Quantity Is the Keynote of Service
Unemployed man enjoying a meal in a bowery restaurant in 1935, Courtesy of The New York Public Library
During the Great Depression one of FDR’s New Deal Program was the Works Project Administration (WPA). It hired unemployed writers. America Eats was one of research projects they worked on. Irving Ripps (1913-1999) did a story on Bowery restaurants in New York City with “sawdust covered floors.” These businesses catered to the poor. "The secret of their success lies in the tremendous amount of food sold. . .The filling soup chowder is five cents—a large bowl of it and the deserts—incredible quantities of rice pudding or large cuts of pie—are likewise priced."
Dr. Frederick Douglass Opie
