Coffee merchandising

The correct brewing of coffee in hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, soda fountains, and in centralized “eating places” should interest every dealer, because these are important avenues through which to promote an increase in coffee consumption. Intelligent study of this subject is certain to result in more business.

Analyze the Potential Market

It will pay any coffee man to make an analysis of the hotel and restaurant trade in his community. Invariably there is room for improvement or need for reform. Until recent years, it used to be said that public eating places in the United States where good coffee might be had were few and far between; yet many a hotel and restaurant has built up a national reputation on its coffee. The old Astor House in New York enjoyed such a reputation.

The American breakfast cup is a food beverage because of the milk or cream and sugar additions, and more and more this same generous cup serves again as a necessary part of the noonday and evening meals for most people. Any hotel or restaurant man will lend a willing ear to suggestions making for improvements in his coffee. This is a splendid avenue of sales approach. Once an eating place gains a reputation for surpassing coffee, its fortune is made. No one thing attracts and holds patronage like good coffee.

In making an analysis of the coffee needs of any hotel or restaurant, the starting point is to find out the class of patrons catered to and suggest the best blend for that trade. If it is a popular eating place, it may be foolish to suggest a high-priced blend, for the patrons may have acquired a combination coffee and chicory taste. In the chapter on Coffee Blending, we have already discussed the matter of suitable blends for hotels and restaurants. It is necessary to add here only that after the best blend for the money has been selected the emphasis should be placed upon freshness and the most efficient grinding and brewing.

Certain A-B-C’s of grinding and brewing should be gone over with the customer, for the chances are that he is not a coffee specialist and does not realize the importance of them.

The Supreme Coffee Test

The supreme test of the coffee served in any restaurant is this: Does it inspire the customer with a desire for more? Does he come back for a second cup, or go out of his way to patronize the place because he knows the coffee is always uniformly good?

The coffee merchant should occupy the position of counsel and friend to the hotel and restaurant man. He should visit him frequently and make it his personal business to see that his instructions to the help are being carried out to the letter. Employees will grow lax in the essentials, and we know of no system that is fool proof.

Freshly Roasted and Freshly Ground

Having got the right blend, the coffee must be freshly roasted and ground just before making. No hotel or restaurant can afford to use stale coffee. The grinder must be inspected regularly; not only must it be kept clean, but it needs to be watched to see that the fixed grind does not vary. Many coffee dealers have a special hotel and restaurant service to look after these matters, but the customer should be urged to have several men in his employ that are familiar with all requirements, so that in the absence of the coffee chef nothing can go wrong. The use of a stale batch of coffee, a change in the grind, a mistake in measuring, some apparently trivial error, is likely to make for dissatisfaction in the cup, and the labor of years goes for naught. The patron is displeased, and his custom likely to be lost forever.

Accuracy in measuring the amount of coffee to be brewed and the quantity of water are also important. It will pay to check up frequently on weights and measures, urns, leach bags, and other utensils, and to stress the importance of cleanliness in every operation.

Coffee-Brewing Conclusions

When we come to the actual making of the beverage, it is well to bear in mind the following brewing conclusions arrived at after much careful research by Professor Samuel C. Prescott of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

Coffee Urns

Of course, the ideal way to prepare coffee in hotels and restaurants would be to provide an individual service where the time of infusion would be under strict control; but this is not practical where large quantities of coffee “base” are required for quick service. To approximate the filtration or drip method, which experience has proved to be the best, resort must be had to coffee-making urns employing bags or paper or to the various rapid coffee-making devices on the market. The urn should have a liner of glazed earthenware or glass. If a cloth bag is used, it must be kept clean and immersed in cold water to prevent fouling when not in use.

The use of paper presents the advantage of a clean new filter for each brew. Many hotels and restaurants now use a filter with a layer of fiber paper which can be renewed for each batch of coffee. This filter paper is put into a container which fits into the top of the urn. The bottom of the container is perforated to permit the coffee to drip through as it filters through the paper. Here are the rules prepared by the manufacturer of one of these devices:

1. Put into the coffee urn all the boiling water required for the batch of coffee.

2. Place the receptacle on top of this urn, with the coffee evenly distributed over the filter, having the entire sheet well covered with coffee.

