Watch the Cup, Please

When Fred Harvey set out to give railroad travelers a decent meal—something long lacking as the west developed—he had a big job on his hands. As trains pulled into the hotels and restaurants he established, his crew had from twenty to thirty minutes to feed sixty to one hundred people. Yikes! To accomplish that, the Harvey Houses had a streamlined system to be certain everyone got their dinners in time. When patrons sat, the first question was which beverage they preferred, and then, as if b