October 5, 2026 · 2:41 pm

Hippie restaurants

Eating places for hippies could be found in cities across the country beginning in 1968. They mostly had a short life, but they introduced Americans to a different approach to meals that were not built around meat, emphasizing instead grains and fresh vegetables. They were often places to hear live music as well and to simply hang out.

Foods introduced by the hippie restaurants included brown rice, lentils, tofu, tahini, yogurt, and pita bread, among others. According to Warren Belasco in his book Appetite for Change, potato skins were first popularized in hippie restaurants. However, it took some time before these restaurants gained any degree of recognition for their food offerings.

Of course not all hippie hangouts served what would later be called “health food.” At the Drogstore Café, a popular spot in the Haight Ashbury area of San Francisco, a hippie was likely to order coffee and a hamburger. Unlike most restaurants, though, it was served on a psychedelic linoleum tabletop.

Many of the country’s hippie eating spots were in California, but they were also located in big and medium-size cities across the nation, such as Houston, New Orleans, Denver, New York, Milwaukee, and Fort Wayne.

During their time, roughly 1967 into the early 1970s, hippie eating places were not admired or patronized by the general public. And the hippies themselves were decidedly not popular for a number of reasons including that they were often from privileged backgrounds.

But I also suspect another reason was because hippie males were seen as traitors to conventional masculinity.

Judging from the number of newspaper stories complaining about hair, most Americans particularly disliked the fact that hippie men wore their hair long. Around the country health departments insisted that hairnets be worn by male restaurant workers.

In Texas, a crowd of about 30 men described as “cowboys” broke a window and forced their way into a hippie restaurant. While inside they reportedly “sheared one long-hair.” The story made no mention of them being arrested, nor did it even suggest they were in the wrong.

Another hippie restaurant that inspired a violent reaction was The Family Hand in Houston which was run as a co-operative. Fortunately no one was injured when a bomb suspected to be black powder stuffed into a pipe fragment blew off the front door.

Other objections were raised against hippie restaurants. A Denver restaurant, La Petite, was declared a public nuisance by a judge and closed down for a year. The owners were held responsible for a range of complaints regarding their patrons’ behavior, including blocking the front sidewalk, overcrowding, being noisy, and selling and using drugs. Also prohibited was the owners’ habit of warning patrons via a public address system when the police were about to arrive at the restaurant.

Some hippie restaurants managed to eventually shake off the counterculture stigma, notably Alice’s Restaurant in Stockbridge MA, which went in the gourmet direction.

Alice’s was similar in ambition to a number of restaurants that weren’t exactly hippie places but were informal while striking a new note. Sometimes they were cooperative organizations with a wider menu of natural food choices and an environment that encouraged customers to engage with each other. In early 1971 a LA Times story proclaimed that in Los Angeles, “A new movement/religion unites both hippies and straights in holy war against adulterated foods and french-fried, frozen, super sugar wastelands.” Of course it was not only in Los Angeles. Among the restaurants using natural foods were Alice Water’s Chez Panisse in Berkeley, the feminist Mother Courage Restaurant in NYC, a cooperative run by Katherine Blinder in Greenfield MA called Home Comfort, Common Ground in Brattleboro VT, and Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca NY, which refused to be considered a hippie place.

© Jan Whitaker, 2026

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September 14, 2026 · 3:01 pm

My favorite chrome postcards

Chrome is the postcard collector’s name for cards that look like glossy color photographs but are printed on ordinary lightweight card stock. They appeared first in the 1940s and are still standard today, although often they are larger now.

M and M Lunch, Blairsburg IA
A highway restaurant at the junction of U.S. highways 69 and 20, the M and M boasted in the early 1960s that it was “completely” air conditioned. I guess it needed it badly since the closest trees are far away.

Lone Star Café, Bowie AZ
Located on Highway 86, the café advertised that it was at the “gateway to the Wonderland of Rocks.” The unincorporated town of Bowie was scarcely populated so it’s likely this was the only eating place. Open seven days a week from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. A 1954 advertisement said it had been under the same management for seven years on a route that was “Mountain Free.” Offered for sale in 1968, the notice claimed it was a “real money maker.”