3. Fasten the water spreader over the coffee to keep it from floating.

4. Transfer from the urn into the receptacle only as much boiled water as will fill it.

It is contended that this method of making coffee is more convenient and more sanitary, since it does away with the necessity of handling and keeping the cloth filter bag clean. It also obviates the necessity of repouring, because the water cannot get into the urn below until it trickles through the ground coffee; whereas, with the drip-bag method a large part of the water comes through the sides of the bag without touching the coffee. Another advantage claimed for this method is that the coffee grounds are always suspended above the water and cannot stew in the brew.

The method which gives the best results for hotel and restaurant custom of course depends upon the class of restaurant and that restaurant’s type of trade; the kind of coffee used, the grind of the coffee, and the degree of roasting; also, the factors of whether the restaurant’s trade is relatively steady or spasmodic and the time of day at which it is intended to serve the coffee are points for consideration. The type of urn and coffee maker used are also determinative factors.

In general, where the usual type of urn is employed, the coffee being made in a bag, and with coffee of the proper degree of fineness of grind and the proper intensity of roast, and where the trade to whom the coffee is to be dispensed is average, the following procedure may be recommended:

Use two and a half gallons of boiling water to a pound of coffee, and after placing the coffee in the urn sack pour the boiling water through it, then repour the entire amount of liquid through the coffee once. If coarser coffee is used or the water is not boiling, further repouring is necessary. The urn bag and grounds should be removed from the urn 20 to 30 minutes after the last repouring. Further contact of the grounds with the coffee liquor is likely to promote extraction of undesirable elements and consequent deterioration of the brew.

It is essential that the urn sack be clean, that the coffee be fresh, the water be boiling, the water jacket of the urn be kept at approximately 220° to 210° Fahr., and the interior of the urn be kept religiously clean and sweet. Between brews, the urn bag should be washed in cold water and kept immersed in cold water. Soap or any other cleanser should not be used for cleaning the bag. If these instructions be followed, a desirable brew of coffee is always sure to result. It is not advisable to add egg, salt, butter, or vinegar, as seems to be the tendency in some restaurants.

How to Make Coffee in Hotels
and Restaurants

The Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee has provided the following rules for making coffee in hotels and restaurants:

That in all cases the water must be freshly boiled, should go without saying, yet it is just as well to dwell upon this point continually.

A good grade of cream should be served with the drink, and particular care must be taken to have the service pots and the coffee cups warmed before using.

Lists of manufacturers of coffee urns of all kinds, filters, coffee pots, etc., will be found in the latest edition of Ukers Tea & Coffee Buyer’s Guide.

Waldorf and Ambassador Style

The method of preparing coffee for individual service in the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, which has been adopted by many first-class hotels and restaurants that do not serve urn-made coffee exclusively, is the French-drip plus careful attention to all the contributing factors for making coffee in perfection, and is thus described by the hotel’s steward:

A French-china drip coffee pot is used. It is kept in a warm heater, and, when the coffee is ordered, this pot is scalded with hot water. A level tablespoonful of coffee, ground to about the consistency of granulated sugar, is put into the upper and percolator part of the coffee pot. Fresh-boiling water is then poured through the coffee and allowed to percolate into the lower part of the pot. The secret of success, according to our experience, lies in having the coffee freshly ground, and the water as near the boiling point as possible, all during the process. For this reason, the coffee pot should be placed on a gas stove or range. The quantity of coffee can be varied to suit individual taste. We use about 10 percent more ground coffee for after-dinner cups than we do for breakfast. Our coffee is a mixture of Old Government Java and Bogota.

C. Scotty, chef at the Hotel Ambassador, New York, thus describes the method of making coffee in that hostelry:

The coffee service at the best hotels is usually in silver pots and pitchers, and includes the freshly made coffee, hot milk or cream (sometimes both), and domino sugar.

Coffee-Making Directions

With a desire to be helpful to the proprietors of hotels and restaurants wishing to improve their coffee service, the National Coffee Roasters Association published the following directions:

The Successful Coffee Shop

Mrs. Ida C. Bailey Allen, writing on the Successful Coffee Shop, makes the following suggestions on how to establish, equip, and conduct it:

The successful coffee shop must be more than a place in which to eat and to enjoy a perfect cup of coffee: it must be a place ruled by geniality and sociability, a pleasant place to spend a few moments of leisure.

