Kate Raymond April 17, 2014 English 5th hour Bacon House The bacon House was established

in 1901 in the city of Chicago, Illinois by two brothers, William and Fred Pigstone. When it was originally founded, there was a shortage of rain in the Western United States leading up to the 1901 that had been going on for a couple of years causing the price of beef to sky rocket. Then, in 1889 a disease spread through chicken farms across the country, killing off nearly 37% of the countrys existing chickens and leaving 58% of those left infertile. Thus, the Bacon House was born. William and Fred Pigstone first started to realize their dream of starting a restaurant that served only pig products due to the fact that the cost of beef and chicken in the late 1880s and early 1900s was so expensive therefore; it was cheaper to eat ham or bacon. However, William Pigstone had originally posed the idea long before the establishment of the Bacon House in 1901. In fact, Williams favorite food growing up was bacon; he would eat bacon on everything, even his cereal and it had been his dream since he was a young child to own a restaurant in which only bacon was cooked and served on and with everything. When the restaurant first opened in 1901, the Bacon Houses most popular item was bacon flavored ice cream that contained tiny pieces of bacon bits. News quickly spread all over Chicago about the Bacon Houses bacon flavored ice cream and soon after the Bacon House became not only one of the most popular places to eat in Chicago but all over the Mid-west. The Pigstones opened up 5 more restaurants by 1906 and 32 more by the year 1916.

Then tragedy struck, the Spanish Influenza was decimating the population of Chicago and other major cities across the United States claiming Fred, Williamss younger and beloved brother in 1918. William was devastated by the unexpected death of his brother but he still managed to keep their dream alive of expanding the Bacon House internationally. In 1950 that dream was realized when the first Bacon House was built in Canada. Now there are over 100 Bacon Houses worldwide. Before his death in 1955, William Pigstone said that he mourned the loss of his brother Fred nearly every day but that every Bacon House that was built from them on was built in the honor and remembrance of his brother. The Bacon House will be remembered forever as having impacted the fast food industry because it showed the world that fast food companies can be family owned operations that truly care about other people.