In 1935 the first Café Bars opened in M&S stores. Customers could order dishes like joints, steaks or fish and chips. When war broke out in 1939, there was more demand for restaurants (and plenty of space due to lack of stock) so by 1942 there were 82 M&S Café Bars across the UK. They were very popular because customers could buy cheap hot meals without using precious ration tokens.
By 1950 the era of the Café Bar reached its peak, with bars in 120 stores.
However, as rationing was phased out, Café Bars were viewed as taking up valuable selling space and were gradually closed down. In 1961 Exeter and Leeds Café Bars were the last two to close.
M&S coffee shops, called The Coffee Bar, began opening again in 1998. They were a great success and led to Café Revive, a larger café, opening in stores around the country. In 2005, Café Revive became the first UK coffee shop chain to offer Fairtrade tea and coffee as standard. Café Revive has since been rebranded as M&S Café.
The first M&S Kitchen opened in Canterbury in 2006 selling dishes made with M&S ingredients. The design scheme featured fabric prints from the M&S Archive collection.
M&S Cafes Today
Today M&S donates 1p for every cup of tea or coffee sold in their cafés to empower positive change for tea and coffee producers and their local communities. All M&S tea and coffee is 100% Fairtrade, ensuring M&S contributes more Fairtrade Premium for tea and coffee than any other UK retailer. Customers also get 50p off hot drinks when they bring their own reusable cup.
One of the largest in-store cafés is at the M&S Leeds White Rose store which opened in 2023 with 164 seats, digital ordering points and menus that include breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.
