Amaya Toman Apple was strictly a computer company only in its early days. As it grew, the breadth of its scope also expanded – the Cupertino giant tried its hand at business in the music industry, the production of mobile devices, or perhaps the operation of various services. While he stayed with some of these areas, he preferred to leave others. The second group also includes the project in which Apple wanted to launch a network of its own restaurants called Apple Cafes.
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Apple Cafe restaurants were supposed to be located all over the world, and most of all they were supposed to resemble a kind of Apple Story, where, however, instead of buying hardware or service, visitors can have refreshments. The first of the restaurant chain was to be inaugurated at the end of 1997 in Los Angeles. In the end, however, neither the opening of the first branch nor the operation of the Apple Cafes network as such took place.
The London-based company Mega Bytes International BVI was to become Apple's partner in gastronomy. In the second half of the nineties, the phenomenon of internet cafes was relatively widespread and popular. At that time, Internet connection was not as obvious a part of the equipment of ordinary households as it is today, and many people went for a higher or lower fee to handle their more or less obscure affairs in specialized cafes, equipped with computers with Internet connection. Branches of the Apple Cafe network were also to become stylish and more or less luxurious cafes. The concept had quite a lot of potential, because at that time only 23% of American households were equipped with an Internet connection (while in the Czech Republic at the beginning of 1998 56 IP addresses). At that time, themed restaurants, such as Planet Hollywood, were also very popular. So the idea of an Apple-themed Internet cafe network didn't seem destined to fail in the late 1990s.
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The Apple Cafe branches were to be characterized by an interior in retro design, generous capacity and equipment with high-quality Internet connection, computers with CD-ROMs and the possibility of video conferencing between individual tables in the style of Face Time. The cafes were also supposed to include sales corners, where visitors could buy Apple souvenirs, but also software. In addition to Los Angeles, Apple wanted to open its Apple Cafes in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo and Sydney.
As bizarre as the idea of Apple Cafes may seem today, Apple's management at the time had little reason to reject it. After all, the popular snack chain Chuck E. Cheese's was founded in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell - the father of Atari. In the end, however, it did not come to fruition. The second half of the nineties of the last century was not very easy for Apple, and the plan to launch its own network of Internet cafes was finally taken for granted.
Source: Cult of Mac