The coffee shop which furnishes perfect coffee and combines this rare atmosphere with quick and up-to-date service, and those homelike touches that irresistibly draw customers, is a profitable business venture and a landmark in the community.

The success of the coffee shop depends largely upon the right location. Exactly what this may be hinges upon the locality and the type of patron. A coffee shop destined to cater to the needs of both men and women in the shopping section of a city would necessarily differ from a coffee shop in a village inn or on a good automobile road; yet both might be proportionately successful.

In many cases, it will not be necessary to search for an entirely new location for the coffee shop, for there is often waste space in connection with a hotel or restaurant which can be used to good advantage.

The large restaurant with rather formal service, desiring to make a quick and speedy turnover, will find the institution of a small coffee shop, with a direct entrance on the street, a good investment.

The hotel can easily make of the discarded barroom an excellent coffee shop, using in many instances some of the original furnishings. This will undoubtedly prove a very popular breakfast and luncheon room, especially for the men guests.

The abandoned saloon, with its conspicuous street entrance, offers a wonderful opening for a coffee shop; provided, the right atmosphere of geniality and cordiality is maintained.

Many a wayside inn has held sacred for years an almost unused sitting room, while hungry automobiles, longing for a bite to eat, are led to a bare and unattractive dining room, where the “bite” is anything but good; and yet, the unused sitting room, located near the front entrance, could often be made into a most alluring little coffee shop, at almost no expense.

Then there is the larger and more pretentious hotel, in which a coffee shop can often be installed in a little-used part of the lobby, where it is of easy access from the street.

In still other cases there are well-ventilated basement rooms which can be utilized for this purpose. In fact, the coffee shop itself may be worked up in various ways to suit the space that can be allotted to it, as well as to meet the needs of the patron.

The three types of coffee shop which may be developed are self-service; counter service, with waitress or restaurant service; or combination of counter and waitress service.

The Self-Service Method

Obviously, when space as well as expense must be curtailed, the self-service method will prove most practicable. When there is more room, the counter method may be used, but when there is ample space, the waitress or restaurant method will prove most popular, if the service is speedy, and if, at the same time, the guests who have leisure are not hurried.

The self-service coffee shop will succeed in a busy locality, where the clientele consists largely of people of limited means and leisure, both men and women. The counter service will be a success where the clientele consists only of men, who desire to obtain a quick meal at a moderate price. A man in a hurry depends more upon his coffee than anything else on the menu. In fact, the smaller the shop and the more limited the bill of fare, the greater the importance of coffee. The difference in cost between a cup of good coffee and a cup of bad coffee is so slight that no restaurant or lunch room can afford to serve the latter, however low his prices and humble his establishment.

There is a great opportunity for the opening of the small coffee shop, in any business or manufacturing locality, where men may get a cup of coffee, a sandwich, a piece of pie, or some crullers in almost no time at all. This idea has been very successfully carried out with the installation of built-in stands, from which iced summer drinks have been sold, but it should prove equally popular with coffee,—iced coffee, coffee sodas, and hot coffee in the summer time, and hot coffee and coffee sodas in the winter.

The initial outlay can be very small, the rental for such stands being very reasonable. The dishes and knives, forks, and spoons may be of moderately good quality, but durable; the greatest outlay being for the coffee urn, a two-burner gas stove for the frying of eggs for fried-egg sandwiches, and a small counter with or without stools. Needless to say, the place should be spotlessly clean, an all-white effect appealing to everyone.

Such a place is best handled by men, who should wear white. Menus are not necessary, but it is a good plan to change the type of sandwiches and the kind of pie from day to day, to avoid monotony. A fortune awaits the man who can establish such places in a large city, in time developing a chain which might extend over a large territory. This type of coffee shop, properly run, means a good living to the person who has foresight and business ability enough to put it through.

The backbone of a coffee shop is coffee—and still more coffee. It must be a perfect beverage, the kind that leaves a glow of satisfaction and invariably calls back the guest again and again. The coffee must be so good and the service so excellent that men and women will not only drop in, with reasonable regularity, at mealtime, but will avail themselves of the quiet sociability of the place for morning conferences over the coffee cups, and a mid-afternoon “bite” with coffee—hot or iced as the season may suggest.