D’Andrea’s 3 Acres Drive-in, Woodbridge CT
This turnpike eating spot in the 1950s and 1960s claimed to be “New England’s Most Modern Drive In.” The menu featured fried clams and lobster rolls. The business also included a motel.

Goldie’s, New York City NY
Goldie’s, named after [Mr.] Goldie Hawkins, advertised itself as the city’s “Happiest Show Spot,” offering cocktails, dinner, and supper. Goldie was a Southern gentleman who played piano and said that he set a “fine table.” The happy spot was at 232 East 53rd Street.

Tower of Pizza, West Yarmouth MA
Visually, at least, the Tower of Pizza achieved its ambition of being a “unique eating establishment” specializing in pizza, deli food, and muffins. The couple who owned the Tower also ran a Tastee Tower in Falmouth Centre.

The Town House Café, Mitchell SD
Two partners opened a place called the Majestic Bar in 1935. It became the Town House Café in 1955 and stayed in business at least to the end of 1977. No doubt business was buoyed by the presence in town of the Corn Palace, a curious tourist attraction of Moorish-style architecture with exterior murals made of corn and grains.

Uncle Herb’s Pancake House, Manitou Springs CO
Along with pancakes Uncle Herb’s served chicken dinners and other dishes. It was near Pike’s Peak and definitely in business in the 1960s, maybe before and after too. On one of their matchbooks – likely from the 1950s – was a “funny” bit of witticism that suggested, “If your wife can’t cook don’t divorce her. Keep her for a pet and eat at our place.”

Jet Drive-In, Austin TX
The mercury vapor “Wide-Lite” of this canopy was said to be color-corrected to be flattering to food and faces. Lyndon Johnson, President from1963 to 1969, was known to drop in for a hamburger.

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August 18, 2026 · 2:56 pm

My favorite photo postcards

Photo postcards, known as “real photos” by collectors, are premium collectibles because of the details that seem clearer than on many other postcards. They, along with other types of postcards, were what led me into writing my blog. It hasn’t been as easy as I thought it would be, but it has been fun.

Zendcrest Lunch, Warren RI
This lunch room was in business in 1950 and the late 1940s. According to the sandwich board, seven sandwiches were priced at 15 cents and none cost more than 25 cents except for the Hot Chicken for 40 cents.

Toy Town Tavern, Winchendon MA
This is part of the dining room of the Toy Town Tavern, an inn opened by Morton Converse, owner of a major toy manufacturing company, in the first decade of the 20th century. It boasted of a kitchen that had “the most scientific and sanitary construction.” It served vegetables and berries grown in its garden and gave “special attention . . . to the Milk, Cream and Butter used.”

Lloyd’s Café, Corinth MS
Lloyd’s opened in 1926 during Prohibition. The neon sign for Falstaff beer in this photo suggests it was still in business in the 1950s.

The New Roxy Restaurant, Crestline OH
Said to have the “most modern kitchen and equipment on the market today,” the New Roxy was open from 6 a.m. to midnight. It opened in 1932 and stayed in business for many years. Judging from the contents of the glass case, its customers must have included many cigar smokers.

Golden Boot Café, Elk City OK
The Boot was opened 1946 by a couple named Smits, serving three meals a day, including steak and chicken. In 1955 it also served enchiladas and pizza. In 1962 it advertised a special Sunday dinner for 85 cents that included soup, salad, meat, two vegetables and dessert. It seems to have closed in 1964.

Unknown
Based on a wall calendar for George Blanchet Insurance in Manchester NH, it is likely that this early 20th century restaurant was located in that city. A message on the back – in French – refers to the pea soup served here.

Iceberg Café, Albuquerque NM
Of course real icebergs do move around and that was true of this café also. From about 1939 to 1949, it had various owners and three addresses. I’m not sure whether it was rebuilt each time or towed, but I’m assuming the former. It served Mexican dinners, along with sea foods, chicken, and steak.

Mac’s Shell Service & Coffee Shop, Black River Falls WI
Mac ran the service station on Highway 12 while his wife Martha ran the coffee shop. Opened in 1947, it stayed in business until 1968. It was known for the highway signs created by Mac that carried messages such as “Keep Wisconsin green, bring money,” and “Whoa! Stop and eat if it kills you, I need the money”

Paldora Café, Oklahoma City OK
The Paldora, aka Pal-Dora, opened in 1947, but was sold to a owner with a Hispanic name the following year who changed the name to Café Palacio and promised to serve Mexican food.

