The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-21


| The sign is painted in flaming red letters and
swings in front of No. l9l East Washington
street "Oyster Charley" is the first and only
| man to undertake to run one-cent eating house
in Indianapolis The place was opened two
months ago. "Oyster Charley was asked what
| inducement he had found for undertaking such
an unpromising enterprise. even in a city of
the size of Indianapolis" he explained, ''there
are great many people who have to live very
cheap or not live at all. Especially is
this the case through the winter season. There
are hundreds of women and children stored
away in the garrets and cellars who often 60 hun
CRY because they have no means with which to
provide eatables and for them to eat a half dozen
square meals at a restaurant in one week is out
of the question. / figured on the matter. and
concluded that with enough custom / would
m AXE fair living out of the project. and that is
all care for. haven't made any big money
out of the business. but my trade has steadily
grown The important thing in the business is
knowing how to buy. OF course can't buy the
best on the market, but always get good, clean.
wholesome stuff. buy mostly Of farmers with
whom 1 am acquainted. There is wonderful
profit in the restaurant business 1t is about all
profit. 1 know men here who nave made $50, 600
in the business in ten years, and were not extra
good managers either. On some of our dishes,
of course we lose money, but we make it back
on others, and where we lose on one dish we
make so per cent on half dozen others"
"Oystar Charley" is apparently of German de-
scent, and middle-aged man. The only help
he has. he says, is his wife, and the appearance
of her kitchen when the reporter was shown
through it indicated that she was invaluable in
making the one-cent clearinghouse q success
She prefers to do all the work herself, because
she cannot get cook that will save as she can
She does all the cooking and her husband all the
waiting.
''What can these people furnish for one cent?
or what kind of a meal for five centsf may be
asked. The question is answered by a printed
bill of fare, placed on each table, offering each
of the following dishes for one cent
Steak Bacon
Baked Beans Hominy
Corn Cakes, Goldfish Balls,
Milk Soup.
Pickles Hot Slaw,
Cold Saw, Fried Mush,
SuccotaSh Butter,
Tomatoes, Bread,
Potatoes Cabbage,
Two Pancakes Crackers,
Rice Apple Sauce
Sauer Kraut, Coffee, Straight.
Coffee, with Sugar, Coffee. with Milk,
OOHee, sugar anu MIX, Tie,
Rice Pudding, Bread Pudding,
Corn Starch Pudding,
All the dishes are the same size as those used
in other hotels and restaurants, and are well
filled. If a customer is very hungry. he
der the whole bill Of fare for thirty one cents, or
he can get the customary variety of food for
from five to seven cents, thus bringing the daily
cost of living down to fifteen cents day 81. %
week. The patrons of the place are, of course,
not the people who have been most favored wi tn
this worlds goods. They number on an average
about forty persons day, and of these fifteen or
twenty regular boarders. They are tenants
of the attcs of the Washington-street blocks and
the majority of them are women and children.
The women are mostly widows or unfortunates,
some of whom do washing and others sewing for
a living, earning from 81 to So week Out of
this they have to pay their room rent. their fuel
bill, clothe themselves and often children, and
get their subsistence One dollar will not go
very far toward buying food for week if they
have to cook it themselves, but at the one-cent
eating house it pays for such board as will
least keep life in their bodies. Many live with
out grumbling so and rs cents week. In
addition to these garrett tenants the hotel gets
much of it's trade from bootblacks and street
waits This class of patronage, however. has
greatly diminished since the opening of the
the bill of fare is almost as
cheap, and where lodging can also be
had at proportionately low rates. The third and
least numerous class of customers are the farm
ers. The sign attracts the attention Of many of
them each day, and the idea Of getting a square
meal for cents strikes them as a capital one,
and not a few give the hotel test. The fact
that the majority OF them come back the next
time they are IL the city is evidence that they
regard the place as bonanza. The fifteen cents
thus saved will more than pay the toll from diff
ferent portions of the surrounding country.