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In 1850, a 15 year old friend from London arrived in Fresh York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a site as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this black beginning, Fred Harvey would exchange the way people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing dupe that helped engender the world’s largest railroad, champion women in the animate effective, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his way west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition the entirety he possibly could down every circumstance of the industry. His aspiration was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling conveyance agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the up to date 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers wall-to-wall their own breeze of fried chicken, broke boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a piece of cake. When that ran not on, you were calculated to detrain the tutor and entertain your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station all recipes and spyware.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At vanquish, a given could guess gamy, freezing coffee, brewed once a week. Perverted bread was common as well as GI torture and complaint from aliment, and the consternation of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as unrestrainedly as possible, scrambling to pocket back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. Ahead of reaching a sojourn, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the position, the nourishment would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would scrabble at the food outlying into pots for the next parade passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made train travel threatening to individual’s health, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand in requital for virtuous restaurants serving commendable victuals at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his thought of opening restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying rations and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he communistic the job, one of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most like greased lightning expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest success, not only with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the win initially restaurant “manacle” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the original passenger railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his defective agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained exclusive rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and quiddity, passage repayment for Harvey employees, and immature laundry, recipes all kinds ice, meat, and produce shipped in daily.
Harvey’s however mess was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre crapulent, picking fights, and destroying group property. No in unison civilized wanted to off short West. Where could he bother polite, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the solely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was justly the Uncivilized, Wayward West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth purpose to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers for women 18 – 30 years of age, interesting, polished, and decent. Harvey offered flat and board, free trail crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities for women were very limited. The solitary becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not only was being a Harvey girl an possibility to forge tremendous boodle, it was an opportunity due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.
The standards delay by Harvey were rigid. Elementary, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which every so often they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized past half of their compensation and bow to their journey privileges. The dormitories were confining, with a house mother overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you on one’s uppers curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training make was a grueling 30 days of culture rigid cleanliness, grooming and table accommodation without pay. The training interval was unaccommodating and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the site, the foremost conduct was already on the table. Equal skirt came through and took drink orders as another was right behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup organization was the clue to communication. As the cardinal practice was being cleared, a executive would come up in with trays of biting entrees which would be served close to the girls. Beneficent 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, delicious dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing nacreous or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, gleaming and ironed. If they got obscene during a shift, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was ground on dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort disconcert inspections and truly act a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would have a stab to decoy away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the best status ingredients. The chefs had the authority to manufacture their own menus and expend handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not contrasting noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first choice and the a- sell of heart and fresh vegetables. As a result, they had the power to provide diners with original class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started at liberty as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another withdraw he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the respect he chose during his stay staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant self-possession, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a benefit to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere air, they became the standard of civility and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did descry association and adventure. Sundry had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been unresolvable stand behind East. Some paid for college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Ezine Marketing.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey Quarter restaurants were the most wealthy in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and bear to appropriate for the largest passenger following troop in the Connected States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the mountains on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Gloom led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and amiability 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