From the beginning

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 1994 by Jack Hayes

The rationing rules of World War I were still in force when restaurateurs from around the nation huddled in the cold ballroom of the Coates House in downtown Kansas City, Mo., to launch the National Restaurant Association on Dec. 1, 1919.

But it was more than scarce fuel that put a chill in the air for operators on that "heatless Monday" in Kansas City. Something that would later be called "the shadow of government intrusion" was moving swiftly on the industry.

Many of these men had gathered together to work on and ward off industry problems since 1911 and others, since 1916, as members of the Kansas City Restaurant Association. But it was with foresight on that chilling day that they fomented an organization that would serve, advanced and protect their industry for the next 75 years and beyond.

"It was a grim time," said Missouri Restaurant Association executive vice president Carl Degan. "Rationing and price-gouging were the issues of the day."

Beyond being the year of the NRA's birth, 1919 is remembered for the passage of the infamous Volstead Act, which suddenly brought the chaos of Prohibition into dining rooms from New York to San Francisco.

Also frightening operators at that time was the spread and influence of the labor movement. Fearing the extinction of the "open shop," restaurant owners felt they need an organized front to battle with emerging unions.

Thus, as the fledgling NRA hosted its first national convention with delegates on hand from as far away as Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Dallas, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, there was no shortage of serious issues confronting the industry.

"No longer do you have to sit on the side lines of a hotel convention in order to get a few crumbs on restaurant operation," wrote veteran foodservice editor C.A. "Pat" Patterson, who had attended that historic NRA conclave.

Having served as its interim chief executive since March of that year--when a group of operators mostly from the Midwest met with the aim of forming a national industry body--restaurateur John Welch from Omaha, Neb., was elected the National Restaurant Association's first president.

Like most of the NRA's founders, Welch, who operated nine restaurants in Iowa and Nebraska, was also a member of Rotary International and has chaired that organization's "Restaurant Division" during previous Rotary conventions.

Operators Horace Boos from Los Angeles, Guy Taylor of Kansas City, Mo., and Harry Baldwin of Springfield, Mass., were elected first, second and third vice presidents respectively; and two other Kansas City businessmen, Al Carder and Myron Green, were voted the NRA's first secretary and treasurer in 1919.

In fact, until the National Restaurant Association moved its headquarters to Chicago in 1927, the group continued to work out of Kansas City. Its first office was upstairs from the original Myron Green Cafeteria at 1115 Walnut St.--in the same building where the NRA founders had met.

The roster of NRA directors in 1919 included restaurant operators Dave Anderson of Hutchinson, Kan.; S. Blau, Dallas; H.J. Boekenhoff, Des Moines, Iowa; Guy Gundaker, Philadelphia; Matilda Jane Hoff, Denver; James Mills, Columbus, Ohio; Floyd Payne, Indianapolis; C.A. Shay, Salt Lake City; and W.L. Swannell, Sacramento, Calif.

A stalwart among those pioneering operators who joined to lay the NRA's groundwork was restaurateur George Fowler, who would become father-in-law to Joseph Gilbert, a pioneer with Kansas City-based Gilbert/Robinson Inc.

Others in the NRA's select founding body were Harry Barth, G. Bishop, J.J. Blake, H.C. Bruderlin, Tom Bullock, W.C. Dunton, C.M. Hayman, Edward Sherman, R.T. Smith, Fred Spaulding, Joe Sturla, Jess Taylor, E.C. Templeton, Oliver Walker and A.J. West.

While Prohibition brought the end of profitable liquor sales and invited disaster to many of the 42,600 restaurants operating in the United States in 1919, the first NRA board--taking their new job seriously -- urged owners nationwide to gird up their bottom line with more effective purchasing, storage and food preparation.

That same board developed a national program emphasizing higher-quality food and upgraded service as a rallying point for struggling operators--in effect launching what would be remembered as the industry's "Modern Era."

Following the policy set down at its first conclave, which was to divide the informational side of the convention into "seminars," the NRA met in Cleveland the following year -- with operators from 37 states in attendance--and continued to stress better management, smoother operations and tighter cost controls.

In addition, the NRA found it could underwrite convention costs by inviting food and equipment suppliers to rent exhibit booths in which to show their wares to the nation's most influential restaurateurs. Except during the years of World War II when trade conventions were banned, the exhibition concept has been followed without interruption.

Welch remained president until 1921, when Baldwin, a coodservice manager who had led the NRA's first constitution and bylaws committee, took the gavel at the group's third convention in Los Angeles.