Duncan Hines

by Louis Hatchett

  The dinner detectives came from all walks of life. Corporation executives, bankers, and university professors were just a few occupations that comprised their ranks. One notable detective was Metropolitan opera singer Lawrence Tibbett, a figure popular with the public from the 1920s through the 1950s. Tibbett frequently traveled about America giving concerts. While he and Hines did not see each other socially, there was much correspondence between the two. Hines was always very grateful when Tibbett recommended a restaurant because he knew the opera star’s refined tastes mirrored his own. Another famous dinner detective was radio commentator Mary Margaret McBride.202 With a daily audience of six-million listeners by 1948, McBride was network radio’s most-listened-to host of women’s programs.203 An attractive heavy-set woman who somewhat resembled Kate Smith, McBride began as a dinner detective in the late 1930s after she interviewed Hines on her CBS radio program. He always tried to appear on her broadcast when he visited New York. Hines had an entertaining persona and McBride was glad to have him as a guest. His genial, almost folksy, manner won him a larger following with every appearance. When he appeared on her program, his many years as a salesperson came in handy. Through the medium of radio, his well-modulated, gentle voice proved a useful instrument when he sold himself and his message to millions of listeners.204

  Not long after the first edition of Adventures in Good Eating was published, it was prominently featured in a display window in Chicago’s Marshall Field department store. Early in the summer of 1936 Warren Gibbs stopped through Chicago while making his seventeenth transcontinental automobile trip across America. While walking by the display window, he discovered Hines’s book and immediately bought a copy. He wanted to test it as he made his way to New York. As a result, Gibbs undoubtedly became the most committed of all the dinner detectives. In the introduction to the second volume, Hines recalled Gibbs’ enthusiasm for it: “When he read the descriptions I had written about places where he had been, he felt that here was something very much worthwhile for the tourist, for he had never found a travel guide recommending good eating places upon which he could always depend.” Gibbs was so overjoyed at possessing the book, he took it to heart and made a point to visit as many places in it as he possibly could. After a few weeks, so impressed was he with Hines’s uncanny ability to recommend nothing but superior restaurants, he visited him in Chicago on his return trip home.205 Gibbs told him, “You’ve got something worthwhile here. I’ve been to many of the places you recommend, and I quarrel with your judgment in only one instance. I had planned to do a book like this, but you’ve beaten me to it. The book fills a real want, and I’m willing to turn over to you all data I’ve collected.” He then offered to become a dinner detective. Hines warmly accepted and, as their discussion progressed, he appointed Gibbs his Western Representative for Adventures in Good Eating, Inc. and made him his West Coast book distributor. The only thing Gibbs accepted from Hines in the way of payment for his services came in the form of barter: “a bottle or two of rare liquor and a Kentucky country-cured ham.” Therefore, beginning in August 1936, Warren Gibbs drove at least 11,000 miles a year for Hines, and all for the love of letting others know where good meals were to be found.206

  There were other restaurant sleuths, all of whom were ardent Duncan Hines supporters. One was Carveth Wells, the well-known explorer and lecturer affiliated with the Conoco Travel Bureau.207 Still another nationally-known figure was Julian Street, a gentleman who specialized in wines. Hines made good use of Street’s knowledge of the vineyard. In each edition of the restaurant guide through 1946, Hines included a short, annually updated essay by Street on wines designed to help the prospective diner choose the best recent vintages.208

  Although many of the era’s celebrities were great resources, his best source for new outstanding restaurants came from the tens of thousands who annually bought his books. They recommended scores of new places for him to investigate, and they warned him when one of his listed establishments was about to change hands or was negligent its responsibilities.209

  While the dinner detectives also discovered many comfortable lodgings for travelers to sleep, their primary interest was in locating excellent restaurants. Although hotels and motels had problems, those could be overcome; but an unsuspecting traveler could not overcome a fatal restaurant meal. Therefore, it did not matter that the dinner detectives emanated from all walks of life and practiced thousands of disparate professions. The social glue uniting their gleeful participation in assembling the contents of Adventures in Good Eating was their fear of the unsanitary kitchen practices found in restaurants across America. Why should anyone, they reasoned, have to eat from an unwashed plate or drink from a dirty glass or be served unfinished portions from another customer’s plate? Why indeed?

