EXPRESS: The “Door” to Doraemon’s Fantasy World: Understanding the Cartoon Café and Its Place Meanings

The popularity of animated characters has led foodservice operators to open restaurants that put cartoons at center stage. This type of establishment is referred to as a “cartoon café.” This qualitative inquiry employed two empirical studies to answer why customers patronize this type of eatery. Building on relational third-place theory (RTPT), it underscores how customer needs can ultimately shape loyalty outcomes through customer experience and place meaning. This research extends RTPT by highlighting the role of experience and co-developed (e.g., cartoon and restaurant) place meanings. It enriches the place meaning literature by acknowledging different interactive processes among personal experience, social interaction, and the physical environment in the hospitality setting. It also furthers the understanding of loyalty behaviors in hospitality services by offering a typology based on specific meanings of a third place. Implications for theory and practice are further discussed in the article.