Minute Kitchen, Missoula, MT.
The Escape Restaurant, Berwyn, IL.
Boots & Saddle Smogarsboard and Alpine Dining Room, Coeur d’Alene, ID.
Ogles Restaurant, Dexter City, OH.
Baroni’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, Naples, FL.
Skyline Restaurant, Ft. Marlboro, VT.
Islander Motel And Restaurant, Stevensville, MD.
Doyle’s Motel and Restaurant, Cave City, KY.
Spiller’s Restaurant and Take-Out, York Beach, ME.
Neil’s Restaurant, West Franklin, NH.
Gulf Sands Court & Restaurant, Port St. Joe, FL.
Golden Bell Restaurant and Tim the Handshaking Pony, Cypress Gardens, FL.
Steak And Shake, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
The Anchor, Newport, OR.
What the hell is broasted chicken?? There was a brand of gas station chicken called “Broasters” that I drove by every day about 10 years ago before I moved to the other side of town. Never tried it, that gas station was SKETCH and NOT CLEAN.
Love all the midcentury mod signage. The buildings didnt age well(built cheap and not maintained) But the signs are so much more fun and whimsical to look at compared to how boring/conformist everything is now
Broasting is a combination of broiling and roasting – it was popularized in the mid 1950s when commercial broasting ovens became available. I think they were a form of pressure cookers.
Yep. The same company that invented the “Broaster” pressure cooker is still in business today and sells the equipment to restaurants:
https://genuinebroasterchicken.com/our-story/
Thanks for that link!
That brings back memories of Whitey’s restaurant in Arlington, Va., which featured a menu of cheap beer and broasted chicken, as promised by the neon sign in the window. It also had a larger neon sign featuring the simple message “EAT.”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chucka_nc/4298760128
Whitey’s is long gone, but I think the EAT sign has been preserved.
I went to Whitey’s once or twice in the 80s. Some friends of friends lived nearby, and they loved it.
“SKETCH”?
Broasted Chicken is fried in a pressure cooker, instead of in a deep fat fryer. The result is a crisp outside, but juicier meat. Eric’s correct that the heyday (such as it was) began in the mid-50s. We had a broasted chicken restaurant in Bishop, California when I was growing up.
It kind of fell off the radar in the 70s, but the proliferation of chicken places in the last decade (including Hot and Korean chicken) has seen a few new attempts at broasted chicken.
The company started by the guy who invented the “Broaster Pressure Fryer” is still in business today and sells the equipment directly to restaurants:
https://genuinebroasterchicken.com/our-story/
Colonel Sanders modified a pressure cooker into a pressure fryer to speed up cooking and reduce wastage. He didn’t like the way normal deep fryers worked with chicken. The rest is history.
My first tax-paying job in 1968 was at a family-owned restaurant that featured Broasted chicken. An exterior sign proclaimed that “It’s the Broasted Chicken.”
As an all-around cook, french fry cutter and pot scrubber, I made many platters of the Broasted delight. I don’t recall the broasting time, but it was pretty quick.
I remember having a feeling of apprehension when the pressure cooker was used.
Broasted chicken, reminds me of a little restaurant called Chicken in the Rough that we used to patronize in Front Royal, Virginia at the northern end of Shenandoah National Park/Skyline Drive. Cheap and cheerful, but the chicken was so good. I think it was part of a regional chain, but unfortunately long gone now.
Thanks to all for the info about Broasted Chicken. Had it several times at Whitey’s in Arlington, VA without ever being sure exactly what it was, other than pretty good.
Wow, it’s 59 Plymouth day! The Islander Motel looks like it has a sideline selling 59 Plymouths, then there is the white convertible at the Gulf Sands Court.
….with matching light-blue wagons
Those three were probably part of a fleet. A motel often had a contract with one company, permanently reserving rooms for its truckers or salesmen whenever they arrived.
