Adios K&W!!

 For those reading this from outside of the Carolinas and Virginia, K&W Cafeterias abruptly shut down all of their locations on Monday, December 1. The television news shows, and the Internet are filled with folks who all claim to have been K&W customers and are stunned that they shut down. 

In the interests of full disclosure, I actually ate at the K&W on two occasions. Both times involved my wife giving birth at a nearby hospital. So, barring some event marked by a special star in the sky, I ate my last meal at K&W long ago. 

I have attempted to comment on this subject on several sites and have been banned from some as a result. Apparently, cafeterias are an even touchier topic than politics, religion and even sports. So, that reduces my available outlets to share my thoughts to this blog. 

I spent more than fifty years working in the restaurant business. My first job was as a vendor at Tampa Stadium working for a company called Volume Services. I started there in 1968. Volume Services has ceased to exist, and the old Tampa Stadium was torn down in 1999. I don't remember participating in any mourning rituals fo Volume Services.

I worked for Biff-Burger in 1970. I worked for the Ranch House chain in Florida. I worked at the restaurant at the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Tampa. I worked for the Rancher Restaurant in Tampa, a ripoff of the Ranch House. I managed a Lum's restaurant in Tampa. I was a manager for Casa Gallardo Mexican Restaurant & Bar, a part of the General Mills Restaurant group. I ran the Neon Diner. What do all of these restaurants have in common? They are all gone. None are in business today. Yet my life marches on.

Cafeterias are an endangered species. I can't remember the last time that I read about a new cafeteria opening. The primary customer base for cafeterias today is old people. It's cold, but true, old people are dying faster than cafeterias can replace them in their customer base. No customers, no sale. No sales, no profits. No profits, no business. Surely, even the slow among you understand this chain of events.

Why aren't there more cafeterias? The next time that you meet with Archie, Jughead and Betty at the malt shop, you should discuss this. When I was a kid, we loved to go to the soda fountain at Cox's Drug Store at the corner of Columbus Drive and North Boulevard in Tampa. If you guessed that Cox's is no longer there, go to the head of the class. You can get extra credit for telling me which CVS or Walgreen's has a soda fountain today.

It's more than cafeterias and soda fountains. In the 1950's and even in the 1960's, there were drive-ins across the land. How many car hops do you currently know who are still working? In the 1970's, there were fish and chips restaurants everywhere. Been to an Arthur Treacher's lately?? In a completely unrelated story, there were two locations of Churchill's Fish and Chips in Tampa in the 1970's. I really liked their food, but apparently my business wasn't enough to keep them afloat. I don't recall any public mourning period for Churchill's.

In the late 1960's, the surge was budget steak house chains. The names all had a "western" theme and name. We had Sizzler, Western Sizzlin', Ponderosa, Bonanza, York Steak House and countless others. By the 1970's we had expanded to chains like Ryan's, Quincy's, Steak and Ale, Beefsteak Charlies, Brewmasters and Mr. Steak. When was the last time that you bellied up to the salad bar at one of those places? I am going to give credit to Golden Corral for surviving. They did that by giving up on being a steakhouse and became a "slop 'til you drop" buffet.

So, what's the point of all of this? The restaurant business is not a static place. People's tastes change regularly. If you aren't staying ahead of the curve, you will run off the road. K&W was trying to swim upstream.

RIP K&W.