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August 2, 2026 · 11:46 am

Portrait of a restaurateur: Harland Sanders

Harland Sanders is so closely associated with Kentucky Fried Chicken as “Colonel Sanders” that his early career as a restaurant owner has been largely eclipsed. However, it occupied much of his time and energy before — and to a lesser extent after — he began selling and promoting his fried chicken recipe. [Above: Sanders at a restaurant convention, 1939]

He had a rough early life. His father, an Indiana farmer, died when he was 8. His mother took a factory job to support the family, while as the eldest child Harland was left with caring for his sisters, which included cooking their meals. He did not finish grade school. At age 12 his mother married a man that he disliked and he set off on his own, traveling around and working at a number of dead-end jobs.

According to a 1960 story in the trade publication American Restaurant, before he opened his restaurant in 1930 in Corbin, KY, Sanders “had worked as: farm hand, house painter, soldier [in Cuba], blacksmith helper for a railroad, locomotive fireman, insurance company employee, secretary for the Chamber of Commerce, justice of the peace, streetcar conductor, ferry boat operator, tire salesman, and service station operator.” The magazine left out lawyer (self-educated) and midwife.

By the early 1920s he was a married man with children and employed by an insurance company in his home state of Indiana. Then the family moved to Kentucky and he became interested in new enterprises, especially if they were car-related. After a number of endeavors that failed, he became a salesman for Michelin Tires, then ran service stations in Nicholasville and Lexington KY.

His biographer, John Ed Pearce, attributed his many failures to his temperament, which was characterized by “bullheadedness, a lack of self-control, impatience, and a self-righteous lack of diplomacy.”

1930 was the same year that he and two of his business associates got into a pistol fight with a rival of Harland’s in which one of his associates was killed. Later, when he had assumed the ‘Colonel’ role, traveling around and promoting fried chicken, he got into a fight with a cook after he complained about being served with an egg cooked improperly. The cook came at him with a butcher knife. As chronicled by Pearce in “The Colonel,” “the customers were treated to the unusual sight of a white-haired man in a colonel suit holding back a knife-wielding man with a stool.”

He was feisty, restless, and impatient and seemed to be happier starting businesses than running them on a day-to-day basis. Usually he would turn the operations over to a trusted employee, as was the case with a motel and restaurant he had opened in Asheville NC [shown above]. In 1939.he sent his top waitress, Claudia – his future wife following his divorce – to run it.

Despite his restlessness and emotional volatility, he was outgoing, had vast energy, and was noticed and admired as a restaurateur. In 1935 he was invited to join the board of directors of the National Restaurant Association, a position that he held for three terms. In 1936 he was elected president of the Kentucky Operators’ Association, and in 1940 his picture appeared on the cover of the May issue of Restaurant Management. In 1942 Sanders Court in Corbin KY, which included his restaurant, achieved wide recognition after being recommended both in Duncan Hines’ Adventures in Good Eating and in Best Places to Eat by Carl A. Barrett.

A 1932 Mothers’ Day menu gives an idea of meals offered by Harland Sanders’ restaurant, possibly on the somewhat fancier end for this special day. It included Fried Chicken with Mushrooms, Potatoes Au Gratin, Buttered New Peas, Asparagus Tips on Toast, Fruit Salad, and various beverages. Sanders was a confirmed non-drinker and did not serve alcoholic drinks in his restaurants.

The governor of Kentucky conferred the title of colonel on him in 1935, but he paid little attention to it for years. But by 1953 he used the honorary title when he leased a local restaurant called The Sea King which served sea food, and advertised that he would also serve “Delicious Kentucky BAR-B-CUE” and “that Colonel Sanders KY. FRIED CHICKEN that I’ve served at the Sanders Café at Corbin for the past 25 years.”

1953 was the first year he began seriously franchising his recipe. Traveling around the country selling his fried chicken recipe was much better suited to his personality than was running a restaurant.

