Piccadilly Cafeteria

Company History

Piccadilly Cafeteria, began operations in Baton Rouge, LA in 1944. Approximately three years before Luby’s. The cafeteria system was met with great success across the South. The influence of Cafeteria style operations was measurable, with most cafeterias even expanding into the Midwest. Piccadilly enjoyed many years of success. Up into the mid 1990s, when cafeterias began to falter. Cafeterias were viewed as “old people food”. The novelty of self-service had grown old in an age where tipping was becoming increasingly common beyond the restaurant industry. Even chains like Luby’s fell victim to this, closing many locations in the late 90s and early 2000s. Piccadilly’s defense was to limit their Cafeteria branding. Eventually dropping the word all together and just going by Piccadilly. As time pressed on the situation became more dire, leading Piccadilly to begin closing most locations outside of the South. Piccadilly would eventually file for bankruptcy in 2012. This would eventually reduce their footprint to around 40 locations.

Local History

Piccadilly was one of three prominent cafeteria chains operated in Houston. Their biggest competitor is the still operating Luby’s, along with the now closed Wyatt’s. Piccadilly proved to be quite popular in Houston. The strategy for building locations was to place them in Malls. A fad which was very common during the early days of mall building. The cafeteria was seen as a draw for the mall. Families would come to eat, and hopefully end up shopping. Throughout the years Piccadilly ranked up locations eventually getting to about 9. Of these 9 only 2 were not located in malls. As the role of malls changed in retail, Piccadilly began to lose locations. Eventually the final Piccadilly location in Almeda Mall closed around 2013.