Postcards and Cocktails
Twilight Hour Tuesday. Maxfield, Mayflower, and a Motto
In the 1930s an unlikely alliance was formed between the doughnut industry, artist Maxfield Parrish, and a poem penned by the metaphysical New Thought leader Christian D. Lawson in 1912.
The starting point was a doughnut machine created by a small baking business owner named Adolph Levitt. In the 1920s the enterprising Levitt was credited with inventing an automatic doughnut making machine. He formed the Doughnut (later spelled as donut) Corporation to produce and market his donut-making invention. It was only a hop, skip, and a jump before he opened the first Mayflower Coffee Shop that featured waffles, corned beef hash, pancakes, and of course, donuts! The initial shop opened in 1931 in New York City, but the enterprise grew to become a national chain with eateries located in 24 cities by 1949.
The Mayflower Coffee Shops constructed a clever marketing scheme with recognizable motifs and a catchy motto that identified the brand across the country. Sometime in the 1930s the company commissioned popular commercial artist Maxfield Parrish to provide an illustration for their company. Parrish was well known as a cover artist for Scribner’s and Collier’s magazines as well as for murals decorating lobbies, restaurants, and bars. It is Parrish’s King Cole mural commissioned by John Jacob Astor IV that currently presides over the bar at New York’s St. Regis Hotel.
Parrish’s illustration for the Mayflower Coffee Shops was accompanied by a donut-based take on Christian D. Lawson’s “Optimist’s Creed.” In contrast to Lawson’s serious message on the importance of viewing life optimistically, the Mayflower’s motto made the message clear by comparing life to donuts. It was just as effective:
“As you ramble on thru life brother, Whatever be your goal, Keep your eye upon the donut, And not upon the hole.”
Words to live by! Parish’s illustration features two jesters, one holding a skimpy donut with a large hole and the other with a plump donut and a small hole. The little poem, along with Parrish’s illustration, was plastered on the company’s menu, coffee mugs, donut boxes, and even the exterior of the Mayflower Coffee Shops.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. The Mayflower Coffee Shops closed in the early 1970s. But people can still fulfill their donut cravings at a multiple of donut facilities such as Dunkin Donuts. However, the style and charm of the old Mayflower Coffee Shops are gone forever.
Raise a glass to the Mayflower Coffee Shops with a coffee-based cocktail!
The Bourbon Expresso Martini
RECIPE:
2 oz. bourbon whiskey
1 oz. expresso, chilled
½ oz. coffee liqueur
½ oz. maple syrup
Pinch of salt
Place all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with 3 coffee beans. *variation on a recipe from Southern Living Magazine
Partial information for this article was culled from Restaurant-ing Through History by Jan Whitaker.
Oh, darn! Did I miss Donut Day? I have more time to prepare and get my act together.
Thanks for the heads up, Wendy!