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Alice Foote MacDougall (born 2 March 1867) is an American coffee wholesaler, restaurateur, and business owner. Born and raised in New York, MacDougall was a member of New York gentry – her great grandfather was Mayor of New York City from 1821 to 1824. She began her coffee roasting and retail business in 1907 and eventually established several eateries around New York City.

Alice Foote MacDougall
Portrait of Alice F. MacDougall
Born	Alice MacDougall (1820-05-02)May 2, 1820 New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery, Rochester
Spouse	Allan MacDougall
Children	Gladys MacDougall Allan MacDougall Don MacDougall

Early Life

MacDougall was born on 2 May 1867 in Washington Square, New York in her great-grandmother’s home. MacDougall’s father, Emerson Foote, was a Wall Street financer. Her mother was a housewife, the typically occupation of a married women at the time.

MacDougall's accompanied her father on numerous business trips to Europe where she was exposed to European-style restaurants.

Through the multiple business failures of her father MacDougall’s family lost much of their fortune, eventually fully depleting it.

Personal Life

At the age of 20 MacDougall married Allan MacDougall, a 34-year-old door-to-door salesman businessman. In her autobiography, Alice Foote MacDougall, the autobiography of a business woman, she described her marriage as “going "slowly, painfully, through the dark mazes of dreadful disillusionment".

MacDougall and Alan had three children together; Gladys MacDougall, Allan MacDougall, and Don MacDougall.

Alan worked as a coffee wholesaler however his numerous business ventures proved largely unsuccessful. The MacDougall's saw their wealth deteriorate and their status in society fall.

During their marriage Allan fell very ill. He eventually died, leaving MacDougall widowed at the age of forty and with no money to their family’s name. MacDougall was forced to gain employment to support herself and her three young children.

Social and Political Stances

MacDougall’s entrance into business and activities as a bold businesswoman went against her explicated stance as an anti-suffragist. She publicly declared her self a "mid-Victorian" and maintained that women should not have the right to vote or aspire to any other role besides a wife and mother.

In December 1935 she sent a letter to the New York Times, stating that "Most (of course not all) women are an intrusion in the orderly procession of commercial life. Untrained, unfitted, full of tradition, prejudices, and inhibitions, she is the fool who rushes in where wise men fear to tread".

Early Career

MacDougall’s coffee business operations began in 1907 under the name A.F. MacDougall. This was done as in the early 1900s in New York, many prospective customers held negative views about women in business and using her full name could negatively impact her business’s success.

In the commercial center of the city, on Front Street, MacDougall rented a small room to carry out her coffee roasting operations. This was carried out almost exclusively by MacDougall without outside help, excluding $1000 in financial assistant from her father's friend during the initial stages of her business establishment.

At the start of her business venture, MacDougall determined potential customers in her vicinity and advertised to them with direct-by-mail advertising. The advertisements included positive statements promoting the high-quality, unique, and convenient nature of her roasted coffee products. She also was willing to travel outside New York City to reach customers, selling to customers throughout the broader New England area. This included hospitals, hotels, colleges, and various clubs.

MacDougall's business was eventually incorporated under the name Alice Foote MacDougall and Sons. The company's executive offices where located at 139 Front Street, the same street where her business operations and career first began.

Restaurant Ownership and Operation

The Little Coffee Shop

Interior of Firenze, 6 West 46th Street, New York City

MacDougall's first establishment, the Little Coffee Shop in Grand Central Station, opened in 1919. The establishment was originally opened with the purpose of promoting her roasted coffee products. However, the shop was initially unsuccessful. Based on request from prospective customers to taste her coffee products before considering making a purchase, MacDougall set up chairs and tables for this purpose. This change transformed shop into a coffee house to operate as both a cafe and a retail outlet for MacDougall's products. Waffles and hot coffee were the house specialty. These menu items become the inspiration for her first publication, Coffee and Waffles. Her small coffee business was only the beginning of her successes, and within ten years MacDougall had opened four other coffee houses in New York state.

The Cortile

The proceeding expansion of her empire oversaw the opening a coffee house on 37 West 43rd Street in Manhattan. The establishment was not initially named The Cortile, but in 1923 MacDougall changed the decor of the classic southern-style coffeehouse it into an indoor replica of a Mediterranean-style courtyard and the name along with it to better suit the new style.

The Piazzetta

Following the establishment of The Cortile, an eatery named The Piazzetta was opened. This was located at 20 West 47th Street in Manhattan.

Firenze

The following addition to MacDougall's restaurant empire was the Firenze, located on 6 West 46th Street in Manhattan.

