What is the difference between a bar and a cafe. How is a cafe different from a restaurant? Characteristic differences between a restaurant and a cafe

31.07.2022

Cafe (from French Cafe; literally - “a place where they drink coffee”) is a catering establishment.

According to the range of products sold, they are divided into: ice cream cafe, confectionery cafe, dairy cafe; by contingent for: youth, children, etc. But we are considering an ordinary cafe in the context of this article. Since specialized cafes are very different from restaurants, but average cafes are much smaller, and therefore it is not easy to catch this difference.

Restaurant (from French restaurer, restore, strengthen) - a public catering establishment with a wide range of complex dishes, including custom-made and branded ones; wine, vodka, tobacco and confectionery products, an increased level of service in combination with the organization of recreation.

It should be noted that restaurant in American English is any catering establishment in general, and not just a restaurant. Thanks to general globalization, this term in the American sense is spreading around the world, and our country is no exception. As a result, we are developing a lack of clear criteria for distinguishing a restaurant from a cafe. However, we can operate with guests and norms that were invented a long time ago.

So, if we start from the guest, then the difference between a restaurant and a cafe is in the presence of a banquet hall and separate rooms. However, now there is a tendency to abandon the banquet hall, and, if necessary, to combine tables for a banquet. With separate offices, too, everything is not so simple. As a result, it cannot be determined by appearance. Move on...

Air conditioning and ventilation in the restaurant should be optimal, temperature and humidity in the cafe is acceptable. To an ordinary person - not a specialist, it is simply impossible to determine the optimal or permissible air temperature and humidity, in my opinion.

You can skip further guest items, but when you reach the table linen item, we find a serious difference between cafes and restaurants. Namely, linen napkins and tablecloths are allowed in restaurants, paper napkins and the absence of tablecloths are allowed in cafes. it main difference by which you can determine whether you are in a cafe or a restaurant.

Not such a noticeable difference is that the restaurant implies the fulfillment of any wish of the visitor for the preparation of dishes (perhaps in full view of the visitor), in a cafe this is not implied. It can only be verified experimentally.

If you are not served by waiters, and you take food yourself - this is a cafe. However, there is a cafe with waiter service.

According to the guest in the restaurant, sound music is required, in a cafe it is not necessary. In fact, very rarely there is no musical accompaniment in a cafe.

It also follows from the guest that if a special smoking room or area is equipped, then this is a restaurant, this point is controversial, however, it is present.

But in restaurants it is possible to place cooking, unlike cafes, strangely, everywhere and in cafes I also saw cooking.

To summarize the only indisputable difference that I found after shoveling the norms and guests, these are tablecloths and cloth napkins, everything else can be easily imagined both in a cafe and in a restaurant. However, even this seemingly indisputable difference can be refuted, since there are already establishments where there are no tablecloths, and in general, in terms of interior, furniture comfort, lighting and product range, they are more likely to be classified as restaurants.

And, finally, differences in the status of the institution affect the coefficients (rent, wages, etc.), so often the institution for all the services provided can be called a restaurant, but due to saving money by the owner of the institution, it is still called a cafe .

Today in our country there are a huge number of catering establishments that provide citizens with a huge selection of tasty and fast food: from simple dumplings to sushi and frog legs, which are so popular today.

How did this happen, because even ten years ago in our country, except for dumplings and pancakes, nothing could surprise the layman. The tradition of eating on the go, most likely, was borrowed by our compatriots from such an alluring American life.

Plump-bodied Americans (who, according to statistics, occupy the honorable first place in the number of people who are overweight and obese) simply cannot live without having a lunch break snack of three or four hamburgers or cheeseburgers or a couple of bags of french fries combined with classic Coca-Cola.

It is America that is famous all over the world for the fact that you can eat there everywhere and always: anywhere and anytime. It was America that gave us the now world-famous McDonald's, which today has become a real attraction, and many European tourists who have visited the "land of great opportunities" visit this institution first of all.

However, to believe that we borrowed most of the catering establishments only from America (as it was customary to say in the old Soviet times) is a mistake!

Today in our country, in almost every more or less large city there are Chinese, Italian or French restaurants, German pubs, Arab eateries and other "foreign" establishments that delight visitors not only with exotic and unusual interiors, traditions of different countries, but also with cuisines all over the world.

Thus, the suppliers of ideas for catering establishments in Belarus today are completely different countries, such as Japan, Thailand, China; countries of the so-called Old World: England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain; America; Baltic countries: Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia; Scandinavian countries: Finland, Denmark. Holland, Sweden, Scandinavia.

