The American Roadside

Harry’s Place – Colchester, CT

Harry’s Place is crowded. All the time. Get there early if want a lobster roll! (Connecticut style, hot…)

For 101 years, this place on the main drag in Colchester has been serving solid food to a contingent of townies and tourists. And I use the term “main drag,” because Harry’s has been sort of a moving target over those years. It has moved from the main area of Colchester, near the town square to where it is now, with a couple of stops in between. Some years ago, it was enlarged, but the owners really made an effort to retain its original roadside charm. Bravo to that!

Like many drive-in type eateries, you go to the window to place your order and then wait for your name to be called. Quaint and efficient at the same time! And how’s the food? Great. The burgers, at least to my palate, taste like what burgers tasted like 50 years ago and are not gussied up with unnecessary frou-frou condiments! The fries, in almost endless array of styles, are good, too. And for the non-red meat eaters, grab a grilled chicken sandwich, but beware, they are huge!

Harry’s is the place to be on a hazy summer night in Eastern Connecticut!

The Blue Moon Restaurant – Rhinebeck

The late 60s were a good time. My friends and I had pretty decent bikes that took us on all sorts of adventures. One such trip was about a mile or so out of town, to the intersection of NY Route 9 and 9G. There sat the Blue Moon, a tired and worn restaurant that we’d never actually gone into. Neither had our parents. Or nearly anyone else, for that matter. Those two cars you see out front? With the grass and weeds growing up around them? They were there to help lure the unsuspected roadtripper into thinking that the place has business! And customers! At this point, it did not.

Since then I’ve learned that the Blue Moon, as with most faded bits along the American roadside, was indeed once a fairly thriving joint, where locals grabbed a coke and a burger. But by now, it’s best days were behind it.

So we took out bikes up the old country road nearby, so as to avoid the “main road” and associated traffic. We parked out front and wandered in. It had a round counter and, as I recall, one guy in his whites tending the place. Despite the lack of business, he didn’t seem happy to see us.

food truck diners quick lunch walter scott

Food Trucks. It’s All Been Done Before!

It’s pretty clear that the food truck phenomenon is here to stay. It may have tailed off a bit during the pandemic, but nonetheless it’s now a part of life and food consumption in most urban areas. The funny part is that, while these mobile eateries seem like a funky “new idea,” they are actually a concept that’s well over 100 years old.

Walter Scott, who is widely credited for inventing the concept of the the lunch car (which would go on to be the diner) started this trend in Providence, Rhode Island in the late 1800s. He served food out of a horse drawn wagon to late night workers, who had few, if any, other choices at that time. His idea caught on and other imitators followed. With time, these portable “night lunch cars” would evolve into the classic American roadside diner. At first they were just larger versions of Scott’s concept, but soon they grew and morphed into shiny symbols along the roadside that we think of today.

So when you see a food truck in your town or city today, squint a bit, and imagine the millworkers lined up to get a cup of coffee and a hot dog in 1877. The fare is different, the concept lives on!

Merry Christmas, from Pittsburgh.

andy's bar pittsburgh

Our traditional image. This was the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh about 15 years ago. Today, the neighborhood continues to tradition into a more genteel area, chock-a-block with the “creative class,” new restaurants and small businesses. Along with East Liberty, it was something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.

You can argue the merits of gentrification, but was there any other choice?

A Fish Tale; Not even bones left behind

The onetime Fish Tale Diner, which sat for many years across the Merrimack River from Newburyport, MA in Salisbury, is now only a memory. As you can see in this photo, the area where the diner once stood has now been leveled. The remaining walls are part of an add-on that was done over the past couple of years.

As Larry Cultrera noted in his Diner Hotline blog, the Fish Tale had recently been damaged by a fire. No word on what if anything was salvaged from this very original Worcester Dining Car, but suffice to say that you can scratch #762 off your list of extant Worcester cars.

Larry has the history of the diner here and the more recent fire update here.

Here’s what the interior looked like late one day in 2005…

fish tale diner interior

Old businesses in the 50 states…

savannah pirates house — This place (recently renovated) was right next to my Savannah rental of a few months ago.

OK. I’ll admit that this is sort of a click bait site, but it is really quite interesting and, as a bonus, you don’t have to go from page to page — just scroll down.

Enjoy!