In 1956 he sold his motor court and focused on selling his recipe and method of chicken preparation. The value of his restaurant business had plummeted with the building of a new interstate highway some distance from his restaurant. He had no offers, and was forced to sell the 26-unit motel and dining room on auction in March. In the auction advertisement he described its modern facilities and virtues, among them “Flawless reputation,” referring to his policy of not accepting local motel customers. The advertisement also noted that the business was the “home of Col. Sanders’ Ky. Fried Chicken, franchised all over the U.S.A.” To increase attendance at the auction he promised that someone who attended would win a “FREE Millionaire Havana Vacation For 2.”

In 1964, when there were over 900 franchise holders, he sold his franchising business, with the understanding that he would continue with his publicity work. The new owners sold it in 1971 to the Heublein corporation. He criticized the company repeatedly, calling the executives a “bunch of booze hounds.”

Following his retirement from traveling to Kentucky Fried Chicken sites around the U.S., and giving up his sites in Canada that he had retained when he sold his interests, he might have taken it easy. But not completely. He and his Claudia opened a dinner house on the property where their home was located near Shelbyville. A second one opened in the Harrison Hotel in Cynthiana as a franchise. The restaurants served dinners family style, with each main dish, whether fried chicken, ham, steak, or lobster, accompanied by seven vegetables prepared with Harland’s and Claudia’s home recipes. The Sanders acted as consultants. The plan to open additional Claudia Sanders’ Dinner Houses in Bowling Green KY as well as Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus OH did not materialize.

Harland wanted to make it to 100 years old, but he only made it to 90.

© Jan Whitaker, 2026

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July 19, 2026 · 11:30 am

Questions of the times

The following are questions from restaurant operators, consultants, journalists, and consumers about restaurants generally, dating from 1900 into the early 2000s.

Many of those that I’ve chosen particularly reflect and represent the industry and the times. Prominent among the questions are those concerning race, modernization, and automation. There are also some that are reflections about what’s been lost over time.

The questions with capitalization are headlines. Sorry no illustrations — I’m still trying to recover from a computer meltdown.

1900 “Do American men ever dine together in the cozy and communicative way that foreigners do?”

1908 “Should the Unchaperoned Girl Have an After Theater Dinner?”

1909 “What sense is there in calling potatoes ‘Pommes de terre,” oysters ‘huitres,’ soups ‘potages,’ and so on through a lot of lingual fol-de-rol, when plain everyday English would tell the story comprehensively?”

1912 “Why is there such a hubbub of late over a few negroes and East Indians being denied entrance and accommodations in some of our Detroit restaurants and theaters, when these dark skinned people know that the places they complain of cater to ‘white people only?’”

1913 “Why Are There No Woman Chefs?”

1922 “What Do Women Prefer to Eat?”

1926 “Has Prohibition Hurt the Restaurant?”

1927 “Where is the scrapple of Pennsylvania, the genuine clam chowder of New England?”

1928 “Who remembers the Irish waiters, stalwart and cheery-faced, who once were such a familiar sight in the oyster and chop houses of New York?”

1930 “Why Don’t They Give Women Restaurant Operators a Square Deal?”

1933 “Have We Forgotten How to Really Dine?”

1946 “How are your roadside signs these days? Can the fast-driving motorist read your message easily?”

1949 “It is Criminal to Refuse Any Person Food Who Has the Cash?”

1952 “What is the attitude as between fresh and processed foods?”

1957 “In big cities, in the small towns, all across the nation, all along the highways, the question echoes, ‘What’s the truth about these restaurants building franchises?’”

1958 “What are definite clues to success or failure in the Drive-In business?”

1959 “Do New Super-Roads Doom Restaurants?”

1959 “We call it the ‘All-American’ at Sandy’s, ‘cause what’s more American than a good Hamburger, Milk Shake and French Fries?”

1963 “If Mr. and Mrs. Consumer buy cigarettes, gum, candy, and soda from machines why shouldn’t they buy hot meals from similar machines?”

1964 “What happened to the diners at which we used to grab a quick bite?”

1965 “Do the shining golden arches that form an M on the McDonald’s float look familiar?”

1965 “Integration? Where do you stand? Where do you want your employees to stand?”

1966 “What has become of au gratin, scalloped, Lyonnaise, cottage fried, hash brown and good old home fries?”

