The Springer Cafeteria

I may have mentioned before that the cuisine of the Netherlands is not necessarily what one would call ‘gourmet’. While the quality of the basic food ingredients is much better than what you generally see in the US, it’s the dishes they decide to make with them that makes you wonder.

Here is a shot of Springer’s cafeteria. This is another Europeanism. Companies of a decent size are expected to provide a cafeeteria for their employees. I dont’ know if they are also supposed to subsidize the food in them, but that’s what ours does. And I have to say, it’s nice to get a whole meal for three Euros. It’s quick and convenient and cheap.

You can see the need for something like this in offices where there really are no nearby food options. I’m not sure if downtown Dordrecht qualifies, but it’s also a status thing. It means your company is big enough and important enough that they have to assume this sustenance burden.

In New York providing a service like is something that I’ve only seen at one place, the Viacom building where I went once for an interview with MTV. Now, you could argue that midtown Manhattan is also full enough of eating options that providing a service like that isn’t needed, but there are actually quite a few areas of midtown where tens of thousands of people work and there really aren’t enough eateries to support them all. I’m sure that quite a few of those fifty and sixty story office buildings have cafeterias.

I’m not sure if they stock the same amount of sour milk, whole herring, meat paste filled croquettes, and individually wrapped slices of cold cuts… but I’m sure they are there.

They probably aren’t subsidized either.