these places as having more “proper”/old fashioned dishes than I seem to recall from the steam table buffets – roast turkey, baked salmon, hot succotash vs. a more salad-bar-ish feel at the steam tables.
Although those are more breakfasty and would be more likely covered by your Shoneys, Bob Evans, etc.
But your point is not without merit – every cafeteria I remember had a goodly helping of okra, ribs, and other soul-foodish staples.
In other news, I hate you because I ate way too much at a party last night, was doing well with my temperate day after, but am now vastly hungry for biscuits and sausage gravy.
It’s not just a regional thing, it’s an AGE thing.
I’m 47, and on the rare occasions I eat at Luby’s, I feel remarkably youthful, because I’m usually the only person there WITH my own teeth and WITHOUT a walker.
Seriously, cafeteria style dining is primarily confined to the South, and attracts a very old clientele.
The places I’ve mentioned have a combination of by-weight hot items, salad bars, and prepared-to-order items ranging from deli sandwiches, salads, sushi, roasts, cutlets, pizza, burgers, etc., which may or may not come with a choice of side dishes.
Buffets don’t ever charge by weight; you pay a flat fee for a plate and then stuff your face until they drag you out in an ambulance.
An interesting and I would say very apt point. Though it does not explain the regional difference.
I think you’re on to something – our parents and grandparents grew up eating home-cooked meals with one entree, maybe one palate-whetter, and one or two veg. sides, plus dessert.
The modern day tapas/“small plates” approach to grazing among a variety of stuff seems more fitting to my “steam table buffet” paradigm – when I hit a joint like that, I’ll typically get some variegated combination of tuna salad, a boiled egg or two, some lentils or other beans, one of the usually-available Asian dishes, etc. By contrast, at the cafeteria, the goal seems to be not such a mishmash, but a “proper sit down dinner” a la mom/grandma. Clearly there is a generational component here.
BTW for the record, I am a huge cafeteria fan on the occasions I’ve sampled it.
Here in downtown L.A., we have the famous Clifton’s Cafeteria (founded 1931), where you can eat in a pretend redwood forest next to a pretend stream.
And the suburbs of L.A. are positively lousy with places like Hometown Buffet and Furrs. These places are very popular, especially on holidays. My own family ate at an HB on Thanksgiving when we were too busy to cook.
How about places like Souplantation and Sizzler’s, with their salad bars and “hot bars” and fried chicken? Do they count? Even Whole Foods markets have their own buffets now! You can practically eat all the time you’re grocery shopping!
I will grant that the popularity of the cafeteria does seem to be less than in other eras. In my hometown of Pasadena, which has gone very yuppie and upscale in the last 20 years, we lost Perry Boys Smorgy, the Pasadena Cafeteria and at least one other place on South Lake.
Ahh, the days when buffets were called “smorgasbords.” Ay tank so, yah?
So you see, my friend…nothing good ever goes away. Like cafeterias.
I confess to (somewhat-consciously) mixing metaphors, though in my defense, the steam-table guys seem sometimes to appropriate the “buffet” label.
But you do a good job of explaining the different flavors of place, and it illustrates how they both differ from my concept of a Luby’s-like cafeteria.
Interestingly, years ago, ISTR that American department stores sometimes had their own cafeterias.
Oh, on all-you-can-eat buffets: in my impoverished younger days, we LOVED these places. Only later did it occur to us to cast a more critical eye at food quality. I’m now pretty hard to get into an AYCE buffet. Some churrascarias do offer an attractive value proposition, albeit you still have to strategize.
All the ones I’ve been to were packed with the elderly people… crazy cheap prices
if you ask me, it’s because (a) senior citizens tend to be cheap and (b) Southern cuisine translates well to a cafeteria-style environment. Canned green beans and fried okra and fried frozen chicken and a piece of angel food cake with syrupy Sysco strawberries dumped on it all for $3? Yay.
When I first moved to NYC, in 1964, there were quite a few large and well-known cafeterias throughout the city. They had mostly Eastern European/Jewish foods (some of them were “dairy”), and an almost exclusive “Old World” geriatric clientele. As that generation gradually disappeared, so did the cafeterias.
On my recent visit to Spain, I saw many signs for “cafeterias” in every city . . . but for whatever reason, they sometimes use “cafeteria” as a synonym for “restaurant.”
They ain’t the same creatures, yanno.
And both are amply represented in the Midwest. It is a perception at best that they are substantially more common in the South.
