A 'Treat' to remember

It was June 1986, and the Home Economists in Business Hall of Fame -- who knew such an institution existed? -- honored a Minnesotan with a posthumous award. Longtime Minneapolitans with good memories will recognize the name: Nola Treat.

She and business partner Lenore Richards, both former University of Minnesota home economics professors, were the co-owners of Richards Treat, a cafeteria, coffee shop and bake shop that fed downtowners for 33 years. Its doors at 6th Street and 2nd Avenue S. finally closed in 1957 to make way for the construction of what is now One Financial Plaza.

"Two figures -- 10 cents and $1 million -- stood out as I researched Treat's career," wrote Ann Burckhardt in the July 9, 1986, issue of Taste. "Ten cents was the price of coffee at 'the Treat,' as regular customers called it. And $1 million [about $3.5 million in today's dollars] is the amount Treat donated to her alma mater, Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., in 1977 to finance the Richards Treat Center, the dining facility there."

Richards and Treat made a point of employing mostly females -- on-the-job training for home economics students working toward futures in the restaurant industry -- and their business became a bastion of home-cooking popularity. Its five dining rooms could seat 300 people, and while the menu changed daily, apple pie and chicken pot pies were always available. Burckhardt noted that the cafeteria (its motto was "quality food for quality folk") was busy up to the day it closed, pouring 1,100 cups of coffee a day.

"That river of coffee flowed from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., coffee time for the neighboring offices," Burckhardt wrote. "Those who wanted a roll with their coffee could buy one for six cents; that purchase reduced the cost of their coffee to eight cents. That was smart marketing."

The pair's fame extended beyond their business. They published their recipes and management tips in "Quantity Cookery" in the 1920s; it went through several dozen printings and became a bible for food service managers, educators and even the U.S. Army. Richards died in 1971 at the age of 79 and Treat died in 1983 at the age of 98.

RICK NELSON