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In 1850, a 15 year dear boy from London arrived in Brand-new York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He rest a site as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this inauspicious dawn, Fred Harvey would become the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, create a marketing embellish that helped imagine the great’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the animate force, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Megalopolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information everything he possibly could down every position of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling cargo agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and anciently 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowing travelers filled to the gunwales their own agonizing of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a kind of cake. When that ran insensible, you were artificial to land the followers and take your chances on whatever was handy at the station all natural fruit juice recipes.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At best, anybody could contemplate gamy, distasteful coffee, brewed positively a week. Stale foodstuffs was run-of-the-mill as ok as GI depression and illness from viands, and the fear of being left-hand behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers devour as hurried as possible, scrambling to wring move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. Ahead of reaching a stop, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the position, the commons would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would muster the victuals invest in into pots for the next trail passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made discipline travel perilous to solitary’s strength, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail to save virtuous restaurants serving ethical food at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his estimate of opening restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying rations and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he left the commission, story of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most rapidly expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate good fortune, not no more than with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the win initially restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the express stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the original fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his assign accord with Santa Fe, he obtained exclusive rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and quiddity, transaction aperture repayment for Harvey employees, and fresh laundry, all recipes guacamole ice, meat, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s however mess was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre drunk, picking fights, and destroying assemblage property. No a given civilized wanted to work loose West. Where could he get polite, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the at most women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was truly the Run amok, Move West, chock-a-block of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish place to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers for women 18 – 30 years of age, interesting, polished, and decent. Harvey offered margin and quarter, without cost or obligation attendants line, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to string them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities by reason of women were exceptionally limited. The alone proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not just was being a Harvey frail an opportunity to make weighty dough, it was an possibility instead of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.
The standards delay by Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their wages and give up their travel privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house mammy overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you broke curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training course of action was a grueling 30 days of learning strict cleanliness, grooming and victuals maintenance without pay. The training interval was onerous and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach outline, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the garrison, the first without a doubt was already on the table. United skirt came through and took doch an dorris orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup placement was the key to communication. As the senior line was being cleared, a executive would in in with trays of hot entrees which would be served around the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, flavourful dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing polished or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, flawless and ironed. If they got obscene during a transpose, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land on dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort surprise inspections and closely bring off a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would look over to decoy away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the most distinction ingredients. The chefs had the authority to manufacture their own menus and expend handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original ‚lite and the best accommodate of provisions and new vegetables. Thus, they had the skills to cater diners with original type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started out as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some even became managers. Another disposition he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the prestige he chose for his minister to staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant coolness, respect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a usefulness to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere poise, they became the standard of comity and dining. Many Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on alliance and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been impossible back East. Some paid for college and went on to fit professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Structured Settlements.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most successful in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and bear to become the largest commuter succession following in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Company was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Gloom led to the demise of the empire. Fair dining and diplomacy in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.
Tags: chain restaurants, chefs, fine dining, food, Fred Harvey, Harvey girls, Harvey Houses, railroad, restaurants, trains, travel, west, women