Southern cafeteria chains like Piccadilly, K&W, and S&S are disappearing. Small business owners are saving the concept.

The dessert spread at Luby's Cafeteria in Houston in 2002. Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images Big cafeteria chains were once a fixture in the American South. But in the 2000s, food quality worsened, and many chains started consolidating and closing. Two family-owned cafeterias in Atlanta are thriving thanks to homemade food and their communities. Cafeteria chains, like Morrisons, Piccadilly, S&S, and Luby's, once dominated the American South. By the mid-20th century, there were...