With the development of the catering system, such concepts as a bar, restaurant, cafe, bistro, snack bar, pizzeria, etc. have firmly entered our lives. However, an ordinary Russian person who receives, frankly, a small salary and decides to visit one of these establishments for centuries, just wondering how to behave where and how not to lose face in an expensive restaurant.

And an entrepreneur who decides to open his own business often does not know what form of organization to choose. Will it be a snack bar, or a cafe, and what is the fundamental difference in the name?

The most interesting thing is when an institution is called, for example, a cafe, and the service and service are like in a bistro.

Most likely, this is due to insufficient awareness of the culture of the organization of the above institutions. Such problems arise to a greater extent because in schools such subjects as ethics and a culture of behavior have, unfortunately, sunk into oblivion a long time ago.

So, let's start in order. The most harmless, simple and most common establishments of the public catering system are cafes and eateries that are painfully familiar to the average layman.

In principle, such establishments have existed in our country for a long time, therefore, as a rule, there are no problems with the behavior of visitors in such establishments. However, as we have already said, the catering industry is currently developing at a rapid pace, so the understanding of the cafe that our grandparents had in the stagnant Soviet times has changed somewhat today.

So, what are the characteristic features of service and service organization that you should pay attention to when opening a cafe?

First of all, it should be noted that in ordinary average cafes and eateries, the organization of the work of a waiter is not to clean up after visitors and change ashtrays if you decide that smoking will be allowed in your cafe, but also to acquaint you with the menu, carefully serve dishes, serve the table at the highest level and constantly run up to the people sitting at the table, asking “do you want anything else?”, this is not part of his duties.

Coming to the cafe, the visitor must receive a menu, then choose what he would like to “snack”, and go to the counter on his own to purchase what was chosen.

As a rule, visitors to such establishments can only count on the fact that they will have to be content with light meals that do not require particularly diligent preparation, since such establishments as a cafe or a snack bar, as a rule, do not have their own kitchen equipped according to all requirements.

Another institution that is close enough to a diner is the bistros that are so fashionable today, which came to us from European countries. In principle, bistros are not particularly different from cafes, you can even call them twin brothers, since the principle of service in such establishments is the same as in cafes or eateries.

The very word "bistro" immediately speaks of the type of institution that is hidden behind this sign. In such a public catering establishment, food is served quickly enough, so that the visitor has the opportunity to have a good meal even during a relatively short lunch break.

However, when choosing the profile of your establishment, keep in mind that the only difference between a bistro and a cafe is that in a bistro you are unlikely to be able to offer visitors alcoholic drinks and watch people who sit there for several hours.

Bistro is fast food, so the menu in such establishments is usually limited to sandwiches, canapes, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, light salads, tea. coffee, that is, products that do not require long preparation. In the catering system, the bistro is on the same level as cafes and eateries.

Another type of cafe is the pizzeria, which is so fashionable today. This is an institution that came to us from Italy, the main dish of which is pizza. The principle of operation of such a catering establishment is the same as that of a cafe, but the menu varies significantly.

If you decide to open a pizzeria, you should assume that the pizzeria's menu should include a huge number of different types of pizza, as well as additions to this dish: sauces, seasonings, drinks, snacks. In addition, you will have to calculate the cost of arranging your own, specially equipped kitchen.

This means that you will have to rent a suitable room, which will cost much more than a diner room. In addition, refrigeration equipment will be required so that your pizzeria always has a supply of fresh vegetables.

The next option for catering establishments is a bar.

In general, the word "bar" is a German word, since bars originated in Germany, and at first they were just establishments where they drink beer and relax with friends. In principle, in Belarus there was also the same institution, only it was called less poetically and beautifully - a wine glass, that is, a place where they mainly drink alcoholic beverages.

As a rule, the service in such establishments is somewhat different from a cafe or a snack bar, since the bar is a step higher than establishments of this kind.

As a rule, a bar is a place where people do not eat, but drink and eat. The menu should be composed mainly of alcoholic drinks (from non-alcoholic and low-alcohol to fairly strong) and snacks for them. In addition, it is in the bar that you need to offer an amazing variety of different kinds of cocktails (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), which will be effectively and skillfully prepared by a qualified bartender right in front of the visitor.

Since the bar is one step above cafes, eateries and bistros, it should have its own signature dish - this is some kind of signature cocktail that can only be found in your establishment and nowhere else. In addition, you should take into account that the composition and method of preparation of the branded drink must be kept in the strictest confidence.

If a cafe, snack bar or bistro is a place where you can have breakfast, lunch, dinner or just a bite to eat during the working day, then a bar is a place where you spend the evening (it’s not for nothing that these establishments start their work from about noon until late at night).

