Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time

How Fred Harvey Won the West

I travel quite a bit in the southwest and I love staying at the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon as well as La Posada in Winslow Arizona. My stays there have always piqued my interest in how these places came to be. Well, Appetite For America answered these questions and gave me a rich and thorough story of food and train travel and hotels during a much simpler time in America.

Fred Harvey brought to our country a wonderful work ethic and sense of loyalty that seems a bit missing in today's world. His concern for his customers and employees makes one nostalgic for a time when a person's word actually meant something.

Anyone who is interested in trains, restaurants, hotels, the southwest, and a great "you are there" sense of storytelling will enjoy this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

This terrific historical biography starts off with quite a hook

This terrific historical biography starts off with quite a hook when drunken cowboys in 1882 meet Fred Harvey at his Montezuma Hotel and after a drink with the English expatriate and midnight breakfast come away with awe while wondering "Who the hell is Fred Harvey?" Stephen Fried provides a deep answer to the question of the pioneering entrepreneur who established the restaurant chain concept with his eating out facilities by railroad stations. As America changed, Fred Harvey modified his innovative Harvey Houses concept to include restaurants at National Parks with the Grand Canyon being the jewel. Even after he died his revolutionary business model survived. Well written, besides the radical change to the American service industry, the biography also looks back at the rest of the Fred Harvey story from his roots in England to the end of his company in the twentieth century. Stephen Fried provides a super spotlight on a key business mogul who began the change from the industrial manufacturing base to the service industry.

Harriet Klausner

What a great book highly recommended

one of the better books I have read in a long time.

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