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Quick Lunch at a Chicago Fountain

Though many a popular women's restaurant began life as a confectionery shop, where small wafers were served at the soda fountain, few drug stores have had the courage to overturn precedents and serve a real meal at the soda fountain. Such, however, is the innovation introduced at the new Chicago store of the Central Drug Company by G. F. Simons, who has charge of the soda fountain. He thought it would pay to serve quick lunches, and he had the courage of his convictions in spite of ridicule. When the winter season began, the Central Drug Company began serving a small variety of sandwiches and cakes. The innovation took but little advertising. The store of the company is in one of the big Chicago office buildings, where many physicians and dentists are located. Throughout this building cards were sent announcing that a light and tasty lunch would thereafter be served, and that busy men and women, who had acquired a distaste for the so-called "quick lunch," would find quick and clean service. The scheme caught on at once, and today, between the hours of 12 and 2, the long counter before the fountain is crowded by customers, getting what is truly a quick lunch, palatable and immediate. Mr. Simons limits the bill of fare to five sorts of sandwiches-among which is one known as the Central sandwich, a sort of cold club sandwich in which ham takes the place of bacon and cakes, the most popular among which is the Central home-made doughnut. On Fridays he serves an egg sandwich. There is a small but well arranged kitchen directly beneath the fountain, with dumb-waiter connection; thus quick service and freshness of food are assured.