The odyssey of eating out

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 1994 by Bill Carlino

According to legend, after his mathematical genius was being lauded ad nauseam by an overzealous admirer, Sir Isaac Newton took the fawning young man aside anD told him, "If I can see father than you, it is only because I have stood on the shoulders of giants."

Like Newton attributing his consederable gathered knowledge to the work of predecessors, such as Archimedes, Galileo and Da Vinci, this historical Foodservice retrospective attempts both to chronicle and to credit the trailblazers and the subsequent generations of pioneers and innovators they spawned.

Men like Delmonico, Harvey, Rector, Sherry, Luchow and Cease would each leave a legacy that influenced future generations to dedicate their lives to upgrade and promote hospitality throughout the nation. For their groundwork literally set a table of inspiration for the modern-day keepers of the foodservice fLame.

From modest origins in taverns, coffee and oyster houses, the restaurant industry in America has becomeXa staggering economic force in teros of sheer statistics.

According to the National Restaurant Association, food and beverage sales in eating and drinking places are projected to hit $275 billion in 1994, or roughly 4.3 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

More than 9 million people are employed in the foodservice industry, making it the nation's largest retail employer, with that total expected to reach 12.4 million by the year 2005.

Foodservice purchases now command more than 42 percent of every food dollar.

Condensing 75 years of foodservice history into a few pages of text was, as one journalistic wag put it, "like attempting to put toothpaste back in a tube." Therefore, a thousand pardons for any glaring omissions.

Our thanks to industry stalwarts in their own right, such as James McLamore, Norman B;inker, James Collins, William Rosenberg, Joe Baum, H. Jerry Berns, Don Roth, Herman Berghoff, Professor Mickey Warner and Louis Elias, who unselfishly gave of their time to saturate me with facts, anecdores and personal perspectives.

Also to Wendy Webster of the National Restaurant Association, whose fax machine at times had a direct dial to the offices of Nation's Restaurant News, and to John Mariani, whose comprehensive "America Eats Out" servicef as an invaluable reference and act-checking guide.

But most of all, this section is dedicated to the giants, past and present, who invited and encouraged others to stand oN their shoulders.

1919-1930

One of the most telling influences on the future landscape of American restaurants before the onset of the "Roaring Twenties" was neither a classically trained chef for a well-financed entrepreneur with an idea for a "can't-miss" concept.

It was a whirlwind named Carrie Nation, an iron-willed Kansan who wielded an axe with as much prowess as August Escoffier handled a paring knife. Throughout much of the early 1900s, Nation was the most vociferous representative of a phenomenon called the Temperance Movement -- an organization obsessed with the obolition of the saloon and the abortion of public drunkenness.

Using her famed hatchet, Nation and her companions often wandered into saloons, which she referred to as "moral hellholes," and rapidly transformed nearby tables, chairs and oaken beer and wine casks into firewood kindling

Nation's efforts, reinforced by The Anti-Saloon League, a similarly driven splinter organization, influenced Congress' passage of the infamous 18th Amendment on Jan. 16, 1919, which prohibited the manufacturer, sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the United States.

The Volstead Act -- or simply "Prohibition," as it became more commonly known--severely hampered hotels with fine-dining establishments and many of the ethnic restaurants in cities like New York and Chicago were liquor had been a prominent and popular mainstay of the menu mix.

"At that time many of the restaurants like ours served food European style, which usually included a hefty portion of meat and beer," said Hermann Berghoff, a descendant of the brewing family who began the landmark The Berghoff restaurant in Chicago in 1898. "But when Prohibition came, everyone began to get serious about the menu. We had to make up for the loss of alcohol."

Other Windy City establishments of the period like Henrisi's, Fritzel's, Morton's and the Palmer House struggled to overcome the sudden and unwelcome challenge of running "dry" restaurants.

As an example, in 1920 Otto Roth opened The Blackhawk across from Marshall Fields on North Wabash and augmented his cuisine with live entertainment.

Roth's floor shows began with a simple staring ensembel, but eventually he booked such acts as Coon Sanders and the Kansas City Nighthawks and Herbie Kay. Soon Chicago's premier radio station, WGN, began doing remote broadcasts on Saturday night.

Later Ben Pollack, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Les Brown, Hall Kemp and even a newcomer named Ozzie Nelson were booked into the Blackhawk for the season.

"Customers would come in carrying brown bags and ordered mixers," remembered Don Roth, scion of the Blackhawk founder and the current operator of Don Roth's in Wheeling, Ill. "But we tended to ignore it."