There were so many: the Eric Twin Rittenhouse at 19th and Walnut; Sams Place and the SamEric at 19th and Chestnut; Erics Place at 15th and Chestnut; Erics Mark 1 at 18th and Market; the Goldman Theatre at Broad and Chestnut; the Roxy (when it showed films from odd places like Canada); more Im not thinking of. 15. I suppose the diner and billboards are merely *adjacent* to the graveyard, but it still makes for an odd juxtaposition. cheeky menu full of gems like sweet n pungent pork Tahiti and barbecue I worked for your grandfather Pete and your Dad from the age of 12 to 17 at the Heritage. Cherry soda before closing its doors in 1990. absolute game changer, forever shifting the trajectory of Philadelphia His marketing calls it a 50s-themed diner, but you wont see a Marilyn Monroe cutout greeting you at the door and you wont get barraged with Chubby Checker on the overhead sound system. If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. I MEET SO MANY people now who have moved to Philadelphia in the past 10 years and stayed. The old benches, the ones without armrests in the middle, were wide and deep enough that homeless people could sleep on them. Diner on the Square There was always a lot of food and drink, and no one noticed the kids whod sneak in and out, grabbing rolled salami off of linen-draped deli trays. The name was Carrolls Diner (not Carols) It was the familys last name. The eggs were so-so, the homefries were lame, and the bacon was the thinnest cut Id ever seen, it was literally transparent. Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. St. Joseph County police searching for missing 12-year-old girl. The Fat HamClosed in: 2017Well alwayslove the Fat Ham for its hot chicken, but the memories are bittersweet: chef-owner Kevin Sbragas empire grew too big too quickly, and not long after the flagship Fat Ham shuttered, the rest of his concepts went with it. . over the Bookbinders building between Front and Second on Walnut Street, but even Trolley Car strikes that rare balance between food quality and attitude. Great article thank you. Parker. Thomas Hawk, Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0. Continental But, I do remember going to lunch there with my dad and having a Liberty Bell shape burger during the bicentennial year when I was about 13. Boulevard Diner is now part of a car dealer. Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. Randy, thank you for acknowledging the Spice Grill located at 3447 Richmond Street in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Sociologist W.E.B. 6. Here are some fascinating photos that offer a glimpse into 1980s Philadelphia. . Photograph: Courtesy Vetri. legendary carrot cake. It was the most expensive item on the menu at $7.99!When they knocked it down they built a McDonalds there which I worked at for for 9 years! Put a porch on your house. Big diners like Melrose, with few exceptions, typically serve awful fruit piesgloppy, over-sweet fillings poured into industrial strength crusts. This was where we went to try new things to kiss, to reveal secrets, to drink, to smoke. Kyrie Irving added 40 and . Red Robin on Frankford Avenue was well liked. thriving dining scene. The original diner was built in the 1930s by OMahony, but at some pointprobably in the late 1950san expansion to the front of the diner almostdoubled the seating and added stainless steel cladding to the exterior. Podcast: Is Sixers' prime time game vs. From a design perspective, the Dining Car represents something of a diner industry anomaly. Too eager. When Steve Poses opened his first restaurant, Frog, on North 20th Street back in 1973, it was an It was the kind of spot where everyone felt at home, the drinks were cheap, and the food was simplebut delicious. Price $$$$$. Reviews on 80s Themed Restaurants in Philadelphia, PA - Bud & Marilyn's, The Dandelion, Dirty Franks, Louie Louie, Butcher and Singer, Harper's Garden, McGillin's Olde Ale House, Raven Lounge, Atlantis, The Lost Bar, The Fillmore Philadelphia Like a big diner should, it greets all customers at the door with a barrage of baked goods. Greater Philadelphia. In the case of the Broad Street Diner, they also replaced a shoddy vinyl awning that adorned the restaurantfor years. Randy Garbin Randy Garbin has traveled the countrys back roads and Main Streets in search of diners, roadside attractions, and the great mom and pop enterprise. Facebook/McGillin's Olde Ale House. Recently, a seersucker-and-madras-clad man at a Mural Arts event I went to railed against graffitis cancerous, corrosive effect on Philadelphia. I saw with my own eyes, he says, the massive money and time being spent to make Philadelphia a retail center. Philadelphians, he says, are fashion-savvy, creative and artistic: They get it.. The more creative individuals in the restaurant business began to see that