William Galt Founded Good Earth Restaurants to Promote Unprocessed Food
August 17 2018 - 10:59AM
Dow Jones News
By James R. Hagerty
William Galt, a restaurateur, noticed a disturbing trend as he
neared 40. "Many of my best friends in the food business were
dropping dead in their 40s from heart attacks," he told the San
Diego Tribune later.
Mr. Galt blamed restaurant food. That theory helped convince him
to found a health-food restaurant chain, Good Earth, in 1975.
Offering whole-grain breads, fruit, vegetables and modest portions
of lean meat, he aimed to find a middle ground between mainstream
restaurants and vegetarian eateries run by hippies. Apple founder
Steve Jobs was widely reported to have been an early customer.
After expanding to about 15 locations in California and several
other states, Mr. Galt sold the business to General Mills Inc. in
1980. General Mills concluded growth prospects were limited and in
the mid-1980s converted many of the outlets into Red Lobsters or
Olive Gardens. The rest of the business was sold to franchisees.
Two Good Earth restaurants remain in the Minneapolis area.
Mr. Galt tried unsuccessfully to launch a fast-food chain
featuring healthful choices. He set up centers promoting exercise
and dietary regimens. In recent years, he lived in Mexico and
helped organic farmers find markets.
He died Aug. 2 in Reno, Nev., of complications from a broken
hip. He was 89.
Six-foot-four and lean, Mr. Galt was ahead of his time in
spotting a market opportunity in natural ingredients and never lost
his devotion to unprocessed foods. He hiked, swam in the Pacific
Ocean and used an antigravity contraption that, he said, promoted
spinal health, circulation and perhaps even hair growth.
William Andrew Galt Jr., whose ancestors included Cherokee
Native Americans, was born May 31, 1929. His parents owned a dairy
farm in Cartersville, Ga., and ran a restaurant and lodge on an
Indian reservation in North Carolina.
He attended the University of Miami but didn't graduate.
According to family legend, he and some of his fraternity brothers
once hijacked an ROTC tank and drove it across campus.
Mr. Galt headed west and became a manager at Lawry's restaurant,
a rib specialist, in Los Angeles. He was then recruited to set up
restaurants at the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nev. While in Nevada,
he met Harland Sanders, the founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken
business. Mr. Galt befriended Col. Sanders and was an early adopter
of his chicken pressure cookers and blend of herbs and spices.
Though known for greasy breaded chicken, Col. Sanders "primarily
ate fresh fruit and vegetables, very little chicken," Mr. Galt told
the San Diego Tribune in 1985. The colonel's eating habits helped
inspire Mr. Galt to promote more nutritious meals.
A Democrat and peace campaigner, Mr. Galt served on the city
council in Sparks in the mid-1960s and made unsuccessful runs for
U.S. senator and lieutenant governor in Nevada before focusing on
health and nutrition.
He is survived by Gail Weaver, an exercise physiologist who ran
obesity-treatment programs. They married in 2004 and lived in
Mérida in the Mexican state of Yucatán in recent years. An earlier
marriage, to Nancy O'Donnell, who helped found Good Earth, ended in
divorce. Mr. Galt is also survived by four children and two
grandchildren.
At the two surviving Good Earth restaurants in the Minneapolis
area, the menu has evolved over the decades. But Donna Fahs, chief
operating officer of Parasole Restaurant Holdings, which owns those
outlets, said the most popular menu item dates to Mr. Galt's era:
cashew chicken salad.
Ms. Fahs first worked for Good Earth in Santa Barbara, Calif.,
in 1979 as a part-time hostess and later was a general manager. She
recalled Mr. Galt as an energetic "health nut" who combined beans
and brown rice to provide essential proteins. "At the time, nobody
knew what an adzuki bean was," she said, but Good Earth served
them.
Though the restaurants are very popular, she said, the need to
chop and clean fresh ingredients raises labor costs, while the
average check total is relatively small, partly because regulars
tend to order Good Earth tea rather than beer or wine.
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 17, 2018 10:44 ET (14:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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