Eat at Snack Bars?

[PrettySquareGal]

Not quite the lunch counters tucked away in a drug store, but I'm discovering the pleasures of snack bars in long standing businesses. For example, the 1950's bowling alley in my town has a snack bar. Long standing Bingo and auction halls are some other places. Although usually greasy fare, I like to sometimes go to escape 2010 and enjoy what's left of vintage eateries.

Do you have any good vintage snack bars where you are?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The bowling alley we used to go to when I was little was a joint called "U-Ota-Bowl," which looked like it had been entombed in amber in 1949. It had a very small, cramped snack bar area, but the pizza was extraordinarily good -- none of this chain franchise type stuff for them. Not a very extensive menu -- pizza by the slice, hot dogs, and french fries in paper baskets, drizzled with ketchup -- but it made for a very tasty treat. The place went out of business some time in the early 80s, but the last I looked the building was still there, all boarded up and impervious to gentrification.

I desperately miss our old J. J. Newberry's dime store lunch counter -- it was one of the last in the country to close, and I used to go in there a lot for hamburgers and to shoot the breeze with the ladies who'd worked there since the Truman administration. The building got absorbed by the local art museum, and sadly they don't have hamburgers there anymore. I keep telling them it'd be great for business if they did.

 

[23SkidooWithYou]

If we do have them, I hope I never find them! Neither my figure nor my arteries would endure the indulgence for long!

We used to have a great cafeteria style eatery called "Buster Brown's". They had awesome chicken croquettes and french fries. Yum! We always lunched at Buster Brown's after a day of shopping downtown. Unfortunately, as our downtown shopping district died with the advent of the local shopping mall, so did Buster Brown's.

We have a little hot dog stand "Toroney's" that is famous for it's foot longs. The stand was only open in the summer but patrons would wait in line for a take home order, or if they were really lucky, managed one of the bar stools along the front and ate right there. I'm not sure the original stand is still there but they did move the business into a new building. Not quite the same, but the hot dogs are still pretty good.

The hottest spots I know of for snack bar dining would be the local high school football stadiums. Anybody from NEPA probably remembers grabbing some Nardone's pizza at half time! Not sure if they still sell it at games, but we can buy it at the grocery store.

Around here, Bingos are usually church events, no snack bars but a bake sale is almost guaranteed.

 

[23SkidooWithYou]

I desperately miss our old J. J. Newberry's dime store lunch counter -- it was one of the last in the country to close, and I used to go in there a lot for hamburgers and to shoot the breeze with the ladies who'd worked there since the Truman administration.

Me too, Lizzie!

We had a lunch counter in our McCrory's dime store. I have two words for you "patty melt". It was a flattened out hamburger served with melted cheese and sauteed onions on grilled rye bread. DELISH! And you're right about the ladies that worked there! So nice and eventhough they had polyester uniforms on, their hair was always done. It was so nice to hear them call me "honey" and know it was actually sincere.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

PrettySquareGal I see you are in New England.

"Helen's" is a place has a drug store/soda shop setting. It is family owned and has been around since 1936. The town is a throw back to when times were simpler.

The address is 17 Main St Concord, MA 01742

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I desperately miss our old J. J. Newberry's dime store lunch counter -- it was one of the last in the country to close, and I used to go in there a lot for hamburgers and to shoot the breeze with the ladies who'd worked there since the Truman administration. The building got absorbed by the local art museum, and sadly they don't have hamburgers there anymore. I keep telling them it'd be great for business if they did.

There were two Newberry's in my area. Both were located in '60s vintage strip malls, one was in Garden Grove on Brookhurst and Chapman and the other was in Santa Ana on 17th Street. Both shopping centers have since been renovated beyond recognition. Sad to say, the lunch counters at Newberry's were already long gone by the time they closed in the 1990s.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

The bowling alley we used to go to when I was little was a joint called "U-Ota-Bowl," which looked like it had been entombed in amber in 1949. It had a very small, cramped snack bar area, but the pizza was extraordinarily good -- none of this chain franchise type stuff for them. Not a very extensive menu -- pizza by the slice, hot dogs, and french fries in paper baskets, drizzled with ketchup -- but it made for a very tasty treat.

This is what I like. I had the best home fries at a snack bar this weekend, much better than I've had at any local restaurants!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

You might have a snack bar in your town hidden away out of sight. I'm on a hunt myself now, trying to find more. I just like the idea of these vintage places hidden away safely where I'm in no danger whatsoever of seeing hipsters there for ironic eating.

 

[olive bleu]

Oh Boy! Do i love a good snack bar!We have at least two here that immediately come to mind. neither of them are pretty to look at , but the food is divine..i think next payday calls for one of johnny's burgers and a strawberry shake

and both are right in my neighbourhood!