The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 88

Itigo Thirteen ucceeded 3espite 3isaster L. Dutton Established Mary First of Chain of Rcstaii' rantsWhen Fire Destroyed Her Boarding House if. fi i i i 'J 0 i "That I got along at all is a marvel to me. The food was good and I insisted on good cooking and courtesy that is the only way I can explain it I did not make the mistake so many people do, especially women, who start in business in a small way. I did not try to make a large profit on a small amount of business.

"I have seen many enterprises go to smash because their owners did that; they tried to get a profit of fifty to one hundred percent, or even two hundred percent, on a limited business they were doing. They did not realize that they must compete with established concerns that were making a small percentage of profit on a large amount of business. "My chief interest from the very start was in increasing my business. I was always planning to get more customers. knew I could make money if I could do that, provided I used common sense; that is, common business sense.

"A few years later I moved a few blocks down the street, toward the center of the Loop, opposite Marshall Field's store. This was another second-floor es 1 "0 f. -J By E. Schaefer JUST imagine feeding nearly seventy-five thousand people a week four million hungry human beings year. There is woman in Chicago who feeds them.

She does it in chain of restaurants, some of which are not open on Sundays or holidays; if they were she would feed more thousands. It is an interesting story of what can be accomplished by knowing some one thing well; although in this case it must be admitted that the woman has also a lot of common sense and an uncommon personality. It is one of the largest businesses of its kind in the country. Yet this woman started her enterprise twelve -years ago, with but a few hundreds of dollars capital and with no business experience. Moreover, she was past fifty years of age when she began.

Mary L. Dutton is the woman; her hair is snow white. She says it turned white from worry when she was a young girl. She was born on a farm in western New York. She lived in the section until thirty years old, teaching school.

Then the family moved to North Dakota. At the time of the World's Fair the mother and two foughters moved to Chicago and opened a boarding houst. The family was never oversupplied with money, but it always had good food. The women of the house knew how to cook. Miss Dutton had a gift for making good things to eat.

Then they opened the rooming and boarding house. They bad a time keeping it up. According to Miss Dutton, they were just a step ahead of their creditors. They never got to the point of showing profit that the landlord didn't raise the rent Then one day the residence in which they housed scores of visitors to Chicago burned down to the ground, and there was destroyed the business which took years for Miss Dutton to build up. No use fretting over bad luck; a woman past fifty who has her livelihood wiped out in an hour has no time for regrets.

She must be rp and planning. Friends offered advice and suggestions; many who had lived under her roof urged her to find another place and start ail over again; still others urged her to consider a downtown eating place. This last idea appealed to Miss Dutton and she began to investigate. Vi'hen the loss by fire was finally settled she had less than a thousand dollars she could use as capital, but she made the thousand count. She bought a second-floor restaurant in the Loop, paying for it with her cash and a note for the balance, and then she went to work in earnest Through that first year it was no unusual thing for her to work sixteen hours a day many times she worked still longer, for she had not only to supervise everything personally, but she must inariet and 2Cra the intricate business of feeding people downtown.

She called the place the "Colonial Kitchen." Her present restaurants are called the Ontra Cafeterias. Miss Dutton says today that she does not know how she lived to tell the tale. She had been in a cafeteria three times. Never studied the methods or the cost of anything. The only knowledge that she had was her knowledge of cooking and of food.

She had the few hundred dollars necessary to buy the equipment which was already in the place, to pay her first month's rent, to do her first day's marketing and that was about all. Let iMiss Dutton finish the story: "I did not serve breakfast at that time. The day of the opening I took a clean white dress down ith me; for my idea was to stand around all day and greet my customers. But I didn't have a chance to even look at that white dress. I was in the kitchen the whole time, up to my elbows in work.

And, instead of smiling on my customers, I was soon praying that not another one would step through the door that day. "Not very many did come for that matter. It poured rain all Hay and there weren't more than twenty-five there for luncheon. But, with my inexperience and un-preparedness, they seemed like twenty-five hundred. Out at the boarding house we had had a colored boy as a waiter.

He had helped the cook occasionally and liked the work, so I had given him the job of chef at the cafeteria. He had the title, but for some time I did most of the work. "I opened the place late in April and took in about one hundred and fifty dollars the first week. At the three restaurants 1 now have our receipts are often around six hundred dollars a day; but I was glad enough to average twenty-five dollars a day that first week. It increased steadily after that, except for the usual summer slump.

Then early in the fall we took in nine hundred dollars in one week I felt rich as Croesus. "I am not sure that I even knew the words 'overhead charges' at that time," laughed Miss Dutton. "I knew I was making a profit. I paid my bills promptly and very soon I had a bank account. I knew by that account that I was making money.

