"There Was a Catch After All..." The Secret of the Saloon That Gave Away Meat and Bread [Delicious Stories]

Free Lunches in 19th-Century America
Saloon Patrons Were Served Food
Salty, Stodgy Stew Encouraged Customers to Buy Drinks

Editor's NoteThe first sweets are said to have been discovered in ancient Mesopotamia. In a sense, sweets have accompanied humanity through every moment of its history. From biscuits and chocolate to ice cream, we bring you delicious stories about the treats we love.

"There is no such thing as a free lunch." This is a famous saying by Milton Friedman, the American economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics. It means that every economic activity comes at a cost. But the "free lunch" Friedman referred to actually existed in American bars in the early 1900s. Life was much harder then than it is today, so why did bars provide their customers with expensive meals for free?

Free Lunch in 19th-Century America

Free stew lunch featured in the 1970s Western film *They Call Me Trinity*. YouTube screenshot.

The term "free lunch" first appeared in an article published in 1875 by the U.S. daily newspaper The New York Times (NYT). The NYT described free lunch as a unique bar service that had become popular in New Orleans, in the American South. Saloons, a type of bar, laid out cheese, cold cuts, bread, stew, and other food on long tables and offered it buffet-style for free. However, customers had to buy a drink before taking a seat at the bar. The cheapest beer reportedly cost 15 cents, equivalent to 5,000-8,000 won today.

The distinctive free-lunch culture of New Orleans saloons soon spread throughout the United States. Many saloons competed by offering free lunches, and some went so far as to roast large cuts of beef and serve them as a complimentary meal. Saloon culture continued into the 1920s, before disappearing as the Great Depression approached.

Salty, Starchy Foods... A Sales Strategy to Boost Drink Sales

Saloons in the American Old West were bars where cowboys, stagecoach drivers, and workers gathered. Pixabay

So why did saloon owners give their customers free lunches? Saloons were drinking establishments emblematic of the American Old West, frequented mainly by cowboys, stagecoach drivers who transported goods over long distances, workers, and miners. After working under the blazing sun, they would gather at saloons in the evening to unwind over a beer.

Saloon owners were notorious for charging high prices even for a cheap beer. To sell more drinks to customers, New Orleans saloon owners came up with a clever idea: free lunch. The most common free-lunch items were snacks to accompany drinks, such as cheese, salted peanuts, and dried cured meat.

Another staple of saloon free lunches was pork and beans stew. Made with pork and beans (chickpeas), it was prepared by simmering pork fat or bacon with soaked beans in a pot. Instead of salt or sugar, which were expensive at the time, it was seasoned with molasses, a syrup made from sugar cane. Customers dipped bread into the warm pork and beans to stave off hunger. The dish also caught viewers' attention when it appeared in the classic 1970s Western film *They Call Me Trinity*.

These foods had two things in common: they were very salty and had a starchy texture. Workers who ate the free lunch became extremely thirsty and ended up ordering one expensive beer or other drink after another. In the end, they paid for the free lunch without even realizing it.

Prohibition and the Great Depression Bring Free Lunch to an End

Traditional-style pork and beans. Screenshot from YouTube.

Free lunch was a subject of controversy in 19th-century American society. Some argued that it encouraged alcoholism among Americans and should be banned by law. In 1896, New York State did pass the Raines Law, which tightened regulations on alcohol and prohibited free lunches, but the ban was lifted the following year. Meanwhile, British journalist William T. Stead argued that America's free-lunch system should be used as a welfare policy for the poor.

Free lunch, a source of both affection and resentment, eventually disappeared in the 1920s. The Prohibition law enacted in 1920 during the administration of Woodrow Wilson made it difficult to operate saloons. Then, the Great Depression that struck in the late 1920s brought an economic downturn and put an end to the era of abundance.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.