The bar menu does not include serious dishes, as a rule, bars do not have their own kitchen, so all food here is reduced to light snacks that accompany alcoholic drinks. Service in such establishments also differs from cafes and similar establishments. It should be noted that in a pizzeria, the duties of the waiter include familiarization with the menu, customer service, as they say, on the spot, changing ashtrays, as well as calculating the client, and at the end of the evening, when the client begins to go home, he receives a total bill from the waiter .

The client needs to be careful, as in such establishments money is taken for service (as a rule, no more than 10% of the total amount of the order), so the bill will be slightly more than the amount for what visitors drank and ate. Today there are a huge number of varieties of bars, the most common of which is a beer bar, that is, a bar where the main course is different types of beer and snacks for it.

Also recently, the so-called tasting rooms have gained particular popularity, which allow their visitors to taste many varieties of wine - from the simplest to the elite.

At the highest level of the public catering system is, of course, a restaurant.

A restaurant is a place of elite recreation and gourmet food, therefore, this type of catering establishments has much more features and in our classification the restaurant rightfully deserves special attention. First of all, the restaurant differs of course service.

There is a separate waiter for each table. Good service is distinguished by the fact that a visitor who decides to order an assortment selected from the menu does not have to wait until his turn comes, he will be immediately served at the highest level, quickly and immediately.

The duties of a waiter in such establishments include delivering dishes, collecting dirty dishes and replacing them with clean ones, changing ashtrays (if smoking is allowed) and other little things that visitors have to do on their own in lower-level establishments. However, the fee for the services provided by the waiter here is much higher than, for example, in a bar. But the amount of the service fee does not exceed 30% of the total amount of the order.

The second difference between the restaurant and other catering establishments is the variety of the menu. This should be taken care of especially if you decide to open a restaurant. As a rule, every self-respecting restaurant has its own cuisine and its own chef, who, by the way, is selected on the basis of the most severe competition, so the visitor must be fully insured against low-quality and tasteless food.

In addition, if the client did not like this or that dish or he is dissatisfied with the quality of products or service, he can safely call the manager (an authorized representative of the restaurant administration, designed to keep order in the hall) and express his dissatisfaction, after which everything that did not suit , must be removed immediately.

The menu in a restaurant should consist of several items: cold appetizers, hot appetizers, salads, first courses, second courses, exotic dishes, specialties (which each restaurant has, depending on its specifics, which we will talk about a little later, are different) and dessert .

Of course, it is absurd to expect diners to order every dish. However, it is possible to offer such a service as the fact that everything that he would like to eat at the moment is discussed with the client in advance by phone. It is also obligatory for the restaurant to provide its visitors with such services as table reservation. And this means the client's confidence that when he comes, the reserved seat will be free. The rules of conduct in a restaurant are also somewhat different from other catering establishments.

Today, a restaurant is a very diverse concept. We have already said that completely different countries are original suppliers of ideas for catering establishments, therefore such phenomena as a Chinese or Italian restaurant in Belarus are not uncommon today.

The principle of operation of such establishments is the same as that of an ordinary restaurant, but the specifics are different. A specialized restaurant is primarily distinguished, of course, by its cuisine. The menu of such an institution offers a huge number of exotic dishes, snacks and drinks. The interior is also very different.

The fact is that catering establishments of this type suggest a rather luxurious interior: expensive furniture, unusual lighting, expensive dishes and other nuances that are simply absent in lower level establishments.

The interior of specialized restaurants should be designed in the style of the country from which it is open. For example, the interior of a Chinese restaurant will not be considered Chinese-style if it is not filled with incomprehensible hieroglyphs, fans, and other attributes.

So, we told you about the classification of catering establishments. However, the constantly developing and replenishing food industry makes this classification simply meager, there are constantly a lot of similar establishments that you can talk about endlessly.

Recently, disputes have not subsided around restaurants and cafes. The reason is the blurring of lines between these institutions. A significant contribution to the confusion was made by fast food restaurants that came to us from the USA and Europe, which, given the standards and GOSTs, cannot be called restaurants. It's just that in America, for example, any catering establishment is called a restaurant, which is why there have been some changes in the minds of our citizens. To eliminate further confusion, we propose to consider the differences between classic cafes and restaurants.

Definitions

If you look into explanatory dictionaries, then in Ozhegov's dictionary, for example, this French word is interpreted as "a small restaurant." In other sources there is a postscript "where you can have a bite." That is Cafe not designed for a long stay, but rather a place where you can quickly satisfy your hunger, or have a cup of tea or coffee. The cafe offers visitors simple snacks or semi-finished products.

Restaurants It is customary to call a public catering establishment in which a visitor is offered a wide range of dishes and drinks, including exotic or difficult-to-cook dishes. That is why cooking in a restaurant takes a long time. In terms of size, restaurants, as a rule, are quite large premises with several halls, for example, a banquet or VIP hall, a dance floor.