American Sign Museum: Ten Years On

I recall being there on the first day that the American Sign Museum opened in Cincinnati. It was in a difficult spot to find, just to the east of the downtown area. I went around the block several times (in the days before ubiquitous GPS help!) before figuring it out. But I finally made the requisite turns and found the place. What I discovered at that point was a museum that housed a wide variety of early American roadside signage which had been saved from certain destruction…

Fast forward. Today was the tenth anniversary celebration of the museum in its new digs just west of downtown, hard off of I-75. The larger space (and there is more available) is beautifully conceived and the interpretive information is just enough to help the average visitor get a handle on how signage has developed and changed over the past hundred years or so.

I share an odd connection with Tod Swormstedt, who is the driving force behind this unique museum. Some years ago, a lovely woman by the name of Jane Powell, contacted Tod about early poster and “show card” artists. She and her daughter Lori were trying to dig up more information about the painters and artists who had painted one-off movie posters in the early part of the 20th century. One of those artists happened to be my grandfather, the wonderful R. J Rogers. (Renfred, for those who care) Tod’s family happened to own the industry trade magazine “Signs of the Times,” in which my grandfather had advertised aid for others who were painting movie posters at the time.

Personal feelings aside, The American Sign Museum is a gem… My congratulations to Tod and everyone else involved. Now that so much of our roadside has been lost, there is, at least, this one place where you can walk back through a glittering American that existed — not too long ago.

The Enchanted Forest: Remembrance & Revival

enchanted village ellicott city It isn’t that often anymore that you simply stumble on a long-lost relic of the American roadside, but so it was this weekend when I visited Ellicott City, Maryland. On my way to the Double T Diner, I looked up to see Old King Cole beckoning with his outstretched arm for me to enter The Enchanted Forest. Well, the Enchanted Forest Shopping Center, anyway.

Upon return, I did some research, and discovered that this once-charming children’s park was the second “theme park” to open in the U. S., after the original Disneyland. The year was 1955. Those post war years when everything seemed to promise a sort of storybook future.

Well, you know the rest of the story. Eventually, as the area grew, the park was downsized, sold off and closed.

But what you don’t know is the wonderful “rest of the story” (apologies to Paul Harvey) A substantial portion of the original buildings and figurines were acquired by Clark’s Elioak Farm. I’ll let them tell the story. It’s a wonderful chance for children and the adults who once visited the original park to enjoy it again — and they deserve a huge “thank you.”

You’ll find other Enchanted Forest info here and here.

Buzzfeed get diners wrong, mostly

In it’s ongoing attempt to create click bait for millions of bored web surfers, Buzzfeed recently published a list of the “21 American diner you should eat in before you die.”

There are some classic, notable diners in the bunch; The Miss Worcester, Mickeys, Tops, but also a whole raft of wannabees and neverweres. My fav amongst that group is “Slim Goodies,” which, we are told “…has been serving up creole goodness for nearly 12 years.” Really? Twelve whole years? That makes it a classic in my book anytime!

For our part, if we had to pick one diner in Worcester to highlight it would have been the venerable Boulevard, not Miss Worcester, despite that diner’s close connection to the Worcester Lunch Car Manufacturing Company.

Anyway, we just wanted to share the link, on the off chance that you’re one of the five or six people who hadn’t seen it already…

The Roadside, In the Rearview Mirror….

overnight cabins old sign It has been a long time coming, but it was always inevitable, particularly in a nation which seems to value “new and shiny” over just about anything else. I’m speaking of the general state of the American roadside at this date and time. Though much that we love remains, much has been lost, and continues to be bulldozed each year. Just try finding a classic old motel in your corner of the nation, or a diner, or a drive in. Most of the motels have been swept away in an almost manic building spree led by the Hiltons, Holiday Inns and Marriotts, who now manage a diverse group of properties, each aimed at a certain niche in the market. Fran and Bill’s Motel is, for the most part, a distant memory. holiday inn great sign

Was that always the way this was going to go down? I suppose so.

Many early mom and pop motels were (generally) thrown up quickly and cheaply. As American’s took to the roads, particularly after WWII, the need arose and it was filled. But it wasn’t long before the Holiday Inn, with its “great sign” began to challenge the independent operators.

So, what to do? Well, the only option is to get out there and find what’s left! There are still a lot of small businesses hanging on, but it’s always a question of just how long. When you drive by them the next time — you may see only a pile of debris. So, don’t delay. Hit the road. Today or tomorrow or this weekend, but do it! Now.

1 2