1968 “Will the Real Owner of This Restaurant Please Stand Up?”

1969 “Isn’t anyone cooking at home any more?”

1969 “Just how much will the celebrity’s name add to the attraction?”

1970 “Will Frozen Foods Come to Gourmet Restaurants?”

1972 “Was it really true, as the manager implied, that in our society today there was no longer any requirement for the haute cuisine?”

1979 “Can Mexican food capture the palates and pocketbooks of the American heartland?”

1984 “It’s trendy and revolutionary, but does California Cuisine really exist?”

1984 “An Italian restaurant without spaghetti?”

1988 “Nutmeg on steak?”

2004 “Should tips be taxed, or are they like a gift from a customer to a worker and should not be taxed?

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June 21, 2026 · 12:00 pm

What they wrote

I was hoping that people sending postcards of restaurants would have mentioned the food they ate in those places. That rarely happened. What was far more likely was that they would say when they were returning from their trips.

What had put the idea about mentions of food into my mind was the message on the back of one of the linen postcards from my last post. That was the card from Burdick’s Drive-In Restaurant that pictured French-fried shrimp on a plate seemingly floating in the sky over the building. As shown above, the message on the back was far from flattering.

But that was not the average kind of message. When visitors did write something about a place’s food, it tended to be quite positive. In other cases, they did not mention food at all but enthused about other aspects of eating places.

Reuben’s, New York City, 1941 – “Your mother ate all of her sandwich – Believe it or not – P.S. I ate two”

Clifton’s Brookdale, Los Angeles, 1946 – “A very odd restaurant where we had lunch today.”

Cocoanut Grove, Los Angeles, 1930s – “Helped close this place up lat night. Movie stars all over the place.”

Old Castle Inn, Miami, 1945 – “Ate here this noon. Very good. They had Milles Knackwurst on the menu – but we didn’t have that.”

The Steak House, Chicago, 1947 – ‘Had a wonderful feed. Cracker & milk. Believe it or not. 18 in the party, nice fun.

Oltz House, eight miles west of St. Louis, 1942 – “Dennis Boy – How you would love the chow here. Boy, is it good and the quantity likewise is something.”

Don’s Sea Food, Seattle, 1936 – “Am lunching or dining at this place. High powered.”

Town and Country Restaurant Sirloin Room, Dallas, 1956 – “Ate here before theatre. What a wonderful place! Robby and I both had the Sirloin Steak dinner for two. 2½” thick!!!”

Di Maggio’s, San Francisco, 1951 – We ate here at Joe Di Maggio’s place it’s beautiful. The best fish I ever ate.”

The Victor Hugo Restaurant, Beverly Hills, California, 1939: “Just finished having lunch at Victor Hugo’s. It really takes your breath away. This is a grand country.

Gibby’s, Chicago, 1949 – “We’re waiting here to have our dinner! It’s 11:45 P.M. and we’ve ordered Fillet Mignon.”

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June 7, 2026 · 11:28 am

My favorite linen postcards

When I began this blog I was inspired by my vintage postcard collection. I had focused my collection on restaurant cards and had built up a sizable collection. It all seemed so easy! But then I began to inquire about the history of restaurants in ways that exceeded my collection. In many cases it made more sense for a blog to feature pictures of the owners, or menus and advertisements. And, of course, I often had no postcard of the restaurant I wanted to write about.

So the postcard collection, useful from time to time, was not what determined what I investigated and wrote about. Sometimes I would try to feature certain postcards but it frequently turned out that when I did the research for those particular restaurants I wasn’t able to find enough about them to fill out a post.

But for this post some of my favorite postcards get to be the stars of the blog. I have picked out the best “linen” cards that can be found in our house. As postcard collectors know, “linen” refers to a kind of card printed on a textured paper material and that became dominant during the Depression and into the 1940s and 1950s. They have an almost comical quality that some collectors, myself included, like.

Here are what I consider the best linen restaurant cards in my collection. Which is your favorite?

