This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
The fact that the phrase "fast food" would not be invented for another thirty years did not stop Fred Angel of Muscatine, Iowa, back in 1926.
Fred was a Muscatine butcher whose hobby was tinkering with new kinds of sandwiches. One day in 1926, he asked a delivery man to taste his newest combination—a spoonful of seasoned finely-ground 100% beef cooked in several secret seasonings on a hamburger bun. After several bites, the taster exclaimed, "You know, Fred, this sandwich is made right."
Instantly, Fred's sandwich had a name: Maid-Rite. Fred was in business. His shop became a restaurant, even though it had only a dirt floor and no running water. "The hamburger too good to be a patty" was Fred's slogan.
The fame of Fred's Maid-Rite spread as people came in to eat, and also to ask for the secret recipe. In less than a year, Fred Angel was franchising Maid-Rite Sandwich Shops across the United States. Fred spelled Maid M A I D to represent the wholesomeness and purity of his sandwiches and adopted a logo of a maiden holding a plate of Maid-Rites on her shoulder.
And so was born America's first fast food. A Maid-Rite could be scooped from a steam table, slapped on a bun, complete with pickle, wrapped in its waxed napkin, and served with a spoon to eat the meat which spilled out of the bun while a regular hamburger was barely browning on one side.
To make the service even faster, Fred experimented with other new-fangled ideas for his Maid-Rite shops. He introduced drive-up and walk-up windows, and carry-out service in advance of other restaurants.
Maid-Rite survived the Great Depression and World War II, before running into competition after the War when dozens of new fast-food restaurants arrived to take advantage of the age of the automobile. Since then, Maid-Rite shops have struggled to find the right niche, experimenting with new themes in decor, with eating in and taking out, with new locations, with small cozy diners or large neon-lit glitzy theme cafes.
Fred Angel's sandwich has not changed over the years; it's as good as it was in 1926. It should be around into the millennium, if only it can find a marketing plan that, like the sandwich, is made-right.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by the Scott County Regional Authority, with additional funding from the Illinois Arts Council and Augustana College, Rock Island.
