The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-08-07
BUSINESS Is BOOMING
SAYS HOTEL IA SALE
hotels Restaurants All Increase sales.
Class 81 Patrons Brinw Favorable
Comment,

The Hotel Lasalle Page. an eight
page weekly journal published by the
Hotel LasaiIe tChicago) employees. in
the issue OF July IL carries an arti-
Gle which tells how prohibition has
affected Hotel LaSalle The story Is
written on the llth OF July and there
fore covers the first ten DAYS of the
dry era. The following are excerpts:
Judging from the amount of space
which the daily newspapers have given
to the subject of prohibition since
July l We assume that the world Is
very much interested in its. effect upon
the hotel business and the management
Of Hotel I.aSalle has been closely
watching fsoia day to day The business
il our various departments We have
found for one thing that the popu-
1rity for the open bar has greatly
diminished and sales at the oDen bar
Rave been diminished over 30 per cent
1t seems apparent. therefore. that the
former partons of the bar are no
longer using our magnificent buffet as
q meeting room or place for rest
and refreshment. The men do not seem
to relish the Idea of draping them-
selves over a counter and standing
there by the hour for the purpose of
consuming lemonade and vichy water
Zone very interesting thing has been
noticed. however. and that is the tre-
mendously increased sale of fancy soft
drinks. lemonades near beers. spark
ling elders. mineral waters and non
intoxicating refreshing beverages in
all of our restaurants. Wine Steward
Charles D. Buchanan, with the assist
ance of J. W. STALL our fancy cream
expert, has prepared an elaborate list
of specials Cooling and refreshing
deserts and summer mixed drinks)
which are wonderfully attractive and
since their introduction in the restau-
rants have been tremendously popu-
lar. Some of these drinks have the
appearance of the real thing. are just
as enjoyable. more refreshing and by
far less injurious than the alcoholic
drinks formerly served
we understand that there are
certain restaurants in Chicago that
have suffered severely through the
loss of the privilege of selling wines
and liquors. We are told that one
restaurant has let out Atty walters,
walters, and so on. but our restau-
rant business instead Of decreasing has
increased. The receipts from the roof
garden for the first ten days in July
are far in excess Of the first ten days
in July of any year since the hotel has
been opened. The same is true of the
Blue Fountain room, the Louis XVI
room, the lockwood room. the Cafe
and the Dutch room. Previous years
the restaurant business has been so
light during the month Of July that
we found it advisable to close either
the lockwood or the Dutch room for
the month. Up to date. however, this
month our restaurants have been
crowded to capacity every day not
withstanding the much lamented dry
wave. And il is a pleasure to note
the character of the people who are
ratronizing our restaurants.
This is not an argument for pro-
hihition because we are not an advo-
cate for it. realizing as we do that
the majority Of people feel that light
wines and beers are not in any way
harmful. 1t does show. however. that
the better hotels are going to survive
| the shock"
| Pretty good testimony from an un-
| willing witness.