Sorrento Inn, Highland, Indiana
“Most Popular Family Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge in the Calumet Region — Only 10 Miles from Chicago”

Hub Diner, Beaumont, Texas
“Eating Our Is Fun – The Diner of Counter and Car Service”

The Green Frog, Waycross, Georgia
“Air Conditioned – Good Food – Service with a Hop – Plenty Parking Space”

Garland’s Drive In, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
“Featuring Tennessee Country Ham, Fried chicken and corn fed steaks – Fine Food – Tis the Taste that tells the Tale”

W-R Restaurant, Chicago, Illinois
“In the Heart of the Loop – There is No Better Food at Any Price!”

Dixie Restaurant, Johnson City, Tennessee
“The ‘DIXIE’ is the Pioneer Drive-in Restaurant in this section. Serving East Tennessee Since 1930. Today the ‘DIXIE’ is one of the outstanding Restaurants in the Southland.”

Burdick’s Drive-In Restaurant, St. Petersburg, Florida
“Our Meal Will Convince You that this is not just another Restaurant, but the Best Place to Eat – Sea food, Steaks, Chops, and Sandwiches – Fountain Service – Specializing in Fantail Jumbo Frenchfried Shrimp.”

Aberdeen Diner, Aberdeen, Maryland
“Good Food – Counter and Table Service – A La Carte and Full-Course Dinner – Courteous Service – Ample Parking”

The Cross Roads, North Oxford, Massachusetts
“Orchestra and Dancing Nightly – Cocktail Lounge and Two of Massachusetts’ Finest Dining Rooms”

Tops Diner, Johnstown, Pennsylvania
“Tops in Food, Tops in Service – New – Up To The Minute”

Gabe’s, Owensboro, Kentucky
“‘The Steak House of the South’ – Famous for food since 1922 – Recommended by Duncan Hines – ‘Where Southern hospitality is still the fashion.’” – [pseudo user message on back]: P. S. Have just finished eating one of Gabe’s Delicious Steaks! Wishing you were here to enjoy one –“

Pilot Café, Salt Lake City, Utah
“Salt Lake’s Newest Motor Lodge – Coffee Shop – Dining Room – Night Club in Connection”

© Jan Whitaker, 2026

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May 17, 2026 · 11:30 am

Dance and dine at the Cow Shed

I was looking through my collection of restaurant menus, when I spotted the Cow Shed and remembered that I had always wondered about that name. Was there really once a genuine cow shed in the middle of Detroit that it was commemorating? [Above, 1935 menu cover]

I discovered that it was a night club that had opened in 1933 in an unoccupied building that had long housed a fire station. No cows. So I wondered why the proprietors didn’t choose a name associated with that rather than calling it the Cow Shed, a name I find odd and not that appealing. [Above: 1930s postcard]

But I never found the answer to that question.

Along with dinners, the club offered entertainment with music by the Cow Shed Rascals and other bands, floor shows, and singing waiters. Patrons could spend the entire night dancing if they so desired. [Above: 1938 advertisement]

It also served dinners. Its menu was lengthy, filled with many dinner choices such as Broiled Spring Chicken with fries, salad, rolls and butter for 75c, or Sirloin Steak with the same accompaniments for 60c. Most full dinners cost from a dollar to $1.50, and also included Whitefish, Leg of Veal, Frog Legs, Scallops, and Pork Chops. Guests who weren’t very hungry could choose from a long list of sandwiches.

It had a few bumps in its history.

About a year after the club opened, two men and a woman threw a stench bomb from the Shed’s balcony, sending 100 patrons fleeing. The manager was at a loss to explain it, claiming the club had no labor troubles. This was at the same time that Chicago, for instance, experienced many such incidents, with restaurant and club owners always saying they had no idea what it could be about. In reality, as they knew, it was a threat to make them force their employees to join (fake) labor unions run by mobsters who pocketed the dues.

The Cow Shed was sometimes in trouble for serving people who had already swallowed way too much booze. It also had other problems with the law. Despite stating on the back of one of their menus that “We Positively Do Not Permit Cross Table Dancing at Any Time,” in 1938 the club was fined for exactly that.

Cross-table dancing is an infraction that I had not heard of before, and I have not been able to find it in force anywhere but Detroit. It referred to single women asking men to dance, with the assumption that they were sex workers looking for customers.

Police also spotted the club’s manager directing the cigarette “girl” to sit next to a man at the bar. And they noted that about 80% of the women at the club were without escorts. The club was fined for cross-table dancing several times. It chose to pay a fine rather than have its license suspended for 10 days.