Sevillia

The Sevilla was the largest and most elaborately decorated of all of MacDougall's restaurants. This was the fifth eatery MacDougall opened during her career. It was a Spanish-style restaurant in which the waiters and waitresses wore mantillas and red Iberian costumes. The restaurant featured several distinct sections, including an Alhambra Room, an Early Renaissance Room, and once Prohibition ended in 1933, a Wine Shop was also added. By the late 1920s MacDougall had signed a long term one million dollar lease for her fifth coffee house.

Other Eateries

By the end of her career MacDougall had established, owned, and operated nine restaurants and coffee houses around New York state. Other locations included The Auberge on 129 Maiden Lane, Mens Grill on 36 West 44th Street, The Marionettes Coffee Shop on 10 East 23rd Street and Playland Casino in Rye, New York.

Retail operations

Throughout her career MacDougall maintained her retail coffee roasting business, branding her coffee products under the name Bowling Green Coffee. Her personal brand of coffee was exclusively served at venues and the option to purchase a bag was always advertised to customers. She also maintained waffles as a menu item for each location, as her first food offering during the early stages of The Little Coffee Shop had become publicly known as her signature dish. Other retail items advertised for sale included tea, preserves relishes, and candy which customer could purchased at Firenze, The Piazzetta, The Cortile and the Playland Casino.

Restaurant Style

Several restaurants in MacDougall's empire were decorated in a distinctly European style. This was unique at a time where the majority of New York City restaurants and cafes were basically decorated. The focus on European decor began in 1923 with MacDougall coffee house on 43rd Street being renovated to replicate a Mediterranean courtyard and renaming it The Cortile.

MacDougall was on of many women restauranteurs at the time who used peasant pottery rather than up-market restaurant china that was more common in eating establishments around the city. She expressed her preference for the restaurant styles that evoked "the intimate feeling we used to have when we gathered around the dining-room at home".

Further European embellishments included a statement in the menu for The Cortile that offered “With each meal or purchase of pottery of 50c or more Miss Rosa Rosella will interpret your Character and Predict your Future. Her Gratuities are Voluntary".

While the visual aesthetics of MacDougall's eateries were distinctly European, her menu items were largely American-style offerings. Fried chicken, lamb chops, and kidney and mushrooms on toast are all items that were found on her establishments' menus.

Publications

MacDougall was first published in 1926 with the release of her cookbook, Coffee and Waffles, just before opening of her fifth coffee house. The book covers a broad range of recipes for “cakes, sandwiches, salads, coffee and tea". Additionally, the book includes the author's personal contemplations regarding the entertaining and life.

Her second book, The Autobiography of a Business Woman, was published in 1928. The autobiography details the successes and failures of her life as a daughter, a mother, a wife and a successful business women.

In 1929 MacDougall published her third book, The Secret of Successful Restaurants. The book is a detailed guide to readers on how to own and operating a successful restaurant. The guide even included hour-by-hour schedule that MacDougall set for her kitchen staff, waiters and waitresses and managers.

Her final publication was released in 1935, titled Alice Foote MacDougall’s Cook Book. Due to its release during the Great Depression, MacDougall placed emphasis on frugality in many of her recipes. In the beginning of the cook book MacDougall situated a short section titled "Reflections on Waste but Not Wasted Reflections" in which she provides money-saving tips and highlights the low-cost nature of the recipes to be found in in proceeding chapters. One such suggestion presented was to re-heat roast beef leftovers and either place them on toast or include them in a salad.

Legacy

MacDougall ran her business operations as the sole owner for many years. During her restaurant empire expansion she recruited both her sons, Allan and Donald, to take on leadership roles in the business. Allan served as president while his brother Donald served as vice president. When her sons assumed these roles, MacDougall changed her position to chairman and treasurer of the company. Once MacDougall finished expanding her empire she had nine eateries established in the state of New York. This expansion saw MacDougall's business grow from running all operations herself to running a staff of 700 by 1927.

The popularity of MacDougall's restaurant empire in the 1920s and 1930s saw her become a minor national celebrity. The attention from media stemmed from the popularity of her restaurant chain in New York throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Media attention largely concentrated on the restauranteurs success in the "male-dominated wholesale coffee market".

Retirement

MacDougall's retired in 1935, prompted by the negative impacts of the Great Depression on her business. The loss of patronship over this period essentially bankrupted her restaurant empire. This was largely due to the fact that MacDougall was unable to meet the obligatory regular lease payments required by her one million dollar lease on Sevilla. MacDougall documented her regret over locking her company into the lease contract that would eventually be the deciding factor in its bankruptcy in Alice Foote MacDougall’s Cook Book.

At the start of the economic downturn, MacDougall's restaurants went into receivership and she was forced to assume personal control of the business. In time her entire company went bankrupt. She thereafter survived on the remaining retained profits from her restaurants and the financial support of her eldest son Allan.