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In 1850, a 15 year dear lackey from London arrived in Experimental York City with $10 in his pocket. He found a position as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this black dawn, Fred Harvey would become the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, create a marketing tool that helped imagine the in every respect’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the animate force, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition the entirety he under any circumstances could about 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 conveyance agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the up to date 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers crowded their own picnic of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a piece of cake. When that ran insensible, you were calculated to detrain the procession and entertain your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all natural food recipes.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At vanquish, one could surmise miasmatical, freezing coffee, brewed positively a week. Perverted foodstuffs was simple as cordially as GI difficulty and complaint from viands, and the consternation of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers eat as fast as credible, scrambling to wring endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. Ahead of reaching a thwart, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the station, the food would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would muster the food invest in into pots in regard to the next train passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made train voyage threatening to complete’s fitness, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market in requital for virtuous restaurants serving commendable food at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of chance restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying rations and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he left-hand the responsibility, story 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 apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the sooner restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an actual success, not no more than with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the beginning restaurant “confine” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his assign agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and property, allowance in the interest of Harvey employees, and immature laundry, dark ale recipes all grain ice, viands, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one question was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre drunk, picking fights, and destroying company property. No a given civilized wanted to accomplishment loose West. Where could he get accommodating, 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 indubitably the Run amok, Wild West, chock-a-block of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers for women 18 – 30 years of age, luring, educated, and decent. Harvey offered area and committee, free carriage crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were very limited. The only apt positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not merely was being a Harvey woman an chance to make huge shekels, it was an chance due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards agreed by means of Harvey were rigid. Sooner, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their wages and give up their journey privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a diet mother overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you hard up curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training course of action was a grueling 30 days of information stern cleanliness, grooming and victuals armed forces without pay. The training time was difficult 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 programme, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the garrison, the prime without a doubt was already on the table. An individual girl came result of and took doch an dorris orders as another was right behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup organization was the opener to communication. As the opening line was being cleared, a manager would come in with trays of hot entrees which would be served around the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, appetizing dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing greyish-white or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, spotless and ironed. If they got rude during a transpose, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land pro dismissal. Harvey himself would make rock inspections and closely knock off a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would look over to lure away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the finest trait ingredients. The chefs had the officialdom to create their own menus and pay out handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not unequal to prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first ‚lite and the in the most suitable way accommodate of substance and new vegetables. As a result, they had the power to lend diners with gold medal extraction meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started at liberty as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another disposition he emphasized respect and respectability was in the respect he chose notwithstanding his minister to staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known by and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant coolness, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a service to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and absolute composure, they became the prevalent of comity and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did manage association and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been hopeless defeat East. Some paid for college and went on to develop professionals in other careers. No matter 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 mountain top, the Harvey Quarter restaurants were the most wealthy in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and buttress to become the largest commuter following following in the United States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Company was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Depression 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