The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-16
B E s SE M E R

New York, February 15.-(Special) 1.-The free lunch habit is breaking into high New York society, according to propfle- tors of well known hotels. and as q re- suit, men worth millions, who, five years ago. would have hestated to be seen taking a bite at the lunch counter in the cafe, now think nothing of getting their midday luncheon at these price less restaurants The panic has nothing whatever to do with this practice. nor IS it a plan to save money. The hotel peo- pie regard it as another development III the split-second method of American bus- iness-another chance to save a minute or two for stocks or deals in the middle of the day which the financier is seiz- ing. Frequently the tips given by these men to the walters in the free lunch de- partment would serve with the addl- tional sum spent for beverages, to pur- chase a very good luncheon in the nearby dining room. There is another factor however, the hotel men believe. This is the fact that meats and other dishes served at these counters arc commonly cooked in plain American fashion, and many men, whose plates are wearled by , the foreign dishes served to them by the hotel chefs or by their own eordon bleu at home, are glad to get ham Amer can style. without champagne sauce. or roast beef without mushroom fixings or rich gravies.
 Some hotel men say that there is mysterious psychological explanation Of the free lunch habit. In discussion along that line recently Copeland Town send, proprietor of the Hotel Imperial said:
 ''T don't know why it is, but people say that the same dish served in the regular dining room. tastes better on the free lunch counter. I, myself, have imagined that pork and beans taste better on the lunch counter than in the dining room although know the identical dishes serv- ed in both places"
 The evolution of the free lunch, which, it is figured. now costs cafe proprietors over million and a half a year in New York City alone, has brought about a reversal in caste for all free lunchers Not many years ago, the free lunch was to be found only in little drinking places where beef stew or potato salad, served in huge platters and eaten with com munal fork taken from a glass of water And the man who patronized 1t was look ed upon as broke and a sort of graf ter Today the free lunch is regular institution in many of the leading hotels. Its menu is prepared and served as is my lady's luncheon in. the palm room. Ere quently, the lunch is presided over by an assistant chef and has it's own corps of walters, just as attentive as those who served turtle and canvasbaek. The free lunch also has progressed in the smaller places and probably three-quarters of the 1000 cafes in New York now serve fairly elaborate lunches consisting of soup or meat and a variety of relishes. salads and cheeses. It is a small drink ing place, indeed that does not spend more than 50. day for it's luncheon, while in the bigger hotels, tI nty dol lars a day for food alone, exclusive of ,f ,l.a fn nx,H ffarc ss not a n unusual figure. The best of everything is the general rule. And in this branch of tho business the local commission mer- chants find a ready market for thous- ands of dollars worth of the choicest produce, from eggs to turkeys raised by the farmers of New York state. The free lunch counter is also one of the best consumers of American cheese, and of this dairy product alone it is estimtaed fully 270,0O0 pounds d year are used just to let the cafe patron have a bite of cheese and a cracker with his drink
 Tn each of at least score of hotels in Broadway s2OO a week is spent for food alone for the free lunch buffets. These places offer two hot meats, which are usually chosen from beef, lamb or veal, and there are always potatoes and veg etables and variety of cold meats as we'll. Salads of various sorts are in- cluded likewise, to say nothing of pick les, olives cheese and crackers. And on holidays, turkey after turkey is carved to make up this gratuitous lunch.
 This lunch is set out at half past eleven o'clock each morning. except Sunday, and is continued until three o'clock in the afternoon. cold lunch is offered from five until half past six. It consists of cold meats, including chicken, usually, with trimmings" Again during thea ire hours the cold lunch is resumed. Two-thirds of the men who indulge in a drink partake of the free lunch. some with appetites that tax even the suavity of the assistant ref and others merely "nibbling'' at a cracker. There are few hotels in Broadway-aboye the Flatiron building, at that-to which men actually journey from Wall street just for the sake of the free lunch. Some of their friends may call them eccentric. but they say that Louis prepares a, lunch that l can eat and enjoy more than any kind l can buy outright at other places" In many places he may sit at a table and receive walters attention quite on par with that to be had in the most ex- elusive dining room.
 q am an habtute of this free lunch place because I can get the kind of food that mother used to cook'-good Amcri- can old home food, said a well known man about town, when asked why the free lunch habit appealed to him. l see what I am getting and I don't have to wait for it. Observe how that waiter serves the lunch; he's lifting that toast with forks as daintily as you please. couldn't get better or more wholesome lunch if I paid for 1t in dining room. That's the reason I'm free luncher.' And he tossed the waiter quarter.
 Indeed, so large and well recognized is the free dunch trade that it has brought about the establishment of a new line of business, concerning which few New Workers have heard. There now are firms that confine themselves exclusively to free lunch catering. supplying the smaller places with a certain amount of hot and cold food every day. Of course. the higher class hotels and cafes prepare their own lunch, employing high-prlced aides to Epicurus to tempt the appetites Of their patrons.
 Proprletors of hotels and cafes where the free lunch has attained such distinc- tion are unanimous in saying that it pays handsomely, too. Not only do pa irons spend as much money for drinks as a bought lunch would cost them, but