a diner didnt just have to be about meatloaf and brown gravy and it certainly didnt just have to appeal to truck drivers and middle America. Sep 13, 2019 - Restaurants that I ate at as a child..most no longer exist. This article was intended to document only REAL prefabricated diners, i.e. Mayfair Diner is still clad in chrome. something of a Greek tragedy during its final days. Which is now a fair hibachi buffet. Where to Have a Blowout Birthday Dinner in Philly, Where to Go When You Want Your Meal to Feel Like an Activity, The Philly 15: Philadelphias Most Exciting New Restaurants, This search result is here to prevent scraping, Gilda, a Homey Portuguese Cafe, Opens in Fishtown on March 3rd. The Frazer Diner in Frazer is the only un altered Jerry O Mahony diner in existence.Built between 1929 and 1935 it was originally the Paoli but was moved to Frazer on Lancaster Ave, in 1957. But I think its also that we Center City kids of the 70s and early 80s enjoyed a lot of freedom in our comparatively down-at-its-heels, unmanicured downtown. December 10, 2014. If I can have a slice of meat loaf and my friend can munch on edamame while we sip a cocktail, everyone wins, and the diner lives on to serve a new generation. At the time, we felt our conversations were only a shade less sophisticated than My Dinner With Andre. Sit in the Square, as we did, and it was a pageant: People were black and white, gay and straight, rich and poor. Brunch: 12-3pm Dinner: 4-10pm Happy Hour: 4-6pm. This city has been the butt of jokes for so long going back to W.C. Fields, after all that its still hard to believe that newcomers and investors finally consider it worthy. Between 1913 and 1956, the companys tagline boasted, In our line, we lead the world. By the time they built Bobs, OMahony enjoyed a reputation for building high-quality, streamlined diners. In the face of extreme competition, age, new layers of regulation, and increasing overhead, viability for a 50-seat, short-order restaurant becomes a Herculean task. I like how Starrs designers paid loving homage to the Mad Men era by stripping away some of the diners original colonial-style trappings. memorable shutters. One of the first major restaurant chains, it went public in 1961 with 605 . There is also Chung Sing, an American-chinese diner on Lancaster Avenue near Ardmore. Our friend came out with big news: There was a baggie of cocaine in the room. For nearly 100 years, this family-owned classic on 6th between South and Lombard streets served up an only-in-Philly menu of hot dogs, fishcakes and Champ Cherry soda before . dinner dining room with views of the Swann Fountain was elegant up until I was about six. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. My great uncle, Pete Kyriakodis opened what is now know as the New Boulevard / Five Star Diner a long time ago. | Photo: Randy Garbin. He got puckered and red in the face and stomped out of the room. Lombard streets served up an only-in-Philly menu of hot dogs, fishcakes and Champ This roundup features what I believe to be the citys best and most significant examples of the the classic American diner. from the Pittsburgh area to Philadelphia, with . In its last incarnation, old heads from the Leroys Showcase Lounge days drank alongside members of the queer punk bands playing shows upstairs. Djangos homespun chic vibe and killer cheese plate signaled what was to come. The diner offers a basic, no-frills menu. Some great diners in S. Jersey. a jumbo dog and mashed potato heavy fishcakes served on an ONE BOY WHO accompanied our Bellevue wanderings was the son of a South Street fortune-teller. It was also the locus of the Taney Gang, the children of the Irish gangsters who lived in the homes along 26th Street. and suburbanization through the 1980s, restaurants from the 1990s into the early decades of the twenty-first century played a major role in the region's economy and signaled a . Philadelphia has its share of them, and the Oregon Diner on Oregon Avenueexemplifies the experience. MILLER III / File Photograph. Photograph by Dick Swanson/The National Archive, Eddie Gindi seems genuinely excited as he stands at the dais in the Union League. Not a Philadelphia native, my first visits to the Melrose in 1991 left me bewildered by the citys reverence for the restaurant. I grown up in Oak Lane is the 40s. Thank you so much for sharing a great posts. Ask ANYONE who remembers. The Fat Hams hot chicken | Photo by Vanessa Beahn. Silk City Anyone who believes that they can improve upon the look and quality of a true stainless steel diner probably has some serious psychological issues. Later, the park would get a curfew; wed get in trouble for standing bare-legged in the fountain; wed be turned out while tux-wearing dancers ate fancy food. website lives in perpetuity. Yet another Petrogiannis acquisition. Country Club Diner, another one under the Petrogiannis umbrella, still adheres to its Jewish-American menu established by the Perloff Family. Not much left to see here except for the basic outlines of a classic 50s structure. While the the iconic Melrose and the Mayfair, both currently owned by Michael Petrogiannis, remain, the vast majority are gone. The diner has its own history that stretches back to the 1870s when food vendor Walter Scott in Providence, Rhode Island modifiedhis horse-drawn freight wagon into something akin to modern day food cartsand trucks seen all over Center Citya small vehiclefrom which hot meals are dispensed. 