Here’s a postcard of the roadside restaurant my Dad leased from 1966 to 1970. When I-95 bypassed Bennettsville SC around 1967, traffic on US 15/401 dropped off. The new owners struggled and the motel and restaurant closed and fell apart around 1985.
So many restaurants and hotels/motels fell victim to being bypassed by the interstates
I’d love to drive a 58 Plymouth to Golden Bell for a Western Steak. Wrong time, wrong side of the Atlantic. 😞
Note easy to see, but the single tone black with red interior 1962 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan behind the “Hand shaking” donkey is the standout car for me! It’s in the Golden Bell Restaurant photo.
You rarely see these ‘62 Impala four door hardtops in 2025, and the black exterior / red interior combination has to be the choice colour combination.
Love the Country Squire wagon parked in front of the Spiller’s.
Wasn’t America much more interesting when we were not so homogenized?
Yes but the food in those restaurants was more homogenized and mediocre. And so were the people. Not just more white but it was a very socially conformist era.
Used to be a restaurant along “Wisconsin Ave”, in “Bethesda MD”; looked a lot like the “Anchor”.
Next time I go that way, got to look see if the building is still there. H’mm.
plus the Anchor Inn in nearby Wheaton, MD. The iconic sign is still there, but the restaurant is gone.
And don’t forget the Anchorage Motel across the river in Fairfax, VA!
Not sure about the ” “, given that Wisconsin Avenue and Bethesda, MD are both actual things… But perhaps you are thinking of either Bish Thompson’s at 7935 Wisconsin, or maybe O’Donnell’s (I don’t recall the actual address, but I think it was on the 3900 block of Wisconsin, next to Moon Palace)?
I do see some kinship with the Anchor though.
In front of the Anchor is a 1961 Cadillac “Town.Coupe” Kind of an odball, it was about a foot shorter than a normal Deville, all of it taken from the rear overhang. Rare car, they only sold a couple thousand each year(forget the year range, it was early 1960s)
Aaron, Cadillac’s “Town Sedan” was built 1961-63. And yes–very small numbers, it was contrived at the request of people like housewives who didn’t like negotiating the extra length when parking. Size wins out every time!
You can find a capsule history of them here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/cc-history-1961-1963-cadillac-town-sedan-and-park-avenue-cadillacs-bob-tailed-nags/
These are wonderful .
Not only all the great vehicles parked outside but the businesses proper .
I still always look for local diners or places with city / tradesman trucks parked when I want to eat .
-Nate
A little googling found the Dexter City location. The restaurant building and the house to the left haven’t changed much. It looks like the restaurant building was used as a residence then abandoned.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.6500914,-81.4732249,3a,75y,273.24h,84t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sVPnFJVt7idvOeMEfgzDB4A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D5.9964951820620485%26panoid%3DVPnFJVt7idvOeMEfgzDB4A%26yaw%3D273.2395006487445!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
I’ve actually eaten at Spillers! It was my grandmother’s favorite restaurant and she always got the lobster dinner. But I was a fussy little shaver and would only eat the free oyster crackers. This would have been in 1967 or 1968. The family ride was a 1961 Country Squire in Mars black with red vinyl interior. Good times!
Roadside restaurants are a treasure. Thanks for showing these. I hope that we all have memories of them. When we go on day trips or for a road trip, we look for these. Chain restaurants do not have the flavors of food that are unique, nor do they have the downhome ambiance. Thanks for the great photos of nostalgia. Nostalgia will not die if we continue to patronize these places.
There is a lot to take in in these photos.
#2 The Escape. Sharp ’55 Thunderbird.
#3 Boots & Saddle. Many ’57 models, 3 Chevrolet’s, a Pontiac and a Plymouth.
#4 Ogle’s. Two ’48-’52 Ford pickups, a ’53 Studebaker, and a ’54 Plymouth 2 door with fender skirts.
#5 Baroni’s. The company VW Panel van and a ’51 or ’52 Buick Roadmaster convertible.
