Book review: “Appetite for America”

The last of the Harvey Houses closed more than 40 years ago, and they barely register a blip in the current public consciousness.

But author Stephen Fried makes a compelling case in “Appetite for America” (Bantam, 544 pages, $27) that Fred Harvey and his restaurants and resorts made an impact on tourism, dining and the hospitality business that reverberate throughout America — and Route 66 — to this day.

The Cliff Notes version was that Harvey was a British immigrant who developed dozens of restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops along the Southwest’s major rail lines during the late 19th century and well into the 20th. But Fried lays out the reasons why — for good or ill — that Harvey’s influence endures.

Fred Harvey built America’s first name brand. Fred Harvey wasn’t just a man’s name. Fred Harvey was the name of the company, and became synonymous with great service, exemplary food and quality. And the name was retained long after its founder died. As Fried puts it, Fred Harvey was Ray Kroc before McDonald’s and Howard Johnson before Hojo’s.

Fred Harvey built the first fast-food restaurant chain. Railroad passengers during the late 1800s had just 30 minutes to grab a meal when trains stopped for fuel and water. Harvey’s dining houses across the Southwest made sure those clients got quick and sumptuous food before reboarding.

Fred Harvey formed the first major female workforce. The Harvey Girl waitresses were trained by the company and boosted Fred Harvey’s image of quality and hospitality. Fried also argues convincingly that the Harvey Girls helped tame the Wild West; they persuaded miners, cowboys and ruffians who dined at Harvey Houses to be on their most gentlemanly behavior.

Fred Harvey ushered in modern-day restaurant standards. The company was formed in the 1880s, but Harvey’s 10 Fundamentals — such as “Courtesy and a Smile Pay Dividends” — ring true more than a century later (and should be required reading for restaurateurs). In addition to imploring his restaurant managers to be vigilant about cleanliness and service, Harvey told them to be on the lookout for good deals on quality local produce and meat, and adjust the menu accordingly when it was available. In his own way, Harvey was a trail-blazer in the current Slow Food movement.

Though Harvey’s quick rise as an entrepreneur seems unlikely, his background reveals otherwise. Shortly after coming to America as a teenager, he landed a job in one of the most popular restaurants in New York City and moved up in its ranks. He worked at restaurants in New Orleans and St. Louis. He also sorted mail on railroad cars. So he learned the restaurant and railroad business from the inside.

One gets the impression from Fried’s well-researched and lively book that Harvey wasn’t a genius. But Harvey craved excellence, knew a good thing when he saw it, and possessed the drive to seize opportunities. Railroad dining halls during the 1800s often served awful food with equally awful service, so Harvey knew that better and quicker food at those stops would be potentially lucrative. Harvey not only greatly improved those dining experiences, but the food and service were so good that the Harvey Houses became destinations unto themselves.

This excerpt from the book about a makeshift Harvey House in Las Vegas, N.M., proves revealing:

Fred was asked to establish a temporary restaurant in Las Vegas before the Santa Fe had even built a proper depot, so he had his staff work out of three old Santa Fe cars parked on a rarely used side track. One veteran railroader remembered them as “the worst-looking boxcars … the company and Harvey could scare up … [but] when travelers entered the big side door … they gasped with wonderment at what met their gaze. The walls were shiny with fresh paint in the gaudy Indian colors, the tables were spread with heavy milk-white Irish linen and napkins the size of pillow slips, the silverware shone like a French plate mirror, the clean clear glass goblets were filled with ice and nice clear water, and on the tables were large vases filled with wonderful fresh flowers.”

A stickler for detail, Harvey was known to yank the tablecloth and all of its carefully arranged dinnerware onto the floor if he spotted a fingerprint on a glass. He insisted that a fresh batch of coffee be brewed every two hours. Even the alkali level in the water supply was tested; if it flunked, better-quality water was hauled in by rail.

But Harvey also was generous with employees. Harvey Girls earned a week of vacation with free train travel anywhere on the Santa Fe line just six months after the start of employment. One housekeeper who lost her life savings during a fire was given a room at Harvey’s own house.

Fred Harvey, in fragile health much of his life, died in 1901 of abdominal cancer. But the Fred Harvey company continue to thrive under his son, Ford Harvey. One of its employees, Herman Schweitzer, compiled one of the greatest collections of American Indian crafts ever seen in Gallup, N.M., helping Southwest culture become a tourism attraction in itself. With Mary Colter’s distinctive Southwest architecture, Ford Harvey built El Tovar resort at the Grand Canyon and cemented both as destinations. He revamped a moribund hotel into La Fonda and greatly boosted Santa Fe, N.M., as a tourism stop.

Ford Harvey was well aware of the inevitable decline of the railroads, but he seemed confident his Harvey Houses could adapt to highway travelers, including those on what would be on a fledgling U.S. 66.

But Ford Harvey died unexpectedly during a flu epidemic, Harvey Houses were roiled financially by the Great Depression, and heir apparent Freddie Harvey died in a plane crash when he was about to fully take the reins of the company. This triple-whammy occurred in an eight-year period, and the company never recovered. The Fred Harvey empire ebbed away (despite the popularity of “The Harvey Girls” movie) and ceased to exist by 1968.

In one appendix of “Appetite for America,” author Fried and his wife take a train from Chicago to Los Angeles — following much of the old Santa Fe route — and check the surviving Harvey Houses and museums that contain company artifacts.

Another useful appendix lists all of the Fred Harvey hotels, dining rooms, lunchrooms and newstands in various cities, and whether they still exist.

One especially worthwhile section of the book is more than 40 Fred Harvey recipes, many of them never before published. Here, you can re-create Harvey House dishes, including Old Virginia sour milk biscuits, cream of Wisconsin cheese soup and La Fonda pudding. And, yes, you can learn to make Fred Harvey’s famous coffee.

Although they were railroad-related businesses, Harvey Houses have left abundant fingerprints on the Route 66 corridor. Among the attractions along or near the Mother Road are Union Station in Chicago and St. Louis; La Fonda in Santa Fe; La Castaneda in Las Vegas, N.M.; El Garces in Needles, Calif.; Casa del Desierto in Barstow, Calif.; Fray Marcosin Williams, Ariz.; Painted Desert Inn in Arizona; El Tovar at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim; and La Posada in Winslow, Ariz.

In fact, Fried says that seeing the marvelously restored La Posada from the railroad tracks is “one of the most welcoming experiences available in American travel.” By car, I concur with this as well.

Highly recommended.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.