2400 Market St 4th Fl. Cant beat the prices and food anywhere. The author in front of her house on Rodman Street with her father. It's no secret that Philadelphia is a city that loves to eat. Putting one in a museum is all well and good, but if you cant actually eat there whats the point? They have about four things available for lunch and two of them are a turkey club sandwich served either with bacon or turkey bacon. Pure cacophony and sweet-treat over-indulgence, as you can see in this commercial (opens in new tab) from 1980. It was another amazing Paramount-built diner, similar to the Oak Lane. Strictly speaking, adiner is a prefabricated food-service structure with counter service and tables. This was the place to reconnoiter, the hub, the treehouse club, the HQ. Everyone enjoys eating out at Santa Barbara's amazing array of eateries. Went for lunch and was quite impressed. PEOPLE OFTEN FEEL sorry for me because they assume Center City wasnt a real neighborhood. By any measure, Center City is booming, and that is a good thing. Previously, The Pump House: Yes: From's Restaurant: Prices Corner, Kirkwood Highway Does anyone have old photos of the Marlane Diner on Marshall Rd in Upper Darby and/or the Industrial Diner (much older), on Industrial Hwy? The idea brought about national attention and before long books about diners appeared, photorealism paintings of diners sold in Soho galleries for $50,000, and brands wanted to shoot their commercials in a real diner. | Photo: Randy Garbin. But Taco Angelenosstraightforward, L.A.-style tacos flavorful slow-braised meats, a simple toppings bar of chopped onion, radish, cilantro and curtido, and seitan for vegetarians this is West Philly, after all filled that void. The Mulhollands also performed some minor renovations in the 1980s. | Photo: Randy Garbin. No thank you, when Ive been out all night and Im hitting the diner on the way home, I want a friendly face and some solid breakfast. My father worked as a manager at Whitney & Patterson Paper Company at 5th & Bristol in the 70s into the 80s. Does anyone remember the satellite diner in Mayfair on Frankford Avenue, I love everything about diners. Sorry, Bern, but thats just not true. Free shipping for many products! As far as the food at Bobs, I must loudly sing the praises of the omelets. Finelli had two places, one on Tenth Street above Chestnut, and another on Chestnut east side of Broad. I worked as a waitress at Bobs Diner for two summers when I was home from Penn State in the early 70s. Michael Petrogiannis got his start working in this diners kitchen. January 29, 2015. In its heyday, the . The city does have some great Portuguese spots (Cafe Liz and Peruvian hybrid El Balconcito come to mind), but theyre all solidly in North or Northeast Philly. Oh, what about Middletons Diner? The OMahony diner came to Philadelphia in the 1960s from Medford, Massachusetts where it operated as Carols Diner. When built, the few remaining companies produced restaurants in confused styles, but no one held a candle to some of the creations that came out of the Kullman factory. South Philadelphia was ravaged by Mafia warfare, gangs invaded the slums, and the murder rate skyrocketed. And instead of a suburban Dairy Queen parking lot, we had Rittenhouse Square. At the end of the 1980s, the city was on the verge of bankruptcy. Front Porch Restaurant: 232 Philadelphia Pike, Bellefonte, 1980-2003 Destroyed by fire. Find out more about his work and writings at www.randygarbin.com. The Crime rates in the 1980s Philadelphia were very high. 2023 WWB Holdings, LLC. for the luncheonettes griddled cheeseburgers or hand-scooped milkshakes, this flavors. There was no single grown-up world, no monolith. Shame it sits the way it does. Patty Brett, the owner of the uniquely unchanging Doobies at 22nd and Lombard, remembers packs of wild dogs running loose in the area: There were many abandoned churches and gas stations in our neighborhood. The wagons, eventually manufacturedby several different companies, grew bigger and more ornate and semi-permanent. Turf, i.e. Other ethnicities have entered this fray, but not in sufficient numbers to keep the tradition growing. There are now two Farm & Fisherman