Childs's Host

Rollicking along a New Jersey road one dawn three years ago, President George D. Strohmeyer of Childs Co. (restaurants) and some elated friends spied a sign: Maridell Inn. They tore the sign down, made a bonfire of it. Caught in the act by a policeman, they then split a fine of $75 plus $19.50 costs. This week Childs's President Strohmeyer again made news with a restaurant sign. This time, instead of tearing down an old one, he hung a new one: The Host, Incorporated.

Today there are 90 Childs restaurants in 23 U. S. cities and Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg, Canada. All stem from a lunchroom started in 1889 on Manhattan's Cortlandt Street by Brothers Samuel and William Childs with $1,600 capital. Farm boys from Bernardsville. N. J., the Childs Boys, irked by eating in dirty hash-houses, decided to offer the public something cheap and clean. While public clamor for sanitary improvement was building up to the Pure Food & Drugs Act in 1906, Childs restaurants mushroomed, their slogan "The Nation's Host from Coast to Coast," their symbol a pretty girl making wheat-cakes in the window.

Emergence of the soda fountain lunch in the 19203, a change in the public taste in decoration from sanitation to esthetics and (after Brother Samuel's death) Brother William 's espousal of vegetarianism put Childs on the skids. In 1929, after a grim fight for proxy control. Chairman Childs was forced out and General Counsel William A. Barber took his place. He and a new president, William Porter Allen, modernized both Childs restaurants and Childs food. White tiles yielded to Puritan, even to Moorish decorations with dance orchestras and goldfish ponds. Meat returned to the menu and instead of vegetarian dogma Childs sponsored a noisy campaign to "Eat all you can for 60-c-." After an unsuccessful trial this also was dropped like a hot pancake. Really successful, however, was tie next major change, a change which has put dollars into the pockets of many a restaurant man from coast to coast--installation of bars.

After profits had fallen from plus $1,277,000 in 1929 to minus $203,000 in 1932, Depression might have conquered the company forever but for the clever maneuvers of young George Strohmeyer. This tall, red-haired young man with a fondness for dogs and fishing joined Childs in 1927 as an accountant, and was assistant treasurer when the shake-up came. Transferred to real-estate supervision, he cut rent costs $500,000 by abandoning bad property, persuading landlords that it would be less unprofitable to reduce Childs rent than to force the company into bankruptcy. In 1933 George Strohmeyer became president at 35. In 1936 Childs made a profit of $291,000. In the first six months of 1937 the company made $199,000.

Thus comfortably in the clear, President Strohmeyer felt free to try an idea that had buzzed in his head for two years. Eying the booming counter and cafeteria business during Depression, he concluded that Childs, with its managerial overhead already provided for, could offer the cafeteria trade a little more luxury at the same prices. Host, Inc. will try to do so. Swankly modernistic in design, Hosts will have concealed kitchens, service at U-shaped counters. Food is to be identical with Childs food but with less variety and no table-d'hote meals. Prices will be about 20% less. Childs griddlecakes cost 25-c-. The Hosts will sell them for 15-c-. Hosts will accommodate 100-150 as against the average Childs's 200-250. First Host is to open this week on Manhattan's East 23rd Street.

Meanwhile sad old Founder William Childs is still a restaurant man in Bernardsville, N. J. There, as a hobby, he runs The Old Mill, a cozy restaurant in a real Colonial house, which is famed for good food and where there is often a queue of waiting patrons.

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