There is still another element entering into the type of coffee shop to be inaugurated,—the help. In a large city, where this problem is not so perplexing, the waitress type of service can be carried out successfully; but, where waitresses are difficult to secure, it will be necessary to use either the counter or the self-service method. Also, when prices must be comparatively low, it will not be practicable to use the waitress method, as this increases the overhead to such an extent that the profits will be unduly decreased.

The coffee shop itself is such an adaptable sort of eating place that it can be made equally attractive for both rich and poor,—just as popular in a first-class hotel as it is when conducted rightly in a factory. This is the reason that the locality, the type of help, and the sort of service must be absolutely mapped out before the actual gathering together of the equipment is considered.

Details of the Menu

As the equipment depends largely upon the menu that is to be provided, the latter must be outlined in general before the equipment is purchased. The menu should be of a suitable type to correspond with the kind of coffee shop that is being opened, and must be made to fit the probable needs and pocketbooks of the patrons.

The first item to be thought of in connection with the menu is coffee, and ample provision must be made to serve it to the very best advantage, for it is really the foundation of the entire enterprise. The foods to be served must be of a nature that will combine well in a meal with coffee.

In case a coffee shop is being opened for very simple service in any locality, and if the amount of money that may be spent for equipment is limited, it will be found most practicable to include largely cold foods on the menu, merely making provision for the cookery of eggs in a few simple ways, to accommodate breakfast patrons.

A simple menu begun in such a comparatively small way, backed up by the right service and excellent coffee, will invariably result in quick expansion into a larger business. Such a menu might include the following dishes: Sandwiches, cold meats, salads, pastry and cake, icecream, coffee.

The menu should be changed from week to week, no matter what type is used, in order to give sufficient variety to encourage guests to come over and over again. A suitable menu of this type for the fall and winter season might include: Ham sandwiches, minced ham sandwiches, sliced chicken sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, egg sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, club sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, pimento cream cheese and lettuce sandwiches.

The salads should, as far as possible, be of a different nature from the salad sandwiches, as so many guests will order a salad and a sandwich, together with a pot of coffee. A suitable group of salads would include: A fish salad, such as shrimp, lobster, or tuna fish; egg salad, with Russian dressing or mayonnaise; lettuce and tomato salad, with Roquefort dressing; chicken salad; potato salad; cold slaw, occasionally varied with green peppers, chopped nuts, or pimentos; a seasonable vegetable salad. If possible, hot, home-made Parker-house rolls or little tea biscuits may be served with the salads. If it is not feasible to keep these really hot, and if the bread is to be included in the salad course, bread and butter sandwiches will prove the most economical adjunct from the standpoint of both materials and service.

The cold meats should include: Sliced ham, served with a little chowchow, or other suitable relish, in an individual paper cup; cold fried chicken or sliced chicken; cold tongue; and occasionally cold roast lamb or roast beef.

It may sometimes be advisable, if there is a place to keep the roast hot, to serve hot meat sandwiches occasionally, as roast beef, lamb, or chicken sandwiches, with gravy, utilizing the remainder of the roast for cold meat on the succeeding day.

To be at its best, a coffee shop should incorporate homy, rather than exotic, cookery, to correspond with its warm, inviting, and simple surroundings.

Who would not go a long way for a perfect piece of apple pie, with a bit of rare-flavored cheese and a pot of perfect coffee? So, let the pastries, again, be varied, in order to avoid monotony; but keep them homelike.

Apple pie, pumpkin or squash pie, or sweet potato pie (in the South), a lemon pie with a thick meringue, custard or well made coconut pie, old-fashioned cream pie, the newer butter-scotch pie, together with the full gamut of fruit pies, such as orange, huckleberry, blackberry, rhubarb, pineapple, cranberry, raisin, and all the others, certainly afford a wide choice. But have them perfect! As to crullers and coffee cake itself, they should be so good as to become specialties. These will attract guests from miles around, for the inevitable pot of coffee with these incomparable accompaniments.