Later, of course, I learned more businesslike methods. tablishment, and I soon wanted to get on the ground floor. I leased two large ground floors in 1916, just a few blocks apart; took' them on a one-year lease, afterward extended them to ten-year leases, at an annual rental of $25,000 for one and $30,000 for the other, which has been some hat increased since. good many people thought I was crazy. They told me I would go into bankruptcy.

But I did not worry. For some reason I have never worried since I went into business. I've worked hard and I've thought hard. But I haven't worried. Competition has increased five hundred percent since I started in the cafeteria business, but I have attended strictly to my knitting, and, while I may have dropped a stitch now and then, I have never got into a snarL "Regarding the prediction that I would go into bankruptcy in a few months, here is something that may interest you." Miss Dutton then produced a record of the two Loop restaurants, which were in diagram form.

April, 1916, the first place was opened. They besan by serving 2,000 customers a day. Then in June of the same year they served 3,400 persons. In October they served 3,900 a day. She had not gone into bankruptcy yet The second place was opened in December of that year.

They served 2,300 a day and inside of three months the second place served 3.000 a day. Five years later December, 1921 the two places took care of 9,000 a day. In 1922 Miss Dutton opened a third cafeteria, on the north side, with a seating capacity of 1 .200, the largest cafeteria, except possibly in Los Angeles, in the world. The three places serve more than 75,000 persons a week. Miss Dutton was asked how many different kinds of food she would need to serve a family of that size.

The reply was that she served about two hundred different kinds of food at dinner and at luncheon, not quite so many varieties at breakfast. She was then asked what the favorite dishes were, what people liked most, liked least. In a cafeteria a person usually sees all the different eatables. He docs not read a list and order from the bill of fare. "The inexperienced person often tales whatever he comes to first," said Miss Dutton.

"That is if it looks appetizing. The first thing you do is supply yourself with a tray, napkin and the silverware. Then you come to the supply of bread and rolls, of which there are at least six varieties. Two slices of bread or a roll are all that any one takes with a meal. I have seen strangers take at least one-half dozen rolls; they could not eat of them, but they looked appetizing and they did not seem to realize that they would want something else.

"Rolls are more popular than any kind of bread; then comes white bread. Of all varieties of rolls made the poppy-seed ones seem to appeal to the average person. Old-fashioned rolls are jut as popular as eer. "The salads are made as attractive as possible to the eye and placed first, on the theory that it would fascinate the customer into taking then. I really cannot see that there is any difference in the cumber of aaiad Mary L.

Dutton portions taken wbe her they are placed first or last have tried placing the meat first and then salads, but it really does not make any difference, as people are coming to think that salad is pan of a meal. "Men seem to like salad as well as women. I see as many men as women iih one of our elaborate fruit salads topped with whipped cream. hipped cream is on the tray of either a fat or thin person. I can tell by looking at the tray, without seeing the person, whether she is fat or thin.

If it is filled with an array of dishes covered with hipped cream I do not need to look at the woman carrying it to see if she is fat Cream seems to have a fascination for the toman mho is inclined to be fat "There are always three kinds of salad dressings to choose from. Soups of various kinds. Several assortments of meats, both cold and bot. There is one item that is never absent from our menus, roast beef. I believe there are men who eat roast beef every day.

Veal and pork are next most in demand. "Potatoes we always have. prepare sixty of potatoes every day. Next to potatoes lima beans are most popular. "In the long run we use much the same menu as other restaurants, only in a larger quantity." A chauffeur appeared at the door as Miss Duron finished speaking, asking her how soon she would want the car.

"Things have chanced a great deal since that day years ago when you were working in your kitchen and praying that no more customers would come in that d.iy and want something to eat, haven't theyr" Miss Dutton was asked. "They certainly have," she said, smiling. "I don't work that hard now. I used to get down about seven o'clock in the morning and work until after ten o'clock at night But I enjoyed it then. I have competent managers to help me now, but I keep a close watch on everything.

I watch the trays to see if people do not eat what they have taken. Because if a number of persons have left food of a certain kind, I know that it has not come up to their expectations. "If I see a table that needs clearing. I do not fceslme to do it myself. I did this one day, and some of my girls overheard one customer say to another, 'Isn't it too bad that nice old lady has to That is regarded as a great joke amonj my employees.

"Work to me docs not seem a hard-hip. It is a g.i-re that for me is full of fascination. business is worth a good deal more than half a million dollars now. involves handling great sums of money sums that I would have been frightened at years ago. I have found that if you know what a dozen persons like, you can be prit-y certala of what' a hundred will like.

And if you rlea-e te ht adred, you can please a tllion. All you n-ed then is emkssUsm, common sensa, a ad woiU".