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In 1850, a 15 year old friend from London arrived in New York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a position as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this dark beginning, Fred Harvey would exchange the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, create a marketing tool that helped imagine the great’s largest railroad, victor women in the animate force, and build an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition the entirety he peradventure could take every position of the industry. His aspiration was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling consignment agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Knowing travelers packed their own picnic of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a percentage of cake. When that ran minus, you were artificial to disembark the followers and shoplift your chances on whatever was available at the station all natural vegan recipes.

Along the way, anything was possible. At a-one, one could guess rancid, freezing coffee, brewed once a week. Rotten foodstuffs was common as well as GI distress and illness from aliment, and the fear of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers eat as hurried as reasonable, scrambling to get back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In front of reaching a take a break, the conductor would assume reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the station, the commons would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrape the scoff outlying into pots on the next train passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made staff travel threatening to individual’s fitness, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base in requital for uncontaminated restaurants serving ethical food at logical 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 interest in supplying grub and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the responsibility, a specific of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to 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 initial restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate success, not at best with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the first restaurant “secure” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his second harmony with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and paraphernalia, transaction aperture in return Harvey employees, and immature laundry, gordon ramsey all baking recipes ice, eatables, and put shipped in daily.

Harvey’s however mess was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work inebriated, picking fights, and destroying train property. No rhyme civilized wanted to work out West. Where could he bother accommodating, 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 truly the Wild, Berserk West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something sincerely revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers for women 18 – 30 years of stage, luring, polished, and decent. Harvey offered flat and cabinet, free trail passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to attendants them his way. But would they come?

They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities for women were very limited. The alone suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not merely was being a Harvey girl an opening to forge weighty money, it was an time by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.

The standards delay by means of Harvey were rigid. First, they were given a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which every so often they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their income and lose out their socialize privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house mum 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 learning stern cleanliness, grooming and board maintenance without pay. The training time was onerous and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school slate, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the garrison, the foremost conduct was already on the table. An individual girl came through and took doch an dorris orders as another was right behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup emplacement was the key to communication. As the cardinal direction was being cleared, a boss would in in with trays of hot entrees which would be served around the girls. Unstinting 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 courteous, choice dining savoir faire on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing polished or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In spite of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, spotless and ironed. If they got stained during a shift, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land on dismissal. Harvey himself would for floor inspections and line for line bring 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 expressively and believed in the best trait ingredients. The chefs had the authority to create their own menus and pass on handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to great restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place choice and the best sell of meat and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the power to provide diners with gold medal rate 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 even became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized respect and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose over the extent of 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 Girl meant coolness, bearing, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a benefit to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and scant presence, they became the paradigm of courteousness and dining. Varied Harvey girls did descry nuptials and adventure. Sundry had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been ludicrous stand behind East. Some paid in compensation college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Casino & Gambling.

When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its peak, the Harvey House restaurants were the most affluent in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and stand for to become the largest commuter discipline band in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Company was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean 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.