Bring Back Good Eats
Recently, some friends of mine were sitting around talking about the good old days when the subject of food, naturally came up. We got to talking about some of the old diners and eating places which have fallen by the wayside. The list is long AND good.
Here are a few which came up:
In Leighton, there were two eating establishments that were as close to the Pearly Gates as you could get: the Sandwich Shop, better known as Leon’s, and the Dixie Dip run by Lillie Riner.
Leon Chapman made hamburgers and cheeseburgers for any of us who grew up near Leighton. Farmers and workers would order them by the sack full. The hamburgers (.20 cents) were doctored up with mustard, onion and pickles. His cheeseburgers cost a quarter and were laced with mayo and tomato. I have yet to meet St. Peter but one of my first questions is gonna be: “Can you get Leon to make me a cheeseburger before you open those gates?”
On Friday mornings, Leon had the greatest subtle marketing tool (before he even knew what marketing meant). His hickory smoke from the BBQ pit would engulf the entire town of Leighton. As soon as you smelled that smoke, your Pavlov reflex started and slobber ran down your shirt until you got a fix of BBQ or a burger. Imagine eating 2 hamburgers and washing it down with a Coke for 50 cents.
Up Old highway 20 to the west, was the Dixie Dip. Yes, they had burgers but Lillie and Cordell’s claim to fame were their banana splits which had about 2,345 calories and took a weightlifter to haul it to the car. The parking lot at the Dixie Dip was where everyone gathered after ball games, dates, drag races, fights or parties.
To this day, I can still remember Lillie serving a “pine float” for those of us who were broke. A pine float was a cup of water with a toothpick floating in it. The number of young girls from Leighton who got their first job with Lillie at the Dixie Dip is staggering.
In Muscle Shoals is where most of us got our first taste of pizza at Pasquales which was located at the intersection of Woodward and Avalon. Those of us who grew up in the country thought we were cooler than the other side of the pillow when we took a date to Pasquale’s and spent $4.50 on a supreme. As bumpkins, we felt as though we had “arrived” when we rubbed elbows with guys we played ball against from Sheffield, Deshler, Muscle Shoals, Coffee and Bradshaw. In other words, those who were cultured and from “over-town.”
You have to be really old to remember that Coach CT Manley ran Fisherman’s Resort Restaurant and Fish Camp near Wheeler Dam, in the late fifties. When CT hired my Dad to come coach with him in 1956, we lived for a couple of months in one of the 300 square foot cabins near Big Nance Creek. Jackie and Ralph Ferguson worked across the road.
CT and his wife Joyce, lived near the restaurant before they moved near Little Hatton on 2nd street. The restaurant featured catfish and hamburger steaks. The small “fishing” cabins styed booked by the fishermen who fished Wheeler Lake.
The very best steak restaurant in the Shoals at the time was Dale’s near O’Neal Bridge in Florence. They still produce Dale’s steak sauce but it is done in some big town like Birmingham. I almost cried when I heard that Dale’s had shut down. The Quad City Quarterback Club met there for years and it was the go-to place to get a good steak. Today, it would be George’s run by my good friend, Scott Trimble.
As students at the University of Alabama, we were always looking for places which were good AND cheap. Posey’s Cafeteria fit that bill. It was located in walking distance from Bryant Denny Stadium and the plate lunches were priced at $1.25. The meat and three turned into a meat and “unlimited” around 2:30 when they got ready to close. Posey wanted to get rid of the food without throwing it away and we were there to scratch their itch.
On the corner of McFarland and Hargrove, near the park was Ireland’s which was known for their famous steak and biscuits. You could get 5 homemade biscuits with some kind of cheap steak and a pile of French Fries for around $5. Naturally, as college students, we stayed broke. So those of us, working our way through school, had to be frugal (a fancy word for CHEAP) when it came to treating a date to a fine dining experience.
Like most cities, Tuscaloosa had a Morrison’s Cafeteria which was located on the Strip where Buffalo Phils is now. On football game days, the line wrapped around the block with Gumps, waiting to go through the line for the roast beef and veggies. The dime that patrons tipped the “tray toters” was always worth it.
In Muscle Shoals, where the CVS is located now, stood the Biscuit Village. It was literally out the back door of Fame Recording Studios. Their biscuits were the size of hubcaps and the gravy would make a roofing shingle edible. There are numerous stories of late-night music sessions in Fame, when the recording artists would slip in there to grab a 2 am breakfast.
Check out the names of the stars who recorded at Fame for Rick Hall and you will see it was a Hall of Fame Diner. No pun intended.
I realize that many of us talk about the good ole days ad nauseum, but there was nothing nauseum about our dining places.
My belly will attest to that.