STRICTLY BUSINESS: RESTAURANTS IN CAPE SERVE UP 'HOMESTYLE' TO 'FINE' DINING

Editor's Note: From time to time, this column will take a look at some industry and what it means economically to the area, state and nation. Today, the restaurant business.

More than 100 restaurants are listed in Cape Girardeau County.

Counting a few eating places that may not be listed by the Missouri Restaurant Association or telephone Yellow Pages, and the actual count is 112.

Numbers 113 and 114 will be added soon.

Applications for employment are already being accepted for a new Wendy's Restaurant at Jackson, and Bob Evans Restaurant is looking at Cape Girardeau for an operation this year.

Bob Evans Farms Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, owns and operates more than 430 full-service family restaurants in 21 states under the Bob Evans Restaurant and Owens Family Restaurants names.

On a typical day, the U.S. restaurant industry will post average sales in excess of $1 billion.

Almost half of all adults in the nation, 46 percent, are restaurant patrons on a typical day.

Industry sales projections by the National Restaurant Association's "Pocket Factbook" predict sales of more than $376 billion this year from more than 830,000 restaurants. There are more than 11 million restaurant employees.

As many as 3,000 restaurant workers are employed in Cape Girardeau County. A recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau indicated sales in Cape Girardeau County for "Foodservices & Drinking" places during a recent year totaled more than $75.5 million, and sales at limited-service eating places were more than $37.3 million in the county.

Statewide, more than 35,000 employees work in the food industry. The Missouri Restaurant Association has more than 2,000 members.

Those numbers are a cry from this nation's early years.

When America was first settled, the idea of "eating out" was alien. Most people took their meals at the family table.

There were some exceptions, of course. Inns and taverns answered the need of weary travelers and newly arrived settlers for lodging, food and drink.

Think about it, though. Selections of food were few.

If the visitors were lucky, the proprietor was a genial host, with a good farm attached to the tavern, and employed somebody who could cook.

The one-dish meal was most likely a delicious stew of meat and vegetables.

In some cases, dinner could be less hospitable, with an unappetizing mixture of salt pork and turnip greens.

As with any growing industry, lunchrooms became popular, especially in larger cities where people had to eat lunch away from home.

Horse-drawn wagons took lunch to some factory workers, and in some, you could even eat inside, and a variety of foods were offered.

By the early 1900s, a new form of service, "See-and-Select" caught on, and the new eating places were dubbed "cafeterias."

In today's business world, restaurants can be found "almost everywhere," ranging from the "drive-in" operations to giant five-star restaurants.

Cape Girardeau County has a number of successful restaurant operations, from homestyle, family-oriented restaurants to fine-dining, white-tablecloth establishments, with numerous burger, pizza and Chinese restaurants.

According to the NRA's "Pocket Factbook," seven of 10 eating and drinking places in the United States have about 20 employees or less.

The restaurant industry provides employment to more than 8 percent of the nation's workers. With more than 11 million employees, this makes the restaurant industry the nation's largest employer outside the government.

The NRA defines the restaurant industry as that which encompasses all meals and snacks prepared away from home, including takeout meals and beverages.

The overall economic impact of the restaurant industry is expected to reach $785 billion this year. This included sales in related industries such as agriculture, transportation, wholesale trade and food manufacturing.

Restaurant sales have more than doubled over the past 20 years, from $119.6 billion in 1980, to $376.2 billion projected this year. These totals include 11 straight years of increases.

Whether they belong to one of the main food chain groups, or are independent establishments, modern family restaurants serve far more diverse clientele than early eating places. They are committed to pleasing people of all ages, backgrounds and economic means

In some ways, however, eating places have changed little. A majority of them are still small businesses run by individual proprietors or families who offer hospitality in the same personal way as the innkeepers and tavern owners of the past.