  7

  FLORENCE HINES’S LAST YEAR

  Sometime in 1937 Florence Hines went to the doctor and was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. A Christian Scientist,210 she sought no surgery for her troubles and accepted her coming demise as part of the natural order of God’s world. Evidence shows, however, that the last year of her life was not spent in agony on a couch or in a bed. Surviving hotel receipts indicate that she accompanied her husband wherever he went, and their travels were frequent and extensive. The final months of Florence’s life was one in which no expense was spared. The moments Hines shared with his wife were no doubt ones that were forever cherished by him long after she departed.211

  Hines’s travel log shows that on 10-11 April 1937, he and Florence were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, visiting several restaurants, most notably Mader’s German Restaurant, of which Hines had high praise. He wrote in his guidebook that Mader’s was:

  unique, not because it is a German restaurant, but because it serves the unusual traditional German dishes you never find in so-called German-American restaurants, [e.g.,] Deutscher Apfel Pfannkuchen, and many others. One of the most popular, Munchner Kalbshaxen, Deutscher Speckbraten with dumplings, which even the most fastidious enjoy, is fried pork shanks (weighing at least two pounds) with sauerkraut. The shanks are parboiled first and then fried to a beautiful golden brown. Wonderful! And, too, each glass, dish and silver sparkles with cleanliness; they are thoroughly washed and sterilized after each serving.212

  Hines so greatly enjoyed Mader’s pig shanks, branding them “the best I’ve ever found,” that he frequently arranged to have a dozen sent to his home.213

  One week later (17 April), Hines and Florence drove 40 miles west of Chicago to Geneva, Illinois, to dine at the Mill Race Inn, a pleasant restaurant surrounded by a peaceful setting. The following day (18 April) they drove to Aurora, Illinois for an elaborate feast. They followed this trip three days later with one to nearby Winnetka, Illinois, where they enjoyed the gastronomic amenities of The Hearthstone House near Green Bay Road. This air-conditioned restaurant was, in Hines’s words, “one of the outstanding eating places in the Chicago area, managed by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Robertson. Their staff of women cooks is famous…. Evenings you will enjoy a delicious chicken or steak dinner—a man’s size meal—with a variety of hot breads and jam…. An unusual treat at luncheon is the Hearthstone fruit salad with their famous French dressing.214 Hines raved about that fruit salad for years, declaring it to be the best he had ever devoured. The following day (22 April) he and Florence took another day trip, this time for a hearty feast in St. Charles, Illinois. On 28 April they were back in Geneva, Illinois, to dine once again, this time at the Little Traveler at 404 Third Street.

  Beginning April 30 and continuing through 2 May the Hines took an extended culinary tour, one that led first to Detroit and Cleveland and then back to Chicago, a journey that covered 740 miles and one which left them sated for a fortnight. Not until 15 May did they venture out again, this time to pay another visit to the Hearthstone House. Two days later (17 May) they visited Bensenville, Illinois, then located 20 miles west of Chicago but which has now been swallowed by urban sprawl. That evening, at the corner of Church and Gr
een Streets, they dined at Plentywood Farm, a rustic restaurant which was “a low log house at the end of the lane with a porch facing a garden.”215 The next day (18 May) they took another short trip, this time to enjoy the culinary joys to be found in suburban Lake Forest, Illinois.

  Wanting to visit some of their old haunts that were strung across middle America, the couple packed their bags two days later and drove 120 miles to LaGrange, Indiana, where they dined and spent the night before moving on the next morning. They spent the following day (21 May) in transit, driving 230 miles to Toledo, Ohio, where they had dinner that evening at one of Hines’s most coveted restaurants, Grace E. Smith’s Restaurant Service and Cafeteria, located at the intersection of Madison and Erie Streets. Hines said of this wonderful establishment, “This is the place that changed my attitude toward cafeteria food. It is owned and operated by Grace Smith, an outstanding person among America’s most successful restaurant operators. It is located in a new air-conditioned building—has five attractive dining rooms on the ground floor, in which you can get table, counter, cafeteria and fountain service. The striking feature is the superior type of food—cream soups, juicy and tender meats, wide variety of salads, fresh vegetables, delicious home baked rolls, breads and top desserts. Their lemon pie alone will make you want to return again and again. All cooking done by women, supervised by Home Economics graduates. I never go through Toledo without stopping here for at least one meal.”216

