Morrison's Cafeterias was a chain of

cafeteria-style restaurant A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

s, located in the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

with a concentration of locations in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to th ...

. Generally found in

shopping malls A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

, Morrison's primary competition was Piccadilly Cafeterias. It was especially popular in Florida, with its high proportion of retirees. At its peak, the company was a symbol of good Southern cooking and operated 151 restaurants under the Morrison's name in 13 states. The company began as a single cafeteria opened in 1920 in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama, ...

by J. A. Morrison. Morrison helped develop the cafeteria dining concept, which was unique at the time and would later become characteristic of the Southern United States. More than 100 food items were prepared "homemade" daily. By 1950 the company had 17 locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida, with the majority of them in Florida.Morrison's company history
from ''International Directory of Company Histories,'' Vol. 11., St. James Press, 1995; posted by FundingUniverse.com; accessed 13 January 2017 Morrison's steadily expanded throughout the Southeast over the next two decades, eventually becoming the nation's largest cafeteria chain. After winning a contract to cater to the cast and crew of the film '' The Greatest Show on Earth,'' Morrison's branched out into catering contracts for schools, including state universities such as

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the sta ...

in Tallahassee,

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

in DeLand, corporate dining facilities, and

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency ...

s. Morrison's Cafeterias were founded and operated as a racially-segregated private business. Its restaurants served only white people. As part of the "Southern tradition," the restaurant employed black men as waiters to carry the customers' trays to their tables. In Nashville, for example, most restaurants agreed to serve non-whites in the early 1960s in response to the civil rights movement, but Morrison's stubbornly refused. Civil rights demonstrations led by John Lewis were held at Morrison's Cafeteria in Nashville in 1964, with police attacking peaceful protesters in front of the restaurant. The governor of Tennessee called the president of Morrison's to beg him to desegregate his restaurants, but he refused saying he would never serve blacks. A group of whites brought black guests to the restaurant, and the manager had them all arrested. About 95 peaceful demonstrators were arrested inside and outside of Morrison's that week. Morrison's management then obtained a court injunction against Lewis and others to prevent further civil rights demonstrations against the company. Its effort to diversify into non-dining businesses in the 1960s was less successful, and those enterprises were sold off in the early 1980s by new management. In 1982, Morrison's acquired the 15-unit Ruby Tuesday chain. It used this acquisition to launch other casual dining concepts, such as L&N Seafood Grill, Silver Spoon Café, Mozzarella's, and Tia's Tex-Mex. It also acquired three other food-contract firms. By the mid-1990s, the new restaurant concepts — particularly Ruby Tuesday — were doing far better than the original cafeteria chain, as customers' expectations and tastes had changed. Because of this, Morrison's decided to split the company into three new firms: Morrison's Fresh Cooking, the cafeteria chain; Ruby Tuesday, Inc., which also included the other casual dining concepts; and Morrison Health Care, which took over the food contracts for hospitals (the educational and business contracts had been previously sold to a competitor). Morrison Health Care is now part of

Compass Group Compass Group plc is a British multinational contract foodservice company headquartered in Chertsey, England. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in locations including off ...

. In 1998, Morrison's Fresh Cooking — unable to withstand the loss in popularity of cafeterias in general — sold out to Piccadilly Cafeterias. Piccadilly has since closed numerous former Morrison's locations outside of Florida and Georgia. Piccadilly — which went through

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

proceedings in 2012 and has reduced its footprint to 41 locations as of February 2019 — maintains one location branded as a Morrison's Cafeteria in the former chain's hometown of Mobile.Piccadilly Cafeterias locations
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External links

from ''International Directory of Company Histories,'' Vol. 11., St. James Press, 1995; posted at FundingUniverse.com

References

{{reflist Companies based in Mobile, Alabama Restaurants established in 1920 Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Cafeteria-style restaurants Companies disestablished in 1998 1920 establishments in Alabama 1998 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)