#7 Islander. JPC’s ’59 Plymouth’s plus 3 other ’59’s, two Chevrolet’s and a Pontiac.
#8 Doyle’s. A Metropolitan.
#10 Neil’s. ’60 Plymouth wagon plus two ’57’s, a Dodge and a Plymouth.
#11 Gulf Sands. The top half is all Chevrolet’s except for the very last one where you can see the roof of a ’59 Ford Galaxie. The bottom half has JPC’s ’59 Plymouth convertible plus perhaps the Bel Air and Corvair that are in the top half.
#12 Golden Bell. No duplicates here. From the left Dodge, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Ford, Plymouth, Buick.
#13 Steak & Shake. ‘We protect your health’??
Thanks, Rich!
Next to “We Protect Your Health” is another of Steak n Shake’s slogans: “In Sight It Must Be Right.” Both slogans that probably wouldn’t hold water these days.
Any body have any thoughts on the red truck at Ogles Restaurant, appears to have a Ford Tailgate, Ford Hood, like the Blue Truck, but the rear Fenders look like Ad Chevy, and I don’t see the Ford ridge on the Fenders. Could be just a fuzzy picture.
I think it’s a late 50s International, like this one:
https://www.binderplanet.com/forums/index.php?threads/1957-international-harvester-s120-pickup-4×4.120931/
Is he making a delivery? Looks like hambuger on the hoof in the back!
Boots & Saddle Smogarsboard and Alpine Dining Room, Coeur d’Alene – how cool is that name! I love the 57 Pontiac four-door hardtop with all of the windows down – no doubt a summer night as the 57 Plymouth has a window open, too. I well remember how folks who got hardtops back then in the Midwest where I grew up did not have A/C and would fully utilize the design with all windows down while driving around. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of those cars were unlocked and some might have keys in them as well. Certainly true in my small town area then but perhaps not in a city as big as Coeur d’Alene. A different world.
I definitely remember the 1970’s, when many of these traditional sit-down family restaurants were struggling mightily, against their more modern fast food competition.
Many locals still supported these small family-run eateries. Including my parents, whenever they were on roadtrips. But it was sad to see, these style of restaurants slowly fade away. I remember these often large parking lots, with just a handful of cars. And just a few waitresses working inside.
The story of Spiller’s in York, Maine is probably typical of many of these places. Spiller’s was a family-owned place. The pictured location was its beachfront location and existed in the mode of Atlantic coast boardwalk restaurants up and down the coast; featuring ice cream, french fries and fried clams (and often these places traded heavily in “salt water taffy”, an odd confection that tastes and looks like caulk which I’ve never entirely understood). It’s said that in the 1950s and 1960s, Spiller’s York Beach location was one of the largest restaurants in Maine.
But by the 1980s, the founding family members (who started the several location chain in the 1940s) needed to retire and the younger generation didn’t have the drive necessary to slave away behind the counter/soda fountain (the longest in New England!) and so they sold it to someone more interested in the real estate value than in running a restaurant.
Last checked, the Spiller’s building still stands, but it’s condominiums.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/2006/03/22/construction-uncovers-old-spiller-s/51239960007/
We had we had three cool drive-up restaurants within a quarter mile on Old 36 in Winchester, Illinois. Great places. AH The good old days
Chicken In The Rough! They had a big neon sign featuring a rooster decked out in a tux with a walking stick. The chicken was awesome. I was a truck driver in Virginia and surrounding states in the 80s and 90s. There were several of those restaurants in my territory. I remember them as a kid when we traveled back in the 50s and 60s.
I grew up in Roanoke.
The picture of the restaurant in Ft. Marlboro Vermont is now the Beer Naked Brewery and if you look close enough you can still see the original stone chimney.
Is there a Ft. Marlboro? Google search seems to only mention Marlboro:
https://www.reformer.com/local-news/former-skyline-restaurant-vacant-no-more/article_13a37a06-10dc-5014-affe-b5d739ed2101.html
Never been there myself though (that I’m aware of)