The Dying Cafeteria

Above, a vintage postcard touting Clifton's Brookdale -- now the last remaining outpost of Clifton's once bustling chain of cafeterias.

As recently as the late 90s, Clifton's still operated a handful of locations, including a second downtown spot (the Silver Spoon) and cafeterias in Laguna Hills and West Covina.

The last Clifton's doesn't appear to be in danger of closing -- but as the L.A. Times notes, the cafeteria is a dying restaurant genre. Most recently, Pasadena's Beadle's cafeteria appears to have shut down for good:

There was a time when the cafeteria was the undisputed king of Southern California dining. Before World War II, the cheap food and sprawling dining halls brought together strangers new to the region and created lasting bonds.

The meals were inexpensive, and there was something altogether modern in the dining experience, which did without menus, waiters and tablecloths. Restaurant-goers could load their trays with cold foods and then hot, delicacies like ambrosia salad and coleslaw, liver and onions and mac and cheese, and then sidle up to the cash register to pay — all without waiting.

Dozens of cafeterias once peppered the Southland, so many, in fact, that city directories listed them separately from restaurants.

But today, the cafeteria is a dying breed, a victim of changing tastes, an aging population and urban sprawl.

On Wednesday, one of the last of the grande dames shut its doors after 50 years: Beadle's in Pasadena.

The paper notes that a location move away from Colorado Blvd. a few years ago impacted the business -- as did the fact that loyal patrons were dying off -- and younger crowds have a negative reaction to cafeteria food (I personally still have lousy high school and college memories of tray slop).

Interestingly, story authors Cara Mia DiMassa and David Pierson say cafeterias like Beadle's initially made it difficult for restaurants to get a hold in Pasadena: "Beadle's fed a generation of Pasadenans comfort food: green jello — which almost defied gravity — chicken pot pie and Thanksgiving-style turkey with stuffing on almost any day of the year. Gourmet chefs would complain that they could not get a high-end restaurant off the ground in Pasadena because residents' tastes were tempered by years of Beadle's food."