With Marriott having just made the switch from Pepsi to Coca-Cola after 34 years, I can’t help but be reminded of another soda story involving Marriott, which many people may not be familiar with.
Continue reading: Did You Know That Marriott Started With A Root Beer Stand In 1927?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Now, pretty much all we have is the grift economy. No real goods being produced.
I just googled Hot Shoppes menus from the olden days. There's some kooky stuff such as this from September 26th, 1943: "Baked Swordfish Steak, Mushroom Sauce" with an appetizer such as Chilled Papaya Juice, a side such as Celery Cabbage with Russian Dressing, a dessert such as Fresh Apple Sauce with Whipped Cream and Cake Fingers and a beverage all for 55 cents....on the Children's Menu!
Yeah, we're overdue for a reckoning... just in time for 2029... 100 years since...
I have no idea of why someone would conflate the history of a hotel chain to the lack of production in our country. Not to mention both political parties created this situation, including hero Bernie Sanders. I hear voices in the 1980s warning against giving our industry away and he was not one of them.
Mormons. Let me tell you a story.
You can't drink coffee.
But you can drink caffeinated cola.
They say because coffee is hot.
But hot chocolate is ok.
What about nicotine free vape?
Probably less addictive than cola caffeine but not ok?
If your going to arbitrary ban something harmful, why not sugar.
I've heard many Mormons are addicted to sugar.
But they can't!!
LDS was built on sugar money. At one point they controlled the entire west coast sugar market.
This is like Church of Escobar saying cocain is legal because we sell them.
Propaganda works.
That's why NSA is keeping tabs on people with their server city in Utah.
Ehem, it was Washington-Hoover Airport, Mr. Ohio. There was a separate Washington Airport, which merged with Hoover Field in 1933 (yes, named after the Republican and Depression-era President and former Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who was/is quite unpopular... *cough*)
I actually learned about this a week ago at a Marriott timeshare presentation. Which now has me wondering, did Ben just stumble upon/get forwarded this Youtube video or did Ben just go through a Marriott timeshare presentation ;p
If my memory is correct that first Marriott in Arlington was known as the Twin Bridges Marriott. Hot Shoppes had a great burger called the Mighty Mo.
I grew up in Bethesda. Home of the Marriotts and the company they built. The first office was menu and food development. Suddenly one day that ended and workers were transferred to the next building for hotel development. A few years ago a new location was selected and by the time it was completed 800 people were laid off. That was customer service as what you don't own, you don't need to service.
So that's the corporate history in a nutshell. Wish food service was more profitable. They were great with it.
" Thermo Dine" ! ... What an appetizing name for inflight cuisine... lol
Funny how it has now come full circle with pax bringing their own food onboard again instead of relying on overpriced, airline junk food, if it's even offered at all.... The race to the bottom continues....
When I was a kid in late 1950's early 1960's my grandparents lived in DC and I spent part of each summer there. They always took me to Hot Shoppes.
Marriott's Great America theme park in Silicon Valley in California had a "replica" Hot Shoppe.
Great root beer floats in chilled mugs!
I knew about this but interesting to revisit it. Sadly it also reminds how far Marriott has declined from even a decade ago. They were once a very fine company.
JW Jr. sponsored my Junior Achievement program at the Bethesda HQ. We visited Sr. in his office on the 6th floor with a working fireplace. There was an entire floor of architects and engineers that designed hotels. The lower level contained a Roy Roger's test kitchen and hotel room mockups. As I understand it, in the early 80s, Sr or Jr visited every property annually. A different time...
And my grandparents took us to the Hot Shoppes in Wheaton.
Yeah, not much better, but... no, not the former FBI director. The two Hoovers were not related, but they were friends and professional acquaintences, and supposedly they frequently forwarded misdirected mail to each other. Bah!
https://hoover.blogs.archives.gov/2015/11/10/a-tale-of-two-hoovers/
Did you know in those days Coke-Cola had 3.5 ounces of cocaine in it? Presumably root beer had a kick too.
As a teenager I remember visiting Washington DC on a family trip and staying at a Marriott as my father received a discount from his corporation as it had business with the Teamsters.
Apparently the Teamsters had helped Marriott with finance.
That was 1974.
3.5 ounces of Cocaine? Really?..... Ha Ha Ha Ha... Do you have any idea how dead you would be from 1/8th of an ounce of Cocaine if ingested altogether? I think you might want to check that figure.
Marriott actually continued its airline catering business at least into the 1980s, maybe even 1990s. As a kid at IAH when a Marriott catering vehicle pulled up to the plane's back door, we knew inflight meal would be good, vs if Dobbs pulled up we knew the inflight meal would s**k.