House of Plenty: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Luby's Cafeterias

by Carol Dawson, Carol Johnston

Winner, Violet Crown Award, Writers League of Texas, 2007
Citation, San Antonio Conservation Society, 2009 Scarred by the deaths of his mother and sisters and the failure of his father's business, a young man dreamed of making enough money to retire early and retreat into the secure world that his childhood tragedies had torn from him. But Harry Luby refused to be a robber baron. Turning totally against the tide of avaricious capitalism, he determined to make a fortune by doing good. Starting with that unlikely, even naive, ambition in 1911, Harry Luby founded a cafeteria empire that by the 1980s had revenues second only to McDonald's. So successfully did Luby and his heirs satisfy the tastes of America that Luby's became the country's largest cafeteria chain, creating more millionaires per capita among its employees than any other corporation of its size. Even more surprising, the company stayed true to Harry Luby's vision for eight decades, making money by treating its customers and employees exceptionally well. Written with the sweep and drama of a novel, House of Plenty tells the engrossing story of Luby's founding and phenomenal growth, its long run as America's favorite family restaurant during the post-World War II decades, its financial failure during the greed-driven 1990s when non-family leadership jettisoned the company's proven business model, and its recent struggle back to solvency. Carol Dawson and Carol Johnston draw on insider stories and company records to recapture the forces that propelled the company to its greatest heights, including its unprecedented practices of allowing store managers to keep 40 percent of net profits and issuing stock to all employees, which allowed thousands of Luby's workers to achieve the American dream of honestly earned prosperity. The authors also plumb the depths of the Luby's drama, including a hushed-up theft that split the family for decades; the 1991 mass shooting at the Killeen Luby's, which splattered the company's good name across headlines nationwide; and the rapacious over-expansion that more than doubled the company's size in nine years (1987-1996), pushed it into bankruptcy, and drove president and CEO John Edward Curtis Jr. to violent suicide. Disproving F. Scott Fitzgerald's adage that "there are no second acts in American lives," House of Plenty tells the epic story of an iconic American institution that has risen, fallen, and found redemption—with no curtain call in sight.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Laura Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not many books recording the history of a business start with a suicide and later deal with a mass shooting, this one does. It also delves quite deeply into a family betrayal, which ostensibly affected the business, but not directly. One should also note, that one of the authors belongs to the Luby's family and although I do believe that this story was told in the most compassionate and thoughtful way possible, there is still an obvious bias. That said, it was an interesting book.

[May-Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

as someone who grew up eating luby's with my grandpa, i found the book fascinating. the beginnings of an ambitious cafeteria, founded on work values that i believe in captured my interest. i loved the management philosophy behind the beginning of these cafeterias and it was wonderful to follow along and see that rewarding people who work their way up not only worked, but was immensely successful. it was painful to see how new business philosophies and a lack of understanding from the board about the food industry eventually limited what luby's could become.

for me, luby's is all about the nice mexican tea ladies, the macaroni and cheese, okra and the luann platter. i've had so many good food memories and despite the changes of the current day restaurants to stay with the trends, it still has a special place in my heart. this book embodies all of those values and it's refreshing to understand the history and context of the restaurant, whether it be about the very beginning, its ties with the military, service to the community during natural disasters, or the realities behind the killeen shooting. although in my lifetime and in texas, i had no idea how tragic the luby's killings were, nor how profound that day was in terms of state gun control.

i rated the book 4 stars because of my good feelings towards the restaurant, for a more detached reader, it's certainly a 3 star book, as the writing isn't stellar, and the end devolves more into family history instead of the restaurant, which was not so interesting to me.

[dejamo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story,not so interestingly written. Too much pointless foreshadowing.