OCR Text |
Show SENATE RESTAURANT Restaurant Manager Says Most Senators Are Meat, Potato Men WNU Wsshlnfton Borea When a moment of leisure hits Capitol Hill, many members of congress con-gress automatically head toward the restaurants in the capitol building build-ing for food and relaxation. On the house side the restaurant is one of the most easy, relaxed, and informal infor-mal spots in all of the capitol. Its counterpart across the building, the senate dining room, is much more formal. The house restaurant runs smoothly under the supervision of William A. Brockwell, manager, and Mrs. Edith G. Ridgely, hostess. They must, and do, know every representative, member of the press, and employee in the house, since the patrons are limited to these three groups and their guests. Working under some difficulty, the lack of space and the fact that invariably in-variably everybody wants to eat at one time, Mr. Brockwell and Mrs. Ridgely, and their staff of 110 are able to serve and satisfy their clientele, with only 250 seats. It is not at all unusual for them to learn at 10 or 11 a.m. that a congressman Is planning a luncheon for as many as 50 that day. These parties are generally limited to 50 because that's the capacity of the speaker's dining room, which is separate from the restaurant. Provisions Pro-visions are kept on hand at all times for any of these short notice affairs. In addition to the restaurant and the speaker's dining room, there is a large cafeteria in the house office building across the street, and another one in the senate sen-ate office building where hundreds of employees in these buildings generally eat. There are also two small snack restaurants, one on each side of the capitol. When the house is in session, the restaurant is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and when the house has adjourned, it closes at 3:00 p.m. i SOME CONGRESSMEN have frequent fre-quent parties, many never entertain. enter-tain. Representative Frank W. Boy-kin Boy-kin of Alabama has the largest and most frequent parties. The Texas delegation has lunch en masse every Wednesday in the speaker's dining room when congress is in session. The Iowa delegation makes a point of a breakfast once a week when congress is in session. The Republican Repub-lican members of the Ohio delegation delega-tion meet frequently, as do the delegations from Alabama, Arkansas, Ar-kansas, and Tennessee. To bring a home town flavor to the representatives in Washington, the restaurant imports special food from many parts of the country for parties held on the hill or for general gen-eral consumption. For instance, they bring in salmon from the west coast, muskrats from Louisiana, strawberries from Alabama, and a special rice from Arkansas to make into a pudding. The favorite dessert of the congressmen con-gressmen is apple pie. Generally, they are meat, potato, and apple pie men. Most of them like plain, substantial food, and as Mr. Brockwell Brock-well points out, none of them are trying to lose weight. Only about a dozen of them ever ask about fads or diets, such as the recent yen for yogurt or black strap molasses and whole wheat germ. In such a place where many personalities per-sonalities meet, funny incidents occur, oc-cur, such as the two ladies who had secured passes to the visitors' gallery of congress and stopped at the restaurant to ask if they could get lunch. Mrs. Ridgely told them that in order to be served they would have to be accompanied by a member of congress. They held a whispered consultation, then turned brightly to Mrs. Ridgely and said: "Oh, that will be all right, we don't mind!" The relaxed atmosphere of the house restaurant makes a daily, pleasant retreat for the legislators of the country. |