Posts Tagged ‘cafeteria’
“Science explains how things work, it doesn’t always answer why they exist”*…
Still, it’s cool to know how things work. In a continuing series of “tear-downs,” Bryan Macomber obliges in the most elegant of ways…
Are you curious why a clicky Pen… clicks? How a Zippo Lighter flips open? Or what lives inside a Pez Dispenser?
I’ve illustrated tear-downs and break-downs of everyday products that you may have taken for granted. Let’s take a look inside and understand how they work. Click around, have fun and maybe learn something new!…
An illustrated celebration of the engineering around us: “Mechanical Pencil.”
* (Paraphrase of) Isaac Newton
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As we muse on the mechanical, we might recall that it was on this date (according to most sources, though a few cite the 12th or the 19th of June) in 1902 that Philadelphia restauranteurs Frank Hardart and Joe Horn opened the first Automat in the U.S. A cavernous, waiterless establishment that was a combination of fast (but fresh) food, vending, and a cafeteria. Customers put nickels into slots beside small glass-doored compartments in the Automats and turned a knob. In the compartment next to the slot, food revolved into place for the customer to receive through the glass door.
Horn & Hardart Automats expanded into a chain reaching Manhattan in 1912. With their uniform recipes and centralized commissary system of supplying their restaurants, the Automats were America’s first major fast-food chain.
For more on how they worked, see “Meet Me at the Automat” and the charming documentary “The Automat.”
“If we were capable of thinking of everything, we would still be living in Eden, rent-free with all-you-can-eat buffets and infinitely better daytime TV programming”*…
Few things epitomize America more than the all-you-can-eat buffet.
For a small fee, you’re granted unencumbered access to a wonderland of gluttony. It is a place where saucy meatballs and egg rolls share the same plate without prejudice, where a tub of chocolate pudding finds a home on the salad bar, where variety and quantity reign supreme.
“The buffet is a celebration of excess,” says Chef Matthew Britt, an assistant professor at the Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts. “It exists for those who want it all.”
But one has to wonder: How does an industry that encourages its customers to maximize consumption stay in business?
To find out, we spoke with industry experts, chefs, and buffet owners. As it turns out, it’s harder to “beat” the buffet than you might think…
Is it possible to out-eat the price you pay for a buffet? How do these places make money? The dollars and cents behind the meat and potatoes: “The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets.”
* Dean Koontz
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As we pile it high, we might recall that it was on this date in 1883 that A. Ashwell, of Herne Hill in South London, received a patent for the “vacant/engaged” door bolt for lavatory doors… presumably a relief to the folks who had been using the public restrooms that had been introduced in London in 1852.
“The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.”*…
There were, at one point, 305 Ponderosas (and sister buffet Bonanzas) in the US, and today there are 75 locations total — including 19 in Puerto Rico and a handful scattered in Egypt, Qatar, Taiwan, and the UAE. The Ponderosa parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008, the same year as the company that owns Old Country Buffet (and four other buffet chains).
That company, Ovation Brands. filed for bankruptcy twice more by 2016, at which point USA Today noted that it had “the dubious and relatively rare distinction” of entering what finance guys like to “jokingly refer to as Chapter 33 — that is, Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a third time.” The same year, Garden Fresh Restaurants, which owns Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for bankruptcy as well, citing $175 million in debt.
In 2016, Eater’s Dana Hatic blamed the fall of the buffet on America’s “newfound focus on fast casual dining [and] farm-to-table menus,” as well as “widespread attention on the health effects of obesity and overconsumption.” This makes some sense, and at the same time, it does not.The buffet is a good idea. The buffet is a symbol of the American dream. The buffet is delicious. The buffet is affordable, and a lot of us love a deal. When did our hearts grow cold toward buffets, and why?…
Meditate on the mystery of the missing comestibles at “When did America’s heart turn cold on buffet chains?”
* George Carlin
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As we walk the line, we might spare a thought for Benjamin Eisenstadt; he died on this date in 1996. After a stint running a cafeteria in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Eisenstadt became a manufacturer, first (and briefly) of tea bags, then of an invention of his own– the single-serving sugar packet.
In 1957, he began mixing powdered saccharine (previously available only in a liquid form with dextrose, and created Sweet’N Low, a no-calorie sweetener available in (his) single-serve packets, which he colored bright pink to avoid confusion with (white) sugar packets.
Eisenstadt was also the first to packet soy sauce in single-serving packets.
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