  A lengthy journey of 1,200 miles consumed the Hines’ days on 22-23 May 1937. On the first day, they drove to Columbus, Ohio, to examine some potential restaurants for his guidebook as well as a recommendation for an inn. When Hines had completed his examination, the couple drove southward, through Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky, before finally spending the night in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, at that city’s famous Beaumont Inn. That evening, in the Beaumont’s spacious dining room, they consumed heaping plates of fried chicken and hickory-smoked country ham, as well as several delicious beaten biscuits, before washing down their meal with generous portions of sweetened iced tea and pushing themselves away from the table. They spent their second day driving back to Chicago digesting the previous evening’s sumptuous repast.

  The couple did not venture onto America’s highways again until 11 June when they drove 664 miles, first to one town and then another, before arriving in Gallatin, Missouri. Once there, they consumed a superb meal at another of their favorite haunts, Virginia McDonald’s Tea Room. This restaurant, officially known as the McDonald Tea Room, located halfway between St. Joseph and Kansas City, Missouri, was an establishment the couple often pined for in their idle moments at home. Said Hines in his guidebook, “It would require more than one full page of this book to tell you of the many good things to eat prepared by Virginia Rowell McDonald.”217 12 June was spent driving 305 leisurely miles back home, long enough to gab the day away while savoring the after-effects of Mrs. McDonald’s culinary skills. Hines and Florence did not take any long distance trips together again until 26 June, when they took a day trip to Chalet, Wisconsin, but the trip did not forfeit a memorable meal.

  The Hines spent 1937’s Independence Day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, probably dining that evening once again at Mader’s German Restaurant. The following day (5 July) they drove to the north side of Rockford, Illinois, and stayed overnight but not before sampling the cuisine at the Sausage Shop and Rathskeller; Hines apparently believed the drive worth the effort because he was extremely impressed with the establishment’s variety, writing that for “years they have been specializing in 70 kinds of Milwaukee sausages and luncheon meats, and 70 kinds of imported and domestic cheeses, as well as serving them in at least 70 kinds of ways…in sandwiches.”218 Less than two weeks later (18 July) the Hines found themselves 70 miles away from home in Union Grove, Wisconsin, enjoying the surrounding scenery and food offered there. The next week (24 July) they dined once again in Winnetka, Illinois at the Hearthstone House.

  Seven days later (1 August) the Hines dined in splendor near their apartment at Chicago’s Pa Petit Gourmet restaurant219 where they feasted on spaghetti, salad, and French onion soup. One week later (8 August) they had lunch in Barrington, Illinois, in an atmosphere that evinced anything but splendor. It was an outdoor restaurant and gift shop, located five miles west of town on Sutton Road; patrons who dined here were served on the lawn as they sat in folding chairs. Its owner called the establishment My Country Cousin.

  Six days later (14 August) the couple found themselves in Crown Point, Indiana, in the dining room of Lamson’s Tea Room, a restaurant opposite the court house; here they ate steak and fried chicken. The next day (15 August) they feasted at another of Hines’s all-time favorite spots, the White Fence Farm in Lemont, Illinois. Hines spoke of this restaurant in his guidebooks in copious terms and drew an almost pastoral portrait of the function that country restaurants once served. Not only were restaurants as these once major destinations for travelers, but they also served a communal function as well, one that—in the sense described below—has evaporated with the passage of time. As Hines relates in his description of the White Fence Farm, “dining out” in the country was a singular, memorable experience for city dwellers.

