Our Rich History: During heyday of cafeterias, NKY offered many well-known establishments

By Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD
Special to NKyTribune

My father, Harry V. Tenkotte, always loved cafeterias — the variety of their food choices, their prices, and their fast service. As a certified public accountant who worked many years in downtown Cincinnati, he had limited time for lunch, so cafeterias provided a solid, nutritional meal.

Ironically, for my father and others growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, many urban schools did not operate cafeterias. Living within walking distance of schools, both public and parochial school students typically walked home for lunch in cities like Covington, Newport, and Cincinnati. Such was the case with my mother, Mary Meier, who only lived several doors from St. John School in the Lewisburg neighborhood of Covington. However, for my father — whose family moved to Lookout Heights (now Fort Wright) — the luncheon commute home was more rushed. At lunchtime, St. John students Harry Tenkotte and Henry Kruempelman together boarded a Fort Mitchell line streetcar on Pike Street in Covington. The streetcar dropped off Harry first at his family home in the Barrington Woods subdivision and then Henry Kruempelman at his family’s farm. Both boys greeted their mothers, who had a homemade lunch waiting for them. While the boys ate, the same streetcar made its way to the terminus at the End-of-the-Line in Fort Mitchell, where it looped back to make its return trip to Covington. On the return, the streetcar conductor picked up Henry first and then Harry. Since Harry was dropped off first and picked up last, he had slightly more time to eat than Henry, who was dropped off last and then picked up first.

Sadly, my father came to know cafeterias the hard way. Two days before Christmas in 1944, his mother died in a tragic streetcar accident. By autumn 1945, he enrolled at Covington Catholic High School (CCHS), then located in Mother of God School on West 6th Street in Covington. He ate a packed lunch when he attended CCHS, at least until 1947 when the high school installed a modern cafeteria serving a hot lunch each day. Meanwhile, each evening, Harry would walk to meet his father and sister (who worked in downtown Cincinnati), at Lang’s Cafeteria at 623 Madison Avenue in Covington for a homestyle meal. Then, Harry’s father would drive them home.

Lang’s Cafeteria in Covington was a highly popular restaurant. Opened in 1928 as a sandwich shop by Frank T. Lang (1892–1971), the son of German immigrants, Lang’s grew into a two-level establishment. The cafeteria downstairs seated about 90 patrons and was open from 6 a.m. until closing at 8 p.m. Upstairs, there was a restaurant/sandwich shop that remained open until 1 a.m. “Frank Lang personally planned all the menus, the food, and supervised the cooking. Each morning, he drove his large station wagon to ‘the bottoms’ of Cincinnati, where he purchased fresh produce from the warehouses located along the riverfront.”

Everything was prepared from scratch, from the orange juice to freshly baked breads and desserts. By 1967, Lang sold the business, which closed two years later (Judy Lang Klosterman, “Lang’s Cafeteria,” in Paul A. Tenkotte and James C. Claypool, The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009).

Scholars do not know the exact origin of cafeterias in the United States. The earliest mention that I could find was a short reference in an 1894 Chicago Daily Tribune column entitled “Bits of City Life.” The columnist humorously noted that “The cafeteria has not yet made its appearance on the West Side. But an enterprising Swede has started one on Chicago Avenue and swung to the gaze this sign: ‘Cafetery. Also hot cakes baked while you eat them’ ” (Bits of City Life,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 25, 1894, p. 46). Humor aside, some scholars claim that modern cafeterias were born in the city of Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

By 1895, cafeterias had gained so much popularity in Chicago, particularly along LaSalle Street, that a Chicago Daily Tribune reporter wrote an article entitled, “Cafeteriettes.” He noted that “There are various forms of the word indicating these waitorless lunch houses, as ‘caféterion,’ ‘caféteria,’ ‘caféteriette — as a State street man prefers to call his establishment — and simply ‘café’ “ (“Cafeteriettes,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 10, 1895, p. 39).

Cafeterias were part of a larger American movement seeking quick, inexpensive, nonalcoholic, healthy, hot meals for busy American workers and students:

Some of the early cafeterias in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky combined terminology like “self-service,” “lunch counter,” and “cafeteria” to their names. Such was the case with the “Sweet Clover Self-Service Lunchroom” at 5th and Race Streets in Cincinnati (advertisement seeking server, Cincinnati Post, September 4, 1914, p. 8). Other establishments preferred having both full service and self-service options. One example was the Bronx Restaurant on Vine Street in Cincinnati, whose motto was simply “cleanliness.” It offered both a “Lunch Counter Cafeteria” and “We Serve You” choices. With seating for 1,000 people, the Bronx also featured musical entertainment (advertisement for Bronx Restaurant, Cincinnati Post, February 19, 1916, p. 6).

A cafeteria craze swept across the United States in the early 1900s. Churches held “cafeteria suppers,” and some urban schools began to open lunchtime cafeterias. Affordable housing for single workingmen, including the YMCA and the Catholic Fenwick Club in downtown Cincinnati, also started cafeterias. Department stores and hotels joined the movement. For instance, the Havlin Hotel at Vine Street and Opera Place in Cincinnati featured a “Quick-Service Lunch Room,” open from 6 AM until 8 PM daily (advertisement, Cincinnati Post, November 17, 1915, p. 9).

As one of the nation’s largest cities, Cincinnati soon began to attract the attention of major cafeteria chains. Childs Restaurant Company of New York began operating a downtown Cincinnati location at 22 East 5th St. in circa 1916. Brothers Samuel S. and William Childs founded their first restaurant on Cortlandt Street in Manhattan (New York City) in the late 1890s.

