By Paul A. Tenkotte, Ph.D.
Special for NKyTribune
Part 9 of an occasional series on fast food restaurants.
In 1888, Cincinnati’s centennial year, a photographer captured a priceless moment. You can even find a giant, almost life-size enlargement of this photo at the National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island in New York. It shows Tedeschi and Pardi’s Saloon on Vine Street, then near Cincinnati’s so-called “detestable intersection” of Fifth and Vine Streets. People chat on the sidewalk. Above them, the saloon’s sign reads: “A Vienna sausage with every drink.” Other competing saloons advertise the same thing.
“A Wienerwurst (sausage) with every drink” is the crux of our column today. Literally, saloons in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky (and many other places in the United States like Chicago) in the late 1800s and early 1900s would entice patrons to visit them on their lunch break, purchase one or more alcoholic beverages, and enjoy a “free lunch.” This seems like a good deal for individual patrons, but what were the social issues and costs?
Temperance leaders, those who sought to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption in America, were dismayed by these free lunches in saloons. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) opposed alcohol abuse and its harmful effects on women and families. In an era when men were the primary “breadwinners,” a husband who drank too much alcohol and spent too much of the family budget on alcoholic beverages could lead to serious financial problems. In addition, some alcoholics were violent toward their spouses and children. Employers were also not happy about employees wandering into saloons during their lunch breaks and returning to work less able to do their jobs. Others opposed alcohol on moral grounds, and still others felt that saloons were not compliant with food hygiene regulations.
Indeed, practicing hygienic eating conditions was clearly not a priority for saloons. In June 1914, Cincinnati Post The Post reporter ironically noted that “Cincinnati’s chief health inspector, Mr. Folsom, saw the matter as the result of his visits to 773 of Cincinnati’s 802 saloons.”
The journalist continued:
“As a result of his inspections, one of the oldest institutions of the beverage bazaar is to be abolished, namely the counter fork. It will no longer impartially alternate between pickled herring and sauerkraut; you will no longer be allowed to poke a steaming sausage with it after it has returned from active service of shoving beans into a hungry face.
“Instead, Folsom recommends a basket of clean individual forks, which the wearer should refill regularly. The order is accompanied by the following instructions on the use of this instrument:
“Forks are provided for removing food from the plate and carrying it in the hand, and are not to be used to put food in the mouth.” (“Pipe This: City Says We Must Have Own Forks at Free Lunch Counter” Cincinnati Post, June 17, 1914, p. 1).
The same article points out that the health inspector found dirty windows in 151 salons, and that of the “773 salons inspected, only 21 met all health requirements.”
Seven years earlier, in 1907, Covington, Kentucky, was stepping up its health inspections of meat and milk producers and retailers. Dr. WEA Wyman, the city’s “meat and milk inspector,” and his fellow health department staffers were waging a “vigorous crusade” against unclean and adulterated products. Kentucky Post The reporter said that “Dr. Wyman has been particularly courageous in his crusade of inspections. The slaughterhouses, meat and milk depots, and some dairies have been visited and thoroughly inspected.” Dr. Wyman said that “in a short time every butcher, meat merchant, and milkman in Covington will have to have a license. Those who don’t will be arrested” (“Covington’s New Health Officer Really Cares About Public Health,” Kentucky PostSeptember 30, 1907, p. 2).
The Cincinnati and Covington crusades were an outgrowth of the Progressive Era, largely associated with President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and his attempts to force big business to play fair. That era, in turn, grew out of a decades-long movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s to inspect and regulate America’s food supply. Called the “Pure Food Movement,” its leaders included two men from our Ohio River region, Dr. Harvey Wiley and Dr. Charles A. L. Reed.
Harvey Wiley (1844–1930) was born in a log house on a farm in Republican Township, Jefferson County, Indiana (along the Ohio River; its county seat is Madison). His parents helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad. He received his medical degree from Indiana Medical College and continued his education at Harvard University and abroad in Germany. His teaching career extended to Indiana Medical College, Butler University in Indianapolis, and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 1882, Dr. Wiley became chief chemist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. There, he spearheaded the national clean food movement, an effort to eliminate dangerous food additives and addictive drug additives from the national supply. His efforts resulted in the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, sometimes called the Wiley Act or Dr. Wiley’s Act. Faced with opposition to further reform, Dr. Wiley eventually left the Department of Agriculture in 1912 and “took charge of the laboratories of Housekeeping Magazine where he established the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and worked tirelessly on behalf of the consuming public” (“Harvey Washington Wiley, MD,” US Food and Drug Administration).
Dr. Charles A. L. Reed (1856–1928) was born in Wolf Lake, Noble Township, in northeastern Indiana. He received his master’s degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and his medical degree from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, where his father was a professor. He later served as president of the American Medical Association (AMA) and also as chairman of its legislative committee, which enabled him to support federal legislation regulating adulterated products, including the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Interestingly, he opposed Prohibition.
Temperance leaders succeeded in “pushing the Eighteenth Amendment through three-fourths of the states by 1919.” It established a period in U.S. history known as Prohibition (1920–1933), “during which the manufacture, importation, sale, and transportation (but not the consumption) of alcohol was prohibited. The U.S. Congress passed the National Prohibition Act (also known as the Volstead Act) in 1919, clarifying the details of Prohibition. Alcohol above 0.5 percent alcohol content was prohibited except for use in religious services, for medicinal purposes, in scientific research, or for industrial uses such as fuels or dyes” (Paul A. Tenkotte, U.S. History Since 1865: Information Literacy and Critical Thinking. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt, 2022, p. 52).
Prohibition led to the closing of saloons and thus the end of free saloon lunches. For decades, enterprising businessmen and women had opened successful alternative restaurants, generically called “dairy lunches,” offering nonalcoholic beverages such as milk. These “dairy lunches,” also called “lunch counters” and “lunch rooms,” were associated with “grab and go” fast food, prepared quickly and served efficiently. Their menus typically included items such as milk bowls with crackers, hot pancakes/crepes, bacon and eggs, sandwiches, and soups.
Maintaining sanitary conditions and consistent food quality became hallmarks of the Prohibition era and beyond. Cafeterias and fast food joints, such as White Castle, were clean, efficient, and proudly displayed their kitchens. White porcelain tile floors prevailed. Cooks and servers wore white uniforms, often with hats or hairnets to hold back their hair. Public health—and fast food choices in America—were entering a new era devoted to quality and the demands of conscientious consumers.
Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD, is editor of the weekly series “Our Rich History” and a professor of history and gender studies at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He can be reached at tenkottep@nku.edu. Tenkotte is also co-director of the Ohio River Valley Innovation Library and Learning Enrichment (ORVILLE) project. For more information, visit https://orvillelearning.org/
