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In 1850, a 15 year old friend from London arrived in Experimental York City with $10 in his pocket. He found a site as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this portentous inception, Fred Harvey would change the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing embellish that helped create the world’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the animate effective, and erect an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture the entirety he deo volente could relative to every orientation of the industry. His aspiration 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 beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowing travelers packed their own picnic of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a kind of cake. When that ran not on, you were calculated to step off the procession and entertain your chances on whatever was handy at the station all stew recipes.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At vanquish, one could contemplate gamy, bitter coffee, brewed positively a week. Rotten bread was run-of-the-mill as well as GI difficulty and affliction from aliment, and the foresee of being left behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as unrestrainedly as credible, scrambling to wring move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In the future reaching a stop, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the standing, the commons would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the scoff outlying into pots in regard to the next train passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made followers journey chancy to solitary’s constitution, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base payment clean restaurants serving commendable subsistence at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of chink restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying food and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he communistic the office, one of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an actual good fortune, not simply with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the beginning restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast expansion of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night voyager railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his defective agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and property, allowance in return Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, six veggie bake all recipes ice, meat, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one problem was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying train property. No in unison civilized wanted to accomplishment out West. Where could he bother accommodating, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the only women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was truly the Wild, Wild West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers for women 18 – 30 years of mature, interesting, polished, and decent. Harvey offered area and quarter, without cost or obligation train vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No acquaintance 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 for the duration of women were unusually limited. The alone becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not not was being a Harvey girl an opportunity to make tremendous shekels, it was an opportunity instead of adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards agreed aside Harvey were rigid. Sooner, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their compensation and lose their travel privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a house mother 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 make was a grueling 30 days of culture defined cleanliness, grooming and record maintenance without pay. The training period was unaccommodating and stressful, but sundry women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school programme, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the site, the first progress was already on the table. United live-in lover came as a consequence and took sip orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup emplacement was the opener to communication. As the opening direction was being cleared, a boss would come up in with trays of searing entrees which would be served via the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains no greater than stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, delicious dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing polished or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In spite of the dust and slop of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, flawless and ironed. If they got dirty during a scrape by, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort surprise inspections and literally knock off a white glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would sample to lure away the chef anytime he had a superior meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the best quality ingredients. The chefs had the authority to forge their own menus and expend handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unlike huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place acceptance and the best sell of heart and brisk vegetables. Hence, they had the capacity to provide diners with original class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started antiquated as a waitress, became head waitress, and some to became managers. Another withdraw he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the prestige he chose during his wait staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Sooner, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant coolness, respect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restraint restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they equip a usefulness to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere composure, they became the standard of comity and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did find alliance and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been hopeless defeat East. Some paid for college and went on to fit professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they build themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Babies & Toddler.
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 wealthy in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and stand for to evolve into the largest fare train band in the Connected States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Great Depression led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and urbanity 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