Samuel Childs had studied at the New Jersey State Medical School at Trenton and also at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He became a civil engineer for A. W. Dennett, “who owned restaurants in New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia.” His training in medicine made him a crusader for the strictest sanitary practices. The Childs Restaurants included white tilework that could be wiped clean, and servers who “were clad in pristine, starched white uniforms — reminiscent of those worn by nurses.” They also “made a point of having janitorial staff cleaning in front of customers at all times.” In addition, the family owned its own dairy farm in New Jersey, assuring a fresh supply of milk.

At the time of Samuel Childs’ death in 1925, the firm operated 107 restaurants nationwide (“Waiter Pleads Guilty,” Cincinnati Post, December 28, 1916, p. 3; Elizabeth Yuko. “America’s Obsession with Restaurant Food Safety Dates Back to 1889,” Bloomberg, February 3, 2016; “Childs Restaurant Founder Is Dead,” New York Times, March 18, 1925, p. 21).

Another cafeteria chain to come to Cincinnati was the Colonnade. Roland W. White, a chemist, founded Colonnade Cafeteria in Cleveland, Ohio in 1911. The chain grew to eight cities, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Louisville, Newark (NJ), Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. It pioneered “food stations,” whereby entrees, sandwiches, vegetables, desserts, and drinks could be obtained quickly and efficiently via separate stations (“Colonnade Cafeteria Chain Founder Dies in Cleveland,” Ann Arbor News, December 29, 1953, p. 8; “New Colonnade,” Cincinnati Post, September 24, 1980, p. 1B).

Colonnade Cafeteria came to Cincinnati in 1915. For many years, it occupied the lower level of the Cincinnati Union Central Building on the southwest corner of 4th and Vine Streets, later opening a second location in 1980 in the lower level of the Fifth Third Bank Center/DuBois Tower on Fountain Square. Both downtown Cincinnati locations closed in October 1986 (Joyce Rosecrans, “Colonnade Rolls Back Years,” Cincinnati Post, July 21, 1975; “Two Colonnade Cafeterias Close Down; 50 Lose Jobs,” Cincinnati Post, October 14. 1986, p. 3B).

Columbus, Ohio-based Mills Restaurants and Cafeterias opened a downtown Cincinnati location at 31 East 4th Street in circa 1920. By 1958, Mills Cafeteria seated 372 patrons in two dining rooms adorned with Rookwood Tile. Open seven days per week, 364 days per year (closed Christmas) from 6 AM to 9 PM, it served an average of 4,500 customers per day. Displaced by urban renewal, Mills moved to the lower level of the Fifth Third Bank Center/DuBois Tower on Fountain Square in 1972. It closed in 1978, and the Colonnade Cafeteria opened a location in its space (“Good Eating: Statistics on Mills,” Cincinnati Post, February 22, 1958, p. 8; ”Mills Cafeteria to Close after 56 Years in Business,” Cincinnati Post, December 18, 1978, p. 7; Jane Brazes, “Business Falls Off: A Tradition in Downtown Lunch Wanes,” Cincinnati Post, December 20, 1978, p. 16).

At least one regional Cincinnati family played a major role in cafeteria development. Four brothers—Horace, Cyrus, Henry, and Orlando (John) Boos—grew up east of Cincinnati in Clermont, County, Ohio. Horace Boos , the oldest of nine children, was born in 1872 to Joseph and Mathilde Shaber Boos. Orphaned at an early age, Horace moved his siblings to Cincinnati in 1890, where he worked as a printer for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Later, Horace and his brothers dabbled in grocery and restaurant businesses, eventually moving to Buffalo, New York, and New York City. Next came a move to St. Louis, Missouri, apparently in time for the Louisiana Purchase World’s Fair (Alexandra Rasic, “From the Homestead Kitchen: The Cafeteria Craze of Los Angeles, Part 2,” The Homestead Blog, February 17, 2021; Horace S Boos family tree, Ancestry.com).

In 1906, the Boos brothers opened their first cafeteria in Los Angeles, California. By 1926, when Horace died at age 54 of a cerebral hemorrhage, they operated seven locations in the Los Angeles area. The following year, the brothers sold the cafeteria chain to Childs Restaurant Company.

Many cafeterias operated in Northern Kentucky during the first three-quarters or so of the twentieth century. They included a short-lived vegetarian cafeteria at 417-419 Scott Boulevard in Covington, founded by an evangelical preacher, E. H. Huntley. On Thursday evenings, Huntley gave free presentations espousing the importance of vegetarianism in maintaining good health.

Meanwhile, in the Latonia neighborhood of Covington, Latonia Cafeteria operated at 35th and Latonia Avenues for a number of years in the teens and twenties of the twentieth century. From at least the 1950s until the 1970s, McClure’s Cafeteria in downtown Covington served customers from a location at 24 East 7th Street, next door to Coppin’s Department.

Finally, the national cafeteria chain Morrison’s opened a location in the Florence Mall in 1977 (“Coffee and Tea Barred from This Restaurant,” Kentucky Post, April 11, 1924, p. 1; “Morrison’s Cafeteria Opens Wednesday in Florence Mall,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 15, 1977, p. A-12).

With changing tastes nationwide in the 1970s and the 1980s, as well as downtowns facing suburban competition, the heyday of urban cafeterias passed. New national fast food restaurant chains challenged the old order, as nearly eight decades of the crusade for inexpensive nutritional lunches gave way to a new hamburger and fries fast food craze.

Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is editor of the “Our Rich History” weekly series and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He can be contacted at tenkottep@nku.edu. Tenkotte also serves as Co-Director of the ORVILLE Project (Ohio River Valley Innovation Library and Learning Enrichment). For more information see orvillelearning.org