Why is it called a Breakfast Nook?
If you ask the modern family where they eat most of their meals they will probably say the kitchen rather than the dining room. The dining room is the answer you would have gotten only a generation ago. That area in the kitchen where these families eat those meals is often called the breakfast nook. However, if you eat all of your meals there, why is it called the breakfast nook? To answer that question, you have to look at both parts of the name – breakfast and nook.
Let us first talk about the breakfast part. In general, most people think of breakfast as a more informal meal than dinner. When breakfast nook tables and breakfast nooks first started to be incorporated into homes, most families still ate the majority of their meals in the dining room. The breakfast table and chairs became a place to grab a quick breakfast before rushing out the door because rarely does a family sit down to a large breakfast together in the dining room. Nevertheless, most families still ate dinner and weekend lunches at the formal table. So, that kitchen table was only used in the mornings. Thus, people referred to it by that meal.
Now we need to discuss why it is called a nook. By definition a nook is any small recess or secluded corner. In ninety nine percent of the instances where there is a table and chairs in the kitchen they are located in a corner or small extension of the room. You almost never find a table in the middle of the kitchen, it is always separated in some way. That separation can be an imaginary wall or an actual niche, but there is separation. That is a perfect reason for the eating area of the kitchen to be called the breakfast nook.