“Known from Coast to Coast”? Not so sure about that. The Cow Shed closed in 1941 and the building was torn down.

© Jan Whitaker, 2026

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April 26, 2026 · 11:25 am

Bad restaurant food

Were 19th century European visitors to the United States inclined to be super critical about the food they ate in restaurants and hotels? It’s hard to know the answer, but they were often negative. An example was a woman from Scotland who grew so used to bad food that she was surprised to find a good breakfast in La Junta, Colorado, in the 1880s. She bonded with the proprietor, a German who had been trained in Paris, agreeing that Americans were mainly interested in quantity, not quality. [Note: old images were impossible to find, so I have used a variety of some I have collected over time, all from the latter 20th century.]

Delmonico’s in New York was, of course, a glowing exception. Outside of New York, however, the Delmonico name lost its majesty. A typical example was the Delmonico restaurant in Walla Walla WA. The local newspaper advised the new owner to change the name, noting that it had been eagerly adopted “by so many inferior restaurants and hotels about the country.”

Most Boston restaurants were judged bad. A Boston paper declared in the 1890s that “in no city of the same size are there such inferior restaurants, so little tavern life, and so little appreciation of good cookery . . .”

Widespread criticism continued into the 20th century when keeping fresh food in cold storage for extended periods was targeted as a major culprit, added to the fact that Americans didn’t know how to order in a restaurant and bolted down their food.

In a 1920s essay, food writer Elizabeth Robins Pennell viewed cafeterias and the automats as proof that Americans cared little for food. The automat was perfect for those who didn’t want to waste time eating, she declared, “since after you put your money in the slot, the sandwich or salad, the coffee or chocolate that comes out may be swallowed as you stand – not one fraction of a second lost in a hunt for a seat.” She judged that “The man who first wrote ‘Eats’ above his restaurant door spoke the truth better than he knew, in one word pointing out to us the depths to which we have sunk.”

Duncan Hines criticized the nation’s restaurant mercilessly in the 1940s. He felt it was more dangerous to eat your way across the country than to drive across it. He admitted that he “would like to be food dictator of the U.S.A. just long enough to padlock two thirds of the places that call themselves cafes or restaurants.” He was expressing a common view of the food available to highway travelers, as also expressed in a 1951 Life magazine article which concluded that “In whatever region he is traveling, the American tourist soon finds that good simple American cooking is an elusive myth.”

But it wasn’t as though the dining public was necessarily going to fare better in cities. Occasionally restaurant reviewers revealed how unenthusiastic they were about a restaurant, without exactly trashing it. In a review a San Antonio oyster restaurant’s food, decor, and service were branded in turn as okay, inoffensive, and not exciting or depressing. The conclusion was that “You can pay a lot more for a lot less, and that’s the most exciting news of this review.”

In 1968 a columnist summed up restaurants of that time by agreeing with an experienced professional that mediocre restaurant food had become the norm. As examples he mentioned ‘The drive-in eatery, the Ma-and-Pa hash-house, the roadside ‘Stop-and-Eat’ wagon, the Main Street ‘Greasy Spoon.’ Hamburger. Ham-and-eggs. Canned fruit salad. Buns and coffee, and suggested diners might as well just “Take what they put before you. Slather it with ketchup. Eat and hurry on.’

By the 1980s, chain restaurants had become omnipresent across the nation. Two Chicago Tribune critics ranked 15 chains. They agreed that overall the quality of food in them was “mediocre.” The bottom five, which included the Ground Round (fatty, flavorless, and overcooked beef), Howard Johnson’s (rubbery clams, over-breaded shrimp, too much fried food), the International House of Pancakes (nothing-special crepes, old toppings, tough steak, plain lettuce salads), Shakey’s (substandard pizza, starchy buffet), and Wag’s (withered salad greens, chili tasting like canned), came in for heavy criticism.

However much patrons might complain about food (or service) in a restaurant, they tended to make their peace and accept less than perfection at restaurants that they frequently patronized. They kept their criticisms to themselves – even though restaurateurs say they would have preferred to hear them.

