The Cafeteria-Style Restaurant Chain Everyone Remembers From The Mall Has One Location Left

One of the most endearing features of a cafeteria-style restaurant is the joyful sense of community you feel when eating there. Not only do you get to serve yourself from a nearly endless array of foods and beverages, but you can also carry your tray to a large, communal eating area that is reminiscent of modern-day school cafeterias.

The concept of efficient and casual yet elegant cafeteria-style dining was introduced to the U.S. in the 1800s, with the opening of the Exchange Buffet in New York City serving as a precursor. This inexpensive, self-serve, buffet-style dining experience was inspired by the Swedish smörgåsbord. It increased in popularity throughout the 1920s with the opening of the first cafeteria-style chains: Childs Restaurants, which originated in New York City, and Boos Brothers Cafeterias, which opened in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, since then, many of the most beloved cafeteria-style restaurants in the U.S. have closed ... that is, except for one chain cafeteria that everyone remembers from the mall: Morrison's Cafeterias, which only has one location left.

The final Morrison location is thriving in Mobile, Alabama. The Mobile location was actually the restaurant chain's first-ever location. Now owned by Piccadilly Restaurants, it remains among the final remnants of a comforting, communal-style dining experience. It's definitely one of the mall food court chains we wish would come back.

Morrison's was the brainchild of J.A. Morrison, who opened the first location in Mobile, Alabama in 1920. Morrison championed the cafeteria-style restaurant concept, and had to actually convince both employees and customers that it was a sustainable model. The first restaurant featured over 70 homemade menu items, and eventually won over local diners enough that the chain expanded to 17 other locations throughout the South.

By the 1970s, Morrison's was the largest cafeteria-style restaurant chain in the U.S., with 151 locations. At its peak, you could find a Morrison's in almost every mall across the southern United States. Morrison himself even entered into contracts with food service, healthcare, and hospitality companies, and acquired the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain. However, business slowed by the early '80s as Morrison's started competing with other cafeteria-style restaurants as well as fast food chains and fast-casual dining establishments, particularly in malls. Eventually, the remaining 142 Morrison's locations were sold to Piccadilly Restaurants, an American chain of fast-casual restaurants operating throughout the southeastern U.S.

The last remaining Morrison's still gets a lot of business, especially on Sundays when it gets a rush of Church groups. Along with Morrison's, there are 27 Piccadilly locations throughout the South, as well as cafeteria chains Luby's in Texas, K&W Cafeteria in Virginia and North Carolina, and MCL Restaurant & Bakery in the Midwest.