The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-10-04
I ca Rooms AS
Business For
w 8 M E n
BIZ BETH M'ILvAINE.

~ York ask querut0usly every eve
ming, Where shall we eat to-
nightss
This is vast city of diners-out.
Every block has its restaurant or tea
room, and you wonder how they keep
going under such heavy competition.
The mystery. would be solved, though,
il you could har the answer, Lets
20 to the Purple Cow; they always
have such good food there"
Good food! That's what turns the
trick. Let savory odor emanate from
the open door, back it up with good,
old-fashioned tasy victuals, and you'H
need cop to direct traffic outside your
store.
Last week I had the honor of being
invited to sit in on pow-wow OF
three successful restauranteurs, who
meet once a month to discuss ways
and means Of keeping the public's in
terest unflagging. They had been
friends before they went into business,
they are friends now, and to this very
same friendship and cooperation OF
ideas they attribute their rather I'M
usual successes
II tell you," said Jennie, who has
a tea room in every important district
in the city, ..the public is like flighty
wife who keeps her husband awake
nights figuring how-he is going to keep
her interested in him. We cooks are
the hectored husbands, and our hair Is
thin where we have pulled it out in
despair over the tickle creature
"And yet" put in fat, good-natured
Amelia, a wonderful cook. herself. who
personally superintends every bit of
food that goes out Of her kitchen, "she
pays our bills, and the Jokes on her
in the long run.
81 remember when / first started in
that upstairs place near tn city hall.
I was cook, waitress and cashier all IN
one. Almost every ne has to start
that way"
Amelia was the kind of competent
person. never Hurried, almost inhuman-,
u patient, yet able. to cover an amaz-
ing amount Of space in q short time,
that you could imagine being three per-
sons in one. 49, ~
Eyes, sir, that's what 1 did. 1t takes
elbow grease, you know. Cant do it
u
and every single person asking for
chicken salad when only enough for two
orders was in the kitchen. Couldn't
say didn't have it--peopIe must get
what they want when they want it or
you lose customers-so doctored roast
veal until it even smelled like chicken.
Do you know, four of those people COM
plimented me on that salad?"
Tall, angular Ruth spoke for the
first time.
'You should have been q fireman
good in an emergency. remember the
time when my three mattresses were
sick at the same time. I had to have
more, so / went out on the street,
picked three girls who looked hungry
and put them to work. One almost
cleaned me out of silver, but the other
two are still with me, one as manager
of my downtown store, and the other as
my secretary"
Ruth had had a small personal for
tune to start with, making it possible
for her to start with a sufficient staff
of helpers and good sized shop. She
had been personnel director in large
department store, however, and was
electric with energy and executive
ability. She can't do things herself,
but no, how she canc drive Others She
has made good and stripled the money
she invested.
/ turned to Jennie and ventured a
personal question.
What made you go into tea room
work? You look to0-too butterflylike
to mess around fod."
She accepted the lame remark as
compliment. But even butterflies have
4 al "a 70 faah
myself. For my first store / paid SO, 900
rent a year. The first month / had
exactly two customers a day. To meet
expenses / got up at o'clock every
morning and baked cakes 1 sold to my
friends, who were Kind enough to think
them good.
Zone day a very high and mighty
lady arrived in her Rolls-Royce. By
that time was affording very small
and inexpensive colored waitress. The
lady insisted on giving her order to
the proprietor and nothing would
do but come out from the kitchen,
hot, Hurried, with flour on my face
and hands. She looked me over from
head to foot, and then shrilled in pro-
test "But, my dear, you look like q
lady!" -, ....., .u..
1 forget it, the daughter of an old chum
of mine came to me the other day for
a tea room and so went to a training
school for tea room managers uptown.
Did think it wise and SO on?
told her such schools, if god ones, are
very valuable except that they don't
give enough practical experience for her
to start right in with her own shop.
81 advised her to get a job rs a
waitress in a big tea room and watch
the machinery go round. If she's in
earnest and any good at al, they'll pro-
mote her to assistant food production
manager, and she'll get the executive
side Of it too. Her own place will lie