  One of Chicago’s foremost citizens, Mr. Stuyvesant Peabody, had a theory that many people would enjoy a simple menu of superior food when served in an attractive atmosphere on a good-looking farm. It is evident that his theory [was correct], for more than forty-thousand came the first four months it was open, and now the place has been enlarged considerably. If you like good food, tasty sandwiches, rich Guernsey milk, homemade ice cream pies and about the best chopped steak sandwich you’ll find anywhere, I am sure you will like this place to eat. One of the pleasant features is that while awaiting a table or after eating you can play shuffleboard, croquet, ping-pong, pitch quoits, or simply sit on the terrace and enjoy the music of an exceptionally finetoned Capehart installation.220

  One week later (21 August) the Hines journeyed to nearby Hinsdale, Illinois, about three miles west of LaGrange. There they enjoyed the cuisine of another of their favorite haunts, the Old Spinning Wheel Tea Room. Like the White Fence Farm, this, too, had a rustic, open-air, attraction about it. Wrote Hines, “No sophisticated city dweller can resist the urge of a low log cabin set far back of an old rail fence among the trees and flowers, a spacious lawn and comfortable rustic chairs where one, after a bountiful dinner, may sit and enjoy the twilight…. It is very inviting, and the steak or chicken dinner with hot corn sticks is served just as attractively as one would serve his guests in his own home.”221

  The following day (22 August) the Hines dined once again at the Hearthstone House in Winnetka, Illinois. They refrained from old haunts on their next culinary tour. On 28-29 August they ate only in new restaurants. On their first day out they frequented the doors of the Pink Poodle, a restaurant 40 miles from Chicago; the following day they drove all day until they arrived in Goshen, Indiana to investigate another new dining facility called the Pine Tree Inn. No reports exist of what they found there, but it must not have passed muster because, like the Pink Poodle, Hines never mentioned it again.

  The couple had primarily visited restaurants near their home since mid-July, but now that it was Labor Day weekend, it was time to take a long trip to a restaurant and lodge which, they were soon to learn, few could compare. On 4 September they packed their bags and headed for the Lowell Inn in Stillwater, Minnesota.222 Billed as “The Mount Vernon of the West,” the Lowell Inn was located in a little town of scarcely 8,000 people, 19 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota. “I’d heard much that was good about the Lowell Inn long before I published my first book,” wrote Hines years later. “Because I was always on the lookout for good food and fine eating places, I wired Arthur Palmer, the proprietor, for a reservation. He wrote back immediately, saying that the bridal suite was all ready for us.” When Hines and Florence arrived, they were staggered by the building’s beauty. “Not only [was] the bridal suite�
�� beautiful, Hines wrote, “but every room in the place had been redecorated and through it all could be seen the fine hand of a woman—a woman of extremely good taste.” Hines was always attracted to people who took care in looking after the smallest details and he soon met that “woman of extremely good taste,” Nelle Palmer. From her they learned the history of their hotel and their “fierce devotion to quality.”223 As they related their story, Arthur and Nelle Palmer made a great impression on Duncan Hines, one that blossomed into a friendship that lasted for many years.

  Duncan Hines’s mention of the Lowell Inn in the 1938 edition of Adventures in Good Eating really put it on the map as a coveted destination for travelers. In his guidebook, Hines praised the institution the Palmers had created, noting, “their Colonial Dining Room is furnished in authentic Southern Colonial reproductions and antiques. In the Garden Room [the dining room], there is a hewn stone fountain which pours forth sparkling spring water into an illuminated pool where guests may catch brook trout, which are then fried for them.”224 Hines jovially stated that catching the fish was great fun, and that the best part of fishing for them was that guests did not have to worry about the game warden.225 Hines was also impressed with the Lowell Inn’s main dining room and its “lovely arched ceiling” but he was especially drawn to the food served there. It was not just the hotel’s salad that mesmerized him; it was also their recipes for chicken, steak, and lamb chop dinners. The menu item that impressed him the most was the plate of hot rolls the inn served, the virtues of which he extolled in his book for decades to come. While the rolls were, in his opinion, the best to be found in America, his favorite dessert entree at the Lowell Inn was its pecan pie, which was, Hines stated with an air of finality, “the best I have ever encountered.”226 Another after-dinner entree of which he was most fond was the Lowell Inn’s blueberry pie, which he said was excellent “because the berries are shipped specially from South Carolina.”227 The Lowell Inn remained a restaurant Hines swooned over until the day he died.