Service principles

The presence of waiters is one of the basic principles of any restaurant. The duties of the restaurant waiters include: setting the table, advising restaurant customers and helping to prepare the menu, taking orders, serving dishes and drinks according to etiquette, resolving emerging issues, providing an invoice and receiving payment. At the same time, a percentage of the service fee will also be included in the bill.

In a cafe you can not see the waiter at all. If it is available, it performs the following functions: maintaining cleanliness and order at the tables, changing the ashtray, cleaning dirty dishes. Most often, in a cafe, a visitor takes the menu himself at the bar, and leaves an order there. In some cafes, the waiter can help with the choice of dishes, as well as calculate the client.

Furnishings and interior

As a rule, the interior of the cafe is rather modest. It can even be plastic tables and chairs. In institutions with a higher level, the design can be decorated in a certain style. The absence of tablecloths is allowed in the cafe, and linen napkins can be replaced with paper ones. While the visitor has not made an order, his table will remain empty, all cutlery, and often spices, will be brought along with the order.

The tables are already set in the restaurant. At the same time, the presence of tablecloths and linen napkins is a must. Also, tables in restaurants are often decorated with fresh flowers. A good level of the restaurant is the presence of live music. The interior in restaurants can be very diverse. As a rule, this is high-quality and comfortable furniture, which speaks of a certain style and direction of the restaurant. For the comfort of visitors, climate control systems are installed in restaurants, which are responsible for maintaining the temperature in the room. The restaurant can be divided into an area for smokers and non-smokers.

Findings site

A cafe is a relatively small establishment that does not imply the presence of several halls. The restaurant is a spacious establishment, it can have a separate banquet hall, as well as areas for smokers and non-smokers.
People come to the cafe for a bite to eat, and the restaurant is designed for a good rest.
The cafe has a simple menu, which can include dishes from semi-finished products, while the restaurant menus offer complex dishes with a variety of ingredients, including exotic ones.
There may not be waiters in a cafe, while in a restaurant their presence is mandatory.
If there is a waiter in the cafe, then he has very limited functions: cleaning dishes and maintaining the cafe in proper condition, taking orders and monitoring the calculation. In a restaurant, the waiter sets the table, offers and advises dishes to visitors, and also serves them according to etiquette.
The interior of a cafe can be quite modest, while the interior of a restaurant suggests fresh flowers and expensive furniture.
Music is one of the main attributes of the restaurant, especially live music. There may or may not be music in a cafe.
In a cafe, the absence of tablecloths is allowed, and paper napkins are used instead of linen napkins. In the restaurant, tablecloths are required, and only linen napkins.
Climate control systems are installed in modern restaurants; their availability is too expensive for cafes.

To eliminate further confusion, we propose to consider the differences between classic cafes and restaurants.

Definition of cafe and restaurant

If you look into explanatory dictionaries, then in Ozhegov's dictionary, for example, this French word is interpreted as "a small restaurant." In other sources there is a postscript "where you can have a bite." That is, the cafe is not designed for a long stay, rather it is a place where you can quickly satisfy your hunger, or have a cup of tea or coffee. The cafe offers visitors simple snacks or semi-finished products.

It is customary to call a restaurant a public catering enterprise in which the visitor is offered a wide range of dishes and drinks, including exotic or difficult-to-cook dishes. That is why cooking in a restaurant takes a long time. In terms of size, restaurants, as a rule, are quite large premises with several halls, for example, a banquet or VIP hall, a dance floor.

Service principles

Furnishings and interior

To summarize the following :

A cafe is a relatively small establishment that does not imply the presence of several halls. The restaurant is a spacious establishment, it can have a separate banquet hall, as well as areas for smokers and non-smokers.
People come to the cafe for a bite to eat, and the restaurant is designed for a good rest.
The cafe has a simple menu, which can include dishes from semi-finished products, in the restaurant menu - complex dishes with a variety of ingredients, including exotic ones.
There may not be waiters in a cafe, while in a restaurant their presence is mandatory.
If there is a waiter in the cafe, then he has very limited functions: cleaning dishes and maintaining the cafe in proper condition, taking orders and monitoring the calculation. In a restaurant, the waiter sets the table, offers and advises dishes to visitors, and also serves them according to etiquette.
The interior of a cafe can be quite modest, while the interior of a restaurant suggests fresh flowers and expensive furniture.
Music is one of the main attributes of the restaurant, especially live music. There may or may not be music in a cafe.
In a cafe, the absence of tablecloths is allowed, and paper napkins are used instead of linen napkins. In the restaurant, tablecloths are required, and only linen napkins.
Climate control systems are installed in modern restaurants; their availability is too expensive for cafes.