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In 1850, a 15 year old friend from London arrived in Fresh York City with $10 in his pocket. He develop a emplacement as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this portentous dawn, Fred Harvey would become the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing mechanism that helped create the in every respect’s largest railroad, champion women in the toil effective, and construct an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his way west, stopping in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Megalopolis, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the whole shooting match he deo volente could take 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 cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers filled to the gunwales their own picnic of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a portion of cake. When that ran minus, you were artificial to step off the followers and shoplift your chances on whatever was handy at the station all natural liquid hand soap recipes.
Along the way, anything was possible. At best, one could contemplate rancid, distasteful coffee, brewed positively a week. Rotten bread was run-of-the-mill as ok as GI distress and illness from nourishment, and the foresee of being hand behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers eat as fast as reasonable, scrambling to get endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In front of reaching a thwart, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the position, the commons would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the foodstuffs back into pots in regard to the next discipline passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made followers voyage perilous to one’s constitution, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand to save uncontaminated restaurants serving good subsistence at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his idea of cranny restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying grub and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he socialistic the responsibility, one of the officials commented that he should approach the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at the speed of light expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the initial restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking star, not simply with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the maiden restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous expansion of the West, Santa Fe became the original voyager railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a sharp negotiator. When he negotiated his assign agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and real estate, text for Harvey employees, and new laundry, recipes all bran flakes ice, eatables, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s not disturbed was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work crapulent, picking fights, and destroying company property. No one civilized wanted to work out West. Where could he get acceptable, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the merely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was indubitably the Wild, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers for women 18 – 30 years of age, luring, educated, and decent. Harvey offered margin and cabinet, without cost or obligation train line, and wages of $17.50 per month. No trial necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the recent nineteenth century, opportunities for the duration of women were exceptionally limited. The at most becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not not was being a Harvey woman an opening to grow into huge shekels, it was an chance for adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards set by Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were given a 6, 9, or 12 month contract during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their salary and give up their travel privileges. The dormitories were confining, with a strain mammy overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you ruined curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training handle was a grueling 30 days of culture defined cleanliness, grooming and record service without pay. The training era was difficult and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the line programme, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the place, the foremost course was already on the table. One girl came through and took sip orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup placement was the clue to communication. As the cardinal line was being cleared, a boss would come in with trays of steaming entrees which would be served via the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, delicious dining savoir faire on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t baroque, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing nacreous or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, unspotted and ironed. If they got obscene during a scrape by, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was prepare on dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort disconcert inspections and line for line act a stainless glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would have a stab to lure away the chef anytime he had a magic meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the most status ingredients. The chefs had the officialdom to create their own menus and expend handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place choice and the a- rig out of provisions and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the power to provide diners with gold medal class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started antiquated as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another way he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the prestige he chose notwithstanding his interval staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Sooner, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant self-possession, veneration, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they offer a service to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere presence, they became the prevalent of amiability and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on nuptials and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been hopeless assist East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No business what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Entrepreneur.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most affluent in the countryside, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and support to appropriate for the largest fare following following in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey House was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Indentation 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.
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