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In 1850, a 15 year getting on in years boy from London arrived in Brand-new York City with $10 in his pocket. He rest a emplacement as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this inauspicious beginning, Fred Harvey would exchange the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing embellish that helped create the in every respect’s largest railroad, champion women in the animate force, and construct an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information entire lot he peradventure could down every position of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling freight cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers packed their own picnic of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a piece of cake. When that ran insensible, you were artificial to detrain the tutor and pinch your chances on whatever was handy at the station wheat free all rye recipes.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At most artistically, one could guess gamy, bitter coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Rotten foodstuffs was common as ok as GI torture and illness from aliment, and the foresee of being left behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers eat as fast as plausible, scrambling to wring retreat from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. Before reaching a thwart, the conductor would assume reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the station, the bread would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would muster the scoff outlying into pots exchange for the next train passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per avert as their take. These conditions and scams made followers journey threatening to individual’s health, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail to save neat restaurants serving good food at reasonable prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of opening restaurants at the train depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying prog and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he left the responsibility, inseparable of the officials commented that he should path 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 apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an actual good fortune, not at best with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the maiden restaurant “manacle” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere passenger railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a sharp negotiator. When he negotiated his second agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and real estate, allowance in the interest of Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all types of recipes ice, viands, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one question was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying company property. No a given civilized wanted to dispose not at home 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 Uncivilized, Move West, chock-a-block of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncivilized niche to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers for women 18 – 30 years of stage, interesting, educated, and decent. Harvey offered room and board, without cost or obligation trail crossing, 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 late nineteenth century, opportunities by reason of women were very limited. The solitary suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not not was being a Harvey frail an opening to grow into huge boodle, it was an chance instead of adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.
The standards set by means of Harvey were rigid. First, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their income and lose their journey privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house dam 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 handle was a grueling 30 days of information rigid cleanliness, grooming and table accommodation without pay. The training interval was difficult and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the encounter gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the line slate, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the garrison, the foremost course was already on the table. An individual skirt came thoroughly and took tipple orders as another was right behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup placement was the opener to communication. As the first practice was being cleared, a manager would put one’s hands in with trays of biting entrees which would be served close to the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, delicious dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t baroque, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing polished or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In offend of the dust and slop of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, unspotted and ironed. If they got dirty during a look after, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod pro dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to rock inspections and truly knock 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 ok and believed in the best distinction ingredients. The chefs had the authority to create their own menus and pay out handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to great restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset acceptance and the in the most suitable way rig out of substance and fresh vegetables. Hence, they had the capacity to lend diners with earliest type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Numerous women started antiquated as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another way he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the name he chose over the extent of his wait staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant aplomb, respect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they accord a putting into play to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and stark air, they became the orthodox of amiability and dining. Many Harvey girls did descry association and adventure. Sundry had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would be undergoing been unresolvable defeat East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Alternative Medicine.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its mountain top, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most successful in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and stand for to appropriate for the largest fare discipline troop in the United States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the mountains on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Gloom led to the demise of the empire. Prime 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