Text by Patrick Bell.
On the menu today is a nostalgic tour through the fast-food joints, diners, and roadside eateries of 1950s–70s America. These vintage photos provide a fun look not only at the food stops of the day, but also at the cars, architecture, signs, and everyday scenes that surrounded them. So climb aboard, grab a booth, and let’s begin the tour.
Our first stop is at Tas-T-O’s Donuts somewhere in Florida. The city of Ocala is where the shop began and was in business for many years, but this store does not look like the final Ocala location.
The visible customer cars that day were a 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix with a Cordova (vinyl) top, Rally II wheels, and a Florida license plate used in the mid 1970’s. On the other side of it was a Ford Pinto wagon.
Let’s head west, go back to 1951, and visit the Desert Drive-In in Las Vegas, Nevada. They advertised orange and fruit juice (was orange not a fruit?) and Rotisserie Style Bar-B-Que Sandwiches, all in a building that looked like a large juicer.
Parked out front was a 1946 Chevrolet Town Sedan, either a Stylemaster or a Fleetmaster with a 1951 Nevada license plate. And the black coupe had the look of a 1939 or 1940 Ford.
Now we are off to Maine to check out some Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips. Shown here was the factory in the city of Scarborough in the mid to late 1950’s. It opened in 1947 and they produced chips for about thirty years until they sold the business and retired.
On the left was a 1947 or 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline Aerosedan with possibly a Maine license plate used from 1950-1955. To the right was a 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air 4 door sedan, an unknown make late 1930’s 4 door sedan, and a 1954 Studebaker Champion or Commander Regal Conestoga wagon.
We are heading back west to take in the Miner’s Hat Restaurant with drive in service and a replica headlamp. It was located in Kellogg, Idaho, in the Silver Valley. The building has survived and is now Miner’s Hat Realty’s office.
It was Chevrolet time in the parking area with a 1947 or 1948 Fleetline Aerosedan on the left edge, and on the right a red 1955 Two-Ten 2 door sedan, and a blue 1956 One-Fifty or Two-Ten.
Toledo, Ohio is our next stop at the White Hut Drive-In where we can try one of the “Hamburgs”, which was an interesting term. It was a local favorite with at least three locations in Toledo.
In the parking lot on this evening was from the left a 1953 Buick Special, 1952 or 1953 Hudson Hornet 4 door sedan, 1951 or 1952 Chevrolet Styleline, and the woody wagon was a 1949-1951 model that could have been either a Ford or Mercury.
And here we are at the Grande Cafe in Redding, California, with an image dated July of 1954. Their sign said they had “Better Meals”. It was located on the old Highway 99. The building survives and has been redone and is a market, and the houses in the background are gone, as are most of the trees.
The line of cars on the left looks like they were part of a used car lot given the pennant flags, so I will start on the far left with a 1951 or 1952 Hudson, 1951 Chevrolet Styleline DeLuxe 4 door sedan, and 1948-1950 Ford F-series with a different bed, or perhaps something in the bed. The last two were 1951 or 1952 Plymouth sedans. In the cafe parking lot, I see the tail of a white 1953 Pontiac, a 1950-1953 Nash Rambler wagon, and the black Plymouth looks like a 1950 or 1951 model.
Let’s stop and get some chow at the Mid Way Park Cafe in Boles, Arkansas. It appears it was in business up until the early 2020’s. It was located on Highway 71 in a remote section of the Ouachita National Forest.
There was a 1951 Ford on the left by the gas station, a 1956 Ford Mainline Tudor Sedan was out front, on the right side was a 1955 Chevrolet Two-Ten 2 door sedan, and on the right edge was the back of a Holsum bread truck.
I could find no information on this location, so we will call it the Blue Car Cafe.
On the left edge was a 1954-1956 Buick Special or Century 2 door Riviera hardtop, followed by a V8 powered 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air 2 door sedan. In the center was a 1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 4 door sedan with possibly a 1959 North Carolina license plate. And on the end was a 1950-1952 Plymouth.
Salem, Oregon was the location of this Dog n Suds Drive In in an August 1968 photo. They gave free root beer to kids who swept their parking lot, a well remembered experience.
From the left was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner that looked in good condition for an eleven year old car. I wonder if it was worth much at that time. Continuing to the right was a 1967 Rambler American 440 4 door sedan, 1968 Chevrolet C10 Fleetside long bed with a ladder rack and snow tires on the rear, a 1963 Chevrolet Biscayne 4 door sedan, a green 1960 Ford F-series Styleside long bed in the street, a white 1960 or 1961 Chrysler wagon in the building, and a red International L or R series pickup.
And sticking with the dog theme, we will head to the San Francisco Bay area and visit a Doggie Diner. They began in 1948, and grew to about thirty locations that operated through the mid 1980’s. I am unsure of the exact location of this one.
Dining on this day were the occupants of a 1962 Dodge Dart 330 wagon that looked like a fleet car, and on the other side of it was a 1964 Mercury Comet 202 2 door sedan.
Here was a more serious dining establishment; the Jolly Rogue Restaurant along with the San Martin Winery Tasting Room that was located on the wharf in Monterey, California. It burned down in 1976 and as far as I can tell was never rebuilt. The 200 patrons and staff escaped without injury.
There was an interesting array of vehicles in the parking meter controlled lot on the day of the image. The extremes were the bookends with a 1964 Lincoln Continental on the far left, and a Volkswagen Type 1 on the far right. Next were the independents, with a 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk on the left, and a 1965 Rambler Ambassador 990 4 door sedan on the right. In the center left was a 1960 Comet 2 door sedan, and a 1965 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe.
No fine dining tour is complete without a stop at the Golden Arches, so we have chosen a location somewhere in New York for our visit to McDonald’s. A Jamesway Discount Department Store sign was in the background, which started in the city of Jamestown in 1961, but they expanded rapidly, so that may or may not be a location clue.
On the far left looks like a 1963 Plymouth Valiant V-200 4 door sedan, then a 1968 or 1969 Volkswagen Type 1, 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop, and on the right edge the left taillamp of a 1969 Chevrolet Kingswood wagon.
This one was the Cajun Kitchen, but the location is unknown. There was a highway overpass in the background, and to the left looks like self storage units. This was the back of the restaurant, so the cars may have belonged to employees.
Speaking of cars, on the left was a 1970-1972 Buick Skylark 4 door sedan with a 1973-1980 GMC Jimmy on the other side of it. On the far end the white quarter panel may have been a 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Holiday Coupe. On the right side beginning with the nearest one was a 1964 Mercury Comet, and then two Pontiacs; a blue 1975 or 1976 Grand Ville or Bonneville, and a maroon 1975 