We entered the foodservice industry in 1946 with a passion for food and a vision for better service. Seventy-five years later, we continue to bring service ideas to the table.
1. New Generation Servers, 4-color print press proof. 2. Original Push-For-Service with ashtray rendering.
3. Founder, Art Murray, holding 1956 Golden Butter Knife Award. 4. Vintage white and black syrup dispensers.
5. Pat Murray at Murray's 50th-year celebration.
It started with an ashtray
Service Ideas’ story begins in the 1930s with founder Art Murray and his wife Marie. Art was an entrepreneur and natural salesman while Marie was an exceptional cook and hostess. They opened their first restaurant called the Red Feather Cafe in North Minneapolis, MN, before moving to the location where they are now in downtown Minneapolis at Murray’s Steakhouse in 1946.
Art began dreaming up ways to improve service in the restaurant. Coupling Marie’s passion for the restaurant business with his engineering mind, he introduced his first invention to the foodservice industry in 1946—a domed ashtray with a “Push-for-Service” light used to signal wait staff. A natural innovator and salesman, Art began pitching the ashtray to other restaurants in the area and it became a local success.
Entering distribution
The next innovation under works was the sizzling plate that we now know as the Thermo-Plate® Platter, introduced in 1948. This product was designed to elevate tableside presentation by creating a sizzling effect and maintaining the temperature of the food for as long as possible while also staying cool to the touch for easy handling.
The product was a hit at the restaurant and Art began manufacturing at a local facility in Minnesota and selling it to other restaurants in the area.
In the 1960s, Art’s son, Patrick (Pat) Murray, began working in the family businesses, in what would turn out to be just the beginning of his life-long dedication to Murray's and Service Ideas.
Pat began pitching the Thermo-Plate® to major foodservice distributors. As legend has it, on one of his last calls of the day and with special guarantee terms and conditions, Edward Don & Company agreed to bring it into stock and begin distributing through their Chicago distribution center. This launch into distribution validated the sizzling steak platter and Service Ideas as an innovative provider to the service industry.
Transforming coffee service
Art and Marie believed the coffee traditionally served at the end of the meal was a significant part of leaving a lasting impression on their guests. Their vision was to present an attractive pot of coffee on the table that also kept the coffee hot long enough to finish the meal.
At the time, traditional tableside coffee service involved bringing a single cup of hot coffee to the table and providing refills with a non-insulated glass decanter.
This approach posed several problems to the dining experience including longer wait times and lesser quality coffee from sitting on a warmer, as well as safety concerns that arise from carrying around a hot glass pot of coffee.
Service Ideas’ answer to this was the Thermo-Serv® Carafe. It was developed in 1956 and adopted by the International House of Pancakes (a.k.a. iHop) restaurant in 1958. The Thermo-Serv® became the industry standard for coffee service and remains virtually unchanged with the exception of the safety push-button lid added in the ‘80s.
The ‘80s and ‘90s also brought with it the expansion of the foam insulated coffee pot lines to more modern looks including the New Generation Server and the Eco-Serv™ Carafe. The vacuum insulated glass-lined Coffee-At-A-Touch Carafe was also introduced, allowing operators to keep coffee hot for longer periods of time.
Also brewing in the ‘90s and early 2000s, was the popularity of airpots. This is when Service Ideas introduced the Eco-Air® Airpot and began distributing it through major foodservice dealers.
Reaching new heights
By the late ‘90s, Service Ideas became synonymous with coffee service and was approached by American Airlines to develop a new coffee server designed specifically for in-flight service.
At that time, airlines were using the brew-in stainless bowls with open mouths for service. While these worked fine for brewing the coffee into, they did not work well as carafes on the small service carts and in the narrow alleys of the plane cabin. This prompted airlines to start looking for a safer, more ergonomic, and more attractive solution.
After rounds of engineering specs and design iterations, the Aero-Serv® was introduced and has since been adopted by numerous airlines for their in-flight coffee service.
In 2019, the Aero-Serv® was redesigned as Aero-Serv® 2.0 to fit on a slimmer cart, as well as removing the foam insulation, reducing the overall carbon footprint.
From hot to cold and beyond
Moving into the 2000s, Service Ideas partnered with some well-established retail brands in the US and Europe, helping to launch them into foodservice distribution. Stanley® and ZePe remain partners with Service Ideas to this day.
Meanwhile, Service Ideas continued to push boundaries in product development. For years, Service Ideas worked to develop a large capacity vessel with the same vacuum insulation technology as the smaller capacity carafes and airpots. This would eliminate the need for fuel cans, reducing costs over time to the operator, as well as providing a better-tasting coffee than out of a traditional coffee urn.
Finally, in 2010, the Flame Free™ Themo-Urn™ was launched and revolutionized large capacity coffee service, outperforming the industry standard, foam-insulated competition every time. To this day, Service Ideas remains the leader in vacuum-insulated coffee urns.
Over the next few years, Service Ideas introduced more large capacity solutions, including a line of cold beverage dispensers, commercial tea urns, and commercial thermal containers.
Committing to be better
In recent years, Service Ideas has become more mindful of foodservice trends and tabletop design.
In 2018, beverageware became designer-ware when we began customizing existing product lines with the nature-inspired patterns of the Natural Elements collection, and the fine jewelry-inspired finishes of the Metallic Elements collection.
And most recently, when cold brew coffee became the hot new thing in coffee service, we introduced the Cold Brew ‘N’ Serv™, which expanded our coffee service solutions to include cold brews.
Foodservice operators at heart, we continue to be inspired by our own restaurant and develop products that elevate the dining experience, while maintaining the integrity of food and beverage.
Our brand name–Service Ideas—is a reminder that we look to our experiences as operators in the foodservice industry and continue to create ideas to make it better. •
Read the full story in our 2021 Service Ideas Book here.