Business: Host of the Highways

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Unable to get banks to invest in restaurants during the Depression, Johnson hit upon the idea of granting franchises for restaurants, rigidly controlling their design and operation, and selling them ice cream and other food made in central commissaries. Today, 311 Howard Johnson restaurants are fully or partly owned by investors, including executives, widows, doctors, and such VIPs as Newshen Marguerite Higgins and North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges.

MOTORISTS flock to a Howard Johnson because they expect to find fairly uniform—if often bland—food, courteous—if not always swift—service, predictable and not too high prices, and clean rest rooms. Many customers are tugged in by their children, who make up 30% of Hojos' customers, are wooed with special bibs, bendable straws and their own menu.

To improve the flavor and attractiveness of the food processed at his 14 central commissaries, Johnson has hired Pierre Franey, former head chef of Manhattan's gourmet-minded Le Pavilion restaurant. Franey's job is to jazz the menu a little. With him in charge, Johnson hopes to get around the shortage of good cooks by making food in batches, freezing it in polyethylene bags holding a serving each. Each local restaurant simply quick-heats the serving on infra-red or radar ranges, hopefully keeping some of the original flavor. Johnson thinks that U.S. food tastes are becoming more sophisticated, but he knows better than to get too far out in front of his customers. "If you say Halibut Dante, the average American will never buy it, but if you say halibut with cream and tomato sauce, he'll not only buy it but say it's great." As for himself, Johnson prefers to eat at such expensive places as Manhattan's Pavilion and the Four Seasons, where the chefs cook to order.