Good home-made cookies should also be included. Old-fashioned ginger drop cookies “with a raisin in the center,” and thick cream cookies sprinkled with sugar before baking, will surely become famous. As to old-fashioned ginger bread, served with good butter, cheese, or whipped cream, it will be in favor winter or summer as a combination with coffee.

The cakes, too, should be strictly home-made and very much of a specialty. If there is but one kind, have it good. Nut cakes with thick white icing, fudge cake with fudge frosting, layer spice cake with a made cream filling, and rich marble cake offer a few good suggestions. Keep the cake out of the ordinary: it’s sure to mean “talk,” the best kind of advertising.

Regarding the icecream in a small coffee shop, one or two kinds will be ample. Of course, coffee icecream will always be served. This can be made into a variety of sundaes, such as marshmallow nut, coffee sundae, coffee butter-scotch sundae, coffee caramel sundae, and coffee maraschino sundae. A second cream would naturally be vanilla, which might be served as a sundae with a delicious coffee sauce, coffee nut sauce, or a maple sauce, with a topping of coffee whipped cream. In other words, emphasize the coffee flavor: it’s the best stock in trade that a coffee shop can have.

This menu will take care of the luncheon and supper trade, of the mid-morning “bite,” and the afternoon and late evening “snack.” With the addition of fresh fruit in season, ready-cooked cereals, such as corn flakes, etc., toast, of boiled, poached, and scrambled eggs, and marmalade and honey served in individual jars, the variety of foods will be increased sufficiently to cover breakfast, even though the serving equipment is limited. If space permits, the equipment may be enlarged and the list may include pancakes with sirup, and blueberry pancakes in season, as well as waffles. However, in cooking foods of this type, great care must be taken to provide for proper ventilation. If there is ample provision for the carrying off of cooking fumes, bacon and ham may be served along with fried eggs and omelets.

Basis for More Elaborate Service

This simple skeleton menu may serve as a basis for the development of one that is more elaborate and adapted to any of the three types of coffee shops. To it may be added one or two soups, one of a clear variety, such as consomme, tomato bouillon, clam bouillon, clear vegetable soup, chicken soup with rice, etc., and a heavier soup, such as cream of pea, cream of celery, oyster stew, or a chowder. If there is ample provision for order cooking, steaks, chops, etc., may be offered on a menu.

In any case, whether these are served or not, a certain number of special substantial dishes should be included on the menu, the selection depending on the clientele and the facilities for keeping the specials hot. They should be decidedly substantial if men are the only guests, but, when men and women both patronize the coffee shop, some of the specials should be of rather dainty nature. If, for instance, only two specials were to be run, and the catering is to both men and women, a choice might be breaded veal cutlets with tomato sauce and mashed potatoes, or chicken patties with peas. A group of staple specials of a substantial nature might include broiled pork chops with mashed potatoes and baked apples; stewed chicken with dumplings; hot tongue with spinach and horse-radish sauce; beef cutlets with spaghetti-Italian, etc.

Suitable dainty specials might be escalloped oysters with dressed lettuce, veal loaf with buttered rice and brown gravy, chicken à la king, eggs au gratin, welsh rabbit (made with milk and served on toast), etc.

Any menu increased beyond this point must take on the characteristics of a regulation restaurant, with perfect coffee as a background. In this case, the equipment must of a necessity be quite elaborate, as provision must be made for the preparation of a goodly number of dishes to order, as well as of roasts, vegetables, etc.

The menu served in the famous coffee shops of England includes, besides the usual staple sandwiches, salads, pastry, and coffee, all kinds of egg dishes, cereals, fruits, toast, marmalade, honey, and hot breads at breakfast. Both the noon and night specials are of heavy nature, including roasts, steaks, chops; baked, French-fried, and boiled potatoes; a special beefsteak pie à la Dr. Johnson, or a veal and ham pie; kidney, pigeon, or chicken pie. A snappy salad is always provided, such as onion and pepper or tomato with Roquefort dressing, and there are plenty of plain vegetables, such as buttered carrots, fried onions, stewed marrow, etc.

The desserts would include deep-dish fruit tarts, cheese cake, and always plum pudding, and a special, as a fruit dumpling, bread and custard pudding, or something of like nature. Of all eating places, the coffee shop should spell comfort, and there must be a sufficient number of well-cooked simple foods to correspond with this purpose.

