Arthur's Swine and Dine
Arthur's Swine and Dine is a Fast-food chain serving a variety of Terran / Human style food items [1]. Such as hamburgers, ribs, fries, and mostly pork-based meat products. The restaurant was founded by Arthur Swine, a retired food preparation specialist of the United Stars Navy in 2301. His credo and core business model were to provide good Terran “Feel good food” in a clean friendly atmosphere and restaurants that look exactly the same, no matter where it would be. He felt that it would give troops and colonists on far distant and often alien places a sense of home, consistency, and familiarity. He did not have the funds at first and simply wrote a handwritten letter to Rex Schwartz and to his own surprise got an interest-free loan from Mr. Schwartz himself. His concept was one f the most successful business ideas and grew very fast to one of the biggest individually owned businesses in the known Galaxy.[2] There is a Swine and Dine at almost every spaceport, almost every planet, moon or space station. There are Swine and Dines aboard cruise ships, Space trains, and are featured as Onboard restaurant on Grey Line Space Buses.
Arthur's Swine and Dine is the largest privately owned business (not a Corp) and is still in the hands of the Swine Family. However, the Business has excellent and close business relationships with Schwartz Industries and exclusively buys its supplies from SII sources.
There are several types of Swine and Dine Restaurants. The A-type (Attended) is a large Swine and Dine with full-time staff, sit down restaurant lobby, and a kitchen. These are usually found in towns and cities or bigger spaceports. The R- Type are smaller robot attended restaurants found on smaller ports or places where customer traffic strongly fluctuates or has long periods of no business. Very Small ports or stations may still have an ASD-Box, which is a robotic Vending machine that offers only the basic menu.
ASD Employees enjoy higher wages and better benefits to comparable other businesses. ASD is famous for providing a range of employment benefits: Such as 20 % less work time then Union average (at full compensation), 30 days of paid holidays. Free travel arrangements to any place where a Swine and Dine restaurant
is, Free food. Every employee has the chance to go tho the Swine and Dine University where they learn the ins and outs of the business, get business and management skills, food preparation skills and open the doors for higher positions and good careers. ASD is never short of employees and sometimes has waiting lists.
All Restaurant Employees dealing with customers are required to wear the famous Swine costume and mask. It is required for the lowest to the highest manager to wear the costume, just as Arthur did when he got started.
Swine and Dine has become part of Galactic Pop-culture and there are toys, collectibles, Fan conferences, GalNet shows, books, and comics. There is the famous Arthur Swine Space ship (shaped like a Pig) and the Pig Tower at Pluribus ( 2000 meter Skyscraper shaped like the Arthur Pig). There is the PIG-411 Robot series and of course the Swine and Dine robotic Advertising signs. There are jokes and rumors, stories, and myths surrounding the founder and the restaurant.
ASD often makes the news for milestones and events. Most recently the opening of a Swine and Dine on the Nul Main World. The new Nul Sized Burger they serve it is enormous and already a hit with these former enemies of the Union.
[1] The menu has expanded over the years to serve and meet the needs for Non-Human and non-Terran customers, and these additional menu items vary from location to location. However the basic
[2] The United Stars government-funded GARDEN ( GAlactic Retail DevelopmeNt) project, supported Arthur Swine with generous subsidies to grow his business fast. After Mr. Schwartz of Schwartz industries provided Mr. Swine with the needed start-up capital.