Taverns, one in Horsham and one in Cherry Hill. Enjoyed this article, but am left wondering: Whats up with Bobs being more or less in a graveyard? Kids discussed open marriages in art class, and the 2000 block of Sansom Street was the bohemian center of the west-of-Broad universe, with head shops, cafes and clubs that leaked strains of poetry, jazz, disco, and the smoke of that natural plant. The current Case Del Mariso was old school diner. The waitress might call you hon, not because afocus group demanded it, but because that is how she talks. I was a student at Temple. Northern Liberties was the land located north of the original 1682 boundary of Philadelphia and early purchasers of land in Philadelphia would also be granted a lot in Northern Liberties. The Farm & Fisherman. For anyone unaware of the state of one of the countrys most recognizable cultural icons, the diner, the Oak Lane Diner, in North Philadelphia, currently provides a clue. Designed and constructed by Philadelphias own Len Davidson, the sign depicts an animated scene of a trolley car rolling, stopping, and dropping off a passenger. The wife loved the steak, but couldnt finish it. Crime spiked. THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED The Garden. One of the best diners in the northeast is Andonios on Krewstown Rd. We won't fault you for getting misty-eyed over these failed fast-food chain restaurants from the 1980s. MmClosed in: 2012Abelovedneighborhood spot (Fitler Square) serving quality New American fare is a beautiful thing. This is a stock, late-1960s Fodero diner similar to Lancers Diner in Easton Road in Horsham. | Photo: Randy Garbin. Jose Garces might have had historical preservation in mind when he took Before the 2 additions and the addition of the foyer waiting area. Freshly ground meat, a Melrose tradition, has been replaced by portion control. Read more G.W. Oak Lane Diner on North Broad looking worse for wear. He was missing several teeth. Do you have any original pictures of the diner that you would be able to share? Horn & Hardarts 54th & City Ave. | 818 Chestnut They really dont build them like this anymore. I remember going there as a kid with my dad and grandfather. Found this pic of the Quaker Diner on Rising Sun https://foxchasereview.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/img_1435.jpg. Yet I sometimes miss the grimy Center City of my youth. In fact, I miss all the movie theaters of my youth. In 2006, Michael Petrogiannis bought this one too and proceeded to make significant interior renovations that improved upon the diners formerly dark and ponderous atmosphere. ChifaClosed in: 2013At Chifa, Jose Garces focused on the relationship between Peruvian cuisine and its Cantonese influence,puttingyuca fries, lomo saltado, soup dumplings, and scallion pancakes all on one glorious menu. For some native Philadelphians like me, all of this is difficult to absorb. Originally published as The Lost City in the August 2014 issue of Philadelphia magazine. Trolley Car Diner, 7619 Germantown Avenue. Sometimes one or two exceptional items can make a restaurant a landmark. Theres too much crime. Thank you meme. I am too an avid Diner lover tho. But tax issues forced the spot to close earlier this year, which is a shame Phillys Greek scene is in something of a shambles (though were optimistic about the upcoming Koukouzeli), so it was exciting to see a concept pushing the envelope. Campiglia was from New Jersey . Twenty-four diners now operate in Philadelphia, down from 30 in 1990 when I first toured the city (Ive visited more than 1,000 across the country). Just for the nostalgia and reminiscing those good old days. At each visit, I had good, serviceable comfort food, and except for that run-in with the brutish manager I experienced friendly, efficient service. Bringing together international flavors in a time before the term "fusion" had any culinary connotations, Frog and its casual counterpart, The greater. McGillin's Olde Ale House, Philadelphia. Most entrees on the menu cost less than $15, and we felt just as welcome there as the dozens of localsaround us. That was largely original but sparsely patronized. | Photo: Randy Garbin. In its place first came the colonial style diner, then the Mediterranean style diner complete with Doric columns, the modern design and its glassy glitz, or some unfortunate melange of all three. I moved into the neighborhood only a few months before it burned. What Austin, Texas looked like in the 1970s Through These Fascinating Photos, Fascinating Historical Photos of Portland from the 1900s, Stunning Vintage Photos of Hicksville, New York in the 1960s, What El Paso, Texas, looked like at the Turn of the 20th Century, Rare Historical Photos Of old Mobile, Alabama From Early 20th Century, Fascinating Photos from the Notting Hill Carnival of 1981.