The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-11-07
Square Meal at a Fair
Price in Sight Again
and Even the Sand
witch Grows

soine quarters the nve cent wedge oil
pie is back, and by that sign know
that there is a trend to reduce the al
too lofty scale of living in the restaurants
and the hotels. This cuneiform earnest OF
better things appears only in the CHEAP
beaneries chain and in size It is not such as
mother was accustomed to give but all the
same it is like rainbow of promise. 1t
bears out the bulletins from Washington in
dcating that the prices of food commodities
have at least ceased to rise, and in retail
circles it shows a true index of declining
costs.
Truth to tell. the triangle multiplied by
the geomerical pie is not often to be cap
tured for five cents. In some of the So
called cheap restaurants, such as those in
which humble folk were glad to eat before
the war, man size pie portions still bring
10 cents and in some places the tariff is 20
cents, which is accounted not an extrava-
gance. In the nickle in the slot automatic
refectories one has to deposit two coins to
get respectable piece of apple or custard.
Explaining Cheap Apples and Dear Pie.
When one discourses on high living costs
II is well to consider the parable of the pie
az told the other day by the manager of
one of the white fronted chain restaurants
I'VE are thinking" he said, although the
word has not gone out yet, of reducing apple
pie from 15 cents to 10 cents, but with us
five cent pieces are out of the question. In
all this II is the overhead which hikes the
cost. Apples are cheap now. but when we
made our bill of fare they were very high
and the fresh fruit was beyond the reach OF
Yafa mall ,t,.lr -
using the canned stuff so we held up the
price and bought the very best fruit which
the market afforded. It's not the pie that
costs so much, although everything Is so
dear, but the real expense comes from the
cost of labor, the handling of the pie boxes
and the cost OF cutting and serving said
pastry.
"Od Man Overhead is not considered by
those who complain of the high cost of liv-
ing, ana yet. in the matter of pie as I'm all
other food commodities, we must consider
the expenses Of light and fuel and laundry
for The table and for the aprons of the walt.
resses. And when il comes TO custard pie
now just see how eggs and milk have gone
up and then ask why we don't charge
twenty cents for that kind instead of only
fifteen"
AS the costs of meals tend toward the
bottom, although as yet they so far from
1t, there appear restaurant keepers and
MOTEL men who are willing TO meet conditions
half way. With the advice of the Flying
Squadron and a special Assistant Attorney
General the work OF bringing the purveyors
of food to a closer schedule is proceeding
apace.
In some restaurants where the standard
charge had been 81 for a meal only a few
weeks ago there are signs announcing a re-
bate of from fifteen to twenty-five cents.
In some or the eating houses of the bakery
for I'M
petition has brought down the prices from
20 to 25 per cent.
Although this would hardly seem pro-
ptious time for the starting OF new gusta-
toria enterprises. there have sprung up In
the city within the last few weeks some