The Kitchen Arrangements

The small coffee shop of self-service type, or of the type that combines self-service with a few tables, can be worked out successfully with the aid of only a small kitchen, as there will be few foods cooked to order and almost no last-minute preparation. But the coffee shop serving a number of specials must have a comfortable kitchen, with sufficient space in which to prepare the food, and a short-order range, that is certainly not in full view of the patron, for the coffee shop must present a restful atmosphere. It should not appear too new, too glaring, or sanitary looking to a startling extent. As far as possible, what one might term the machinery of cooking should be kept out of sight.

In the kitchen will be needed an adequate range to burn the fuel best obtainable in the locality, a short-order range, a work table of the right height for the cook, a small room or a good-sized pantry for the pastry-cooking equipment, and, in case a large amount of pastry is being prepared, an adequate set of bake ovens should be installed. There must be an icebox of the right size, with sections, accessible to both cook and pastry cook. Dishes should be washed and stored near the entrance to the dining room, so that when they are delivered to the dish washer the carry will not be long, and so that they may be stored where they are washed and dried, ready for service.

The time has gone by when it is desirable from the viewpoint of the patron, as well as from the standard of good taste, to display large quantities of food. Groups of foods, properly assembled in tightly closed glass cases, may sometimes be used to good advantage when counter service is employed. The actual food that is served, however, will be obtained from another room. In case a barroom has been fitted over into a coffee shop, the back bar may be used for such display, if desired.

If the cafeteria method of service is adopted, there will be, of course, no food prepared in the restaurant proper. In this case, the equipment must include an adequate steam table and serving counter, on which the food may be assembled.

The menu should be clearly displayed on the wall in such position that the guests will not crowd in front of it and thereby upset the serving arrangements.

The silver, trays, etc., as well as the foods, should be assembled in their natural order of use; first, the trays and napkins, then the silver, water, and water glasses, followed by soups, hot “specials,” vegetables and meats, the breads, salads, desserts, and coffee.

It goes without saying that the coffee-making equipment should be the best that can be obtained. “Best” does not always mean the most costly, for adequate coffee-making equipment is always simple in design, so that it may be kept clean, the absolute cleanliness of all utensils used in the making being one of the fundamentals underlying the preparation of perfect coffee.

Suitable urns, provided with leach or drip bags, may be obtained from about $65 upward, according to size. Cup warmers should be provided. The coffee itself should be served with cream, real cream, which should be put in by the patron; not served ready mixed, as so many prefer black coffee.

In some instances, it may be necessary, because of shortage of space, to prepare some of the food in the dining room. In this case, the equipment must be kept in perfect condition and the cook be spotless—literally—from head to foot. An adequate gas or electric griddle, gas or electric waffle iron, egg boiler, and well-scoured aluminum cooking utensils are an absolute necessity. Sometimes it will be necessary to install a short-order range in this room, as well. The cook must also be taught to work quietly. Much of the noise in many restaurants may be traced to the carelessness of the waitresses and other employees in the handling of dishes and utensils.

Serving the Food

First of all, the service must be pleasant. There is no one thing—other than perfect cooking itself—which brings a guest back over and over again, more than a smile and a well-chosen word of greeting. In several well-known restaurants, home economics graduates are employed to act as hostesses. The guests are then seated by a well-trained head waitress, who is quiet and efficient.

This idea could well be applied to the coffee shop, but the professional hostess should not be ultrafashionable: rather, middle-aged, comely, and wholesome in appearance. For waitresses, choose comfortable, homy-looking women, and dress them in simple uniforms of natural linen color, with white aprons.

In case cafeteria or counter-style service is used, the same natural linen-color scheme for uniforms may be carried out. It must be kept in mind that the person in charge of the cafeteria can often be a very deft salesman as well, helping guests who are undecided as to their choice of food to make a selection extremely profitable to the restaurant and—if the food is as perfect as it ought to be—to the individual. A good waitress can be trained to be as clever in this line as a maitre d’hotel. It would well pay the proprietor to have a little talk occasionally with his employees on salesmanship.

