As promised a wee bit more recent fast food history before we head backwards in time. I started with talking about burgers so lets stay there for a bit more and flesh out the phenomenon that was White Castle.
Founded in 1921 when businessman Bill Ingram hooked up with restaurateur Walter Anderson, the Wichita , Kansas eatery became the first real fast food style chain ever. Anderson's hamburgers were tiny little affairs that sold for 5 cents. With a coupon you could get 5 for 10 cents.
The business angle of the success of White Castle was an American business first. Food was cooked in a production line, like Henry Ford's cars, and served as fast as people ordered it. To make the small burgers look bigger, they had a square shape so the edges stuck out. They moved to burgers with holes in the middle to reduce cooking times and eliminate flipping these little gems. Cooks at White Castle could really be any of the staff members and that suited them just fine. Staff turnover is typically high in the food service racket so little time and money needed to be spent training cooks. Once again keeping costs down, this no doubt contributed to the hamburger chain being the first to hit the million and then, billion hamburgers sold plateaus.
The innovations were not just in the kitchen. I mean square patties with holes in them are pretty cool, but as the chain expanded, they had to source everything. This is the early 40's after all, and you don't just call up and get 4000 pounds of burger delivered to your door.
Not surprisingly, the staff had to be kept clothed in a uniform and since custom paper hats just didn't exist, and the Internet was still 40 years away, Ingram made his own. Even developed a machine for making them and a company to do it at, Paperlynen.
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