Tutor Hall Café RTH

These cafeterias can be a part of a residence hall or in a separate building. The number of meals served to students varies from school to school, but is normally around 21 meals per week. Like normal cafeterias, a person will have a tray to select the food that they want, but instead of paying money, pays beforehand by purchasing a meal plan. Cafeterias are different from coffeehouses, although the English term came from Latin American Spanish, where it had and still has the meaning "coffeehouse". As cafeterias require few employees, they are often found within a larger institution, catering to the employees or clientele of that institution.

Taiwanese cafeteria

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. 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 details of the plan are stored on a computer system. Meal plans can vary widely in their details and are often not necessary to eat at a college cafeteria.

Location

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. This was soon the standard design for most Childs Restaurants, and many ultimately the dominant design for cafeterias. During the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, entrepreneur John Kruger built an American version of the smörgåsbords 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.

Typically, the college tracks students' usage of their plan by counting the number of predefined 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. Customers are either charged a flat rate for admission 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.

The store will put the dishes in the self-service area for the customers to pick up by themselves. After the customers choose, they will go to the cashier to check out; many stores will use the staff to visually check the amount of food when assessing the price, and some stores will use the method of weighing. 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. A cafeteria located within a movie or TV studio complex is often called a commissary.

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

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. For legal purposes , this system is rarely, if at all, used for alcoholic drinks in the United States.

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, on nearby streets, or in the surrounding town or city 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. Cafeterias serving university dormitories are sometimes called dining halls or dining commons. Modern-day thi công tổng đài đà nẵng British cathedrals and abbeys, notably in the Church of England, often use the phrase refectory to describe a cafeteria open to the public. For example, although the original 800-year-old refectory at Gloucester Cathedral 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. In American English, a college cafeteria is a cafeteria intended for college students.