In 1993 columnist Kevin Cowherd described a fantasy eruption of anger that might occur after taking a bite of bad food in a restaurant: “. . . it’s so awful that you spit the food into your hand and fling it angrily at the ceiling and then stand up, backhand all the silverware and glasses off your table and scream . . .” He admits he never threw a fit like this but says, “Just once I want to react to lousy restaurant food with a major, king-hell tantrum that shakes the walls and peels the paint and makes everyone around me cringe.”

Whew!

© Jan Whitaker, 2026

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April 12, 2026 · 11:36 am

The long life of the Marston ‘empire’

The Marston family ruled their restaurant kingdom in Boston for a very long time, just short of 80 years. It all began modestly. Seafaring Russell Marston, the family’s patriarch, was the first. He went to sea at age 14, and after 17 years in which he ended up with his own ship, he docked and became a restaurant operator.

Restaurant is a rather glorified term for his first venture on land. He and his former ship’s cook took over a place on the Baltimore Packet Pier in Boston in 1847. It was tiny, seating only twenty [pictured above]. Nonetheless it was popular and in 1850 they built a new place on the pier, describing it as “beautiful, spacious and commodious.” They named it the Mercantile Dining Saloon. [1851 Advertisement with misspelled name of Marston’s partner] Perhaps it also proved to be too small, because in 1853 they moved and “thoroughly renovated” a new place at 13 Brattle Street.

In 1854 Marston and his cook Sampson moved again, to a new Brattle Street location, number 27. In their pre-opening announcements they stressed that it would be “conducted in the neat and efficient manner which has characterized our Establishments.” Of course, it makes perfect sense that two former seamen would be neat and efficient.

Meanwhile in the 1850s Russell had become a member of the Committee of Vigilance, an abolitionist organization that stood up against the Fugitive Slave Law which required officials in free states to arrest runaway slaves and return them to the South. His opposition to racism and slavery was dramatically on display at the new Brattle street place. On one occasion in 1856, after a white customer strongly objected to the presence of a Black patron in the restaurant, Marston yelled at him in no uncertain terms, then steered the complainer to the street and told him never to return. Not surprisingly the restaurant was popular with civil rights activists, including women suffragists Lydia Marie Child and Lucy Stone.

Russell’s brother George was also involved in running the Brattle street place, but in 1866 Russell became the sole proprietor. He began to enlarge, and spread into neighboring Brattle Street buildings, eventually simultaneously occupying three in a row. [Above” 1881 drawing of the Brattle Street Marston enterprise] A few years later his son Howard became his business partner. By 1881 the restaurant at 23 Brattle held 250. To mark the spot, a stately Howard municipal clock inscribed with the Marston name stood in front of the restaurants on Brattle street. [shown below]

There were said to be 500 restaurants in Boston by 1885. But according to King’s Handbook for visitors to the city, other than those in hotels – and Marston’s – they were of no interest.

Popular menu items at Marston’s restaurants included corned beef hash and green corn, i.e., corn picked early. Shirley Marston, grandson of Russell, opened a cafeteria in 1926 which featured green corn in season. He emphasized in a 1926 interview that his cafeteria was the only place he knew of where “corn picked before sunrise is served the same day.” [Shown above: 1911 ad; Below: 1906 wagon that brought the green corn from the Marston farm]

In 1893 the Marstons opened restaurants on Hanover Street, where 309 workers served 4,000 patrons a day. Expansion continued in the early 1900s, with branches on Washington and Summer streets. With the death of Russell Marston, Howard took the leading role. In 1910 he opened a lunch place on Devonshire.

But nothing lasts forever. The Marston kingdom began to crumble in 1918 when the Washington location was closed, with a dismal advertisement that said all fixtures had to be sold by a given date “regardless of price.” Then, Howard Marston died in 1924. The remaining locations carried on for a few years, but in 1926 the family sold all its stock to a syndicate of local men who kept the Marston name. The new owners were not successful in keeping them open for more than a few years. On February 25, 1928 the Globe ran a story with the headline “Marston Restaurants Pass Into History with Closing Tonight,” noting that many of the workers at the Brattle-Hanover Street location had been there for over 30 years. [Above: Ca. 1920s cover and interior page of a small advertising notebook that gives no hint that the “empire” is about to fall.]

© Jan Whitaker, 2026

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