If the guests are seated at tables, they should be handed menus as soon as they are settled. A glass of water, a napkin, and the silver for each guest should then be put immediately upon the table by an underwaitress. The guest then feels that he is getting immediate attention, and his order can be taken as soon as possible by one of the regular waitresses, a highly trained person, who, if relieved from the burden of the water glasses, silver, replenishing of butter, water, etc., can practically handle double the amount of usual trade.

In case of cafeteria service, no waitresses will be needed, except women to gather up the soiled dishes from the tables as fast as they accumulate. The crumbs should then be brushed off, but not on to the floor, then the table should be wiped clean. Insufficient observation of these two little items alone keeps many a fastidious guest from eating in a cafeteria.

Atmosphere of the Shop

Coffee shops may be developed in appearance in two ways,—the very up-to-date white porcelain and nickel, with its expensive and sanitary equipment, or it may be made a place of atmosphere, of quiet and restful appearance, by the proper utilization of decorations and furnishings that one might term “seasoned looking.” At the same time, the furnishings should be so simple that they may be kept spotlessly clean.

There is no more attractive background for the coffee shop than the old English type. Panels may extend from the ceiling to the floor, or a high wainscot only may be used, topped by a plate rail with the wall decorated in coffee color, from the plate rail to the ceiling. Well chosen English prints may be hung on a plain background. Pieces of old Wedgewood, dull copper pitchers, and platters in old willow design may be on the plate rail. There should be a rack of “grandfather’s pipes,” an old eight-day clock, and if possible a fireplace with a crane and a fire in cool weather.

The curtains at the windows—which should be, if possible, of the casement type—may be of some washable, rather dark, natural linen-colored material, and plain, old-fashioned red geraniums should be in the window boxes.

The tables should be bare save for a small center square of rather dark, linen-colored material. The napkins should match. The chairs should, of course, match the tables, and the floor should be finished in a dark tone, to harmonize with the furniture.

Settles, if desired, may line the sides of the room, a table being put before each settle, with two chairs on the opposite side, or stalls, with tables accommodating four, may be used in part of the room, with well-disposed tables and chairs to fill the remaining space.

As far as feasible, the entire equipment should savor of the old-fashioned. China, of the English willow-ware pattern, may be obtained anywhere. Silver of plain design should be used, and, if possible, steel-bladed, horn-handled knives should be used with the meat service.

Menus of a design to correspond with the decorations should be planned. Nothing can be better than rough, dull-finished paper, of linen color, with rough cut edges, and the printing in dark brown. In case a list of the “specials” is not printed each day, it may be written or typed on to the menu. The menu itself should be changed from time to time, in order to make the standing dishes seasonable. It is a good plan to include on the menu some short and interesting quotations about coffee from well-known people. If a little care and thought are expended in making the cards unique and interesting, guests will frequently ask for them as souvenirs—an excellent advertisement.

If rent is not a big item, it will prove a good plan to have an informal lounging and game room, opening out of the coffee shop. The decorations should be of the same type as those in the shop itself. Comfortable tables and chairs should be provided, and there should be an abundance of games accessible, such as checkers, parchesi, chess, and the like, as well as a table with current magazines, a low case of interesting books of short stories, a desk with letterheads (featuring the coffee shop) and, if there is ample room, a pool table.

Tables should bear menus, featuring coffee, and a few of the lighter dishes that would naturally accompany it, for refreshments suitable for afternoon and evening. Of course smoking should be allowed.

Whatever type of coffee shop may be chosen, a candy and cigar counter should be stationed near the entrance door: not the ordinary candy counter, but one featuring coffee candies, which are put up for sale in little 10- and 15-cent coffee-colored bags, or which may be obtained in larger quantity in coffee-colored boxes, bearing the trad-emark of the coffee shop. The candies should be somewhat of an old-fashioned type, as coffee butter-scotch, coffee molasses taffy, chocolate coffee creams, coffee pralines, and so on. The bags, in nine cases out of 10, will be emptied of their contents in the street or office, and each bag that is thrown down will act as an advertisement of the coffee shop, and each coffee-colored box tied with its coffee-colored ribbon will serve as a reminder to the passerby, who sees it on its way home to the wife or to sweet-heart, of the shop around the corner where there is such delicious food, and where the internationally loved beverage may be obtained in perfection.