Cafeteria - Cafeteria (English spelling) Spanish

The original meaning is coffee shop. By extension, it refers to a self-service restaurant where customers pick up their favorite food on a tray, pay with a prepaid card or cash, and then carry it to their table to eat. It became popular in the United States after World War I, and in Japan, it is said to have started with Nankai Shokudo, operated by the Nankai Electric Railroad in Osaka, at the end of the Taisho period.

Usually, to cater to the tastes of customers, a wide variety of menus are prepared, such as Japanese food, noodles, rice bowls, Western food, curry, pilaf, pasta, Chinese food, and dim sum, and the advantages are that customers can eat casually at a low price, and the restaurant can serve a large number of customers in a short time and save on labor costs. This method is widely adopted in cafeterias for specific groups such as company and factory cafeterias and university cafeterias, as well as fast food restaurants that serve hot dogs and hamburgers, such as McDonald's, and in the late 1990s, foreign-affiliated coffee chains such as Starbucks that serve authentic coffee, snacks, and cakes became popular among young people and began to increase in number.

[Moriwaki Itsuo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

原語はコーヒー店の意。転じて客自身が好みの料理を盆にとってプリペイドカードや現金で料金を払い、自分で食卓に運んで食べるセルフサービスの食堂をさす。第一次世界大戦後のアメリカで広く普及し、日本では大正末期、大阪の南海電気鉄道経営の南海食堂がこの方式をとったのが始まりとされる。

　普通、客の好みに応じるために、和食、めん類、丼(どんぶり)もの、洋食、カレー、ピラフ、パスタ、中華、点心など、多種類のメニューが用意されており、客にとっては安い値段で気楽に食事ができ、店にとっては短時間に大量の客がさばけるうえに人件費が節約できる利点がある。会社や工場の従業員食堂、大学の学生食堂など特定集団を対象とする食堂に広く導入されているほか、マクドナルドなど、ホットドックやハンバーガーを供するファーストフード店もこの方式であり、1990年代後半にはスターバックスなど、本格的なコーヒーや軽食、ケーキを供する外資系コーヒーチェーン店が若者の人気を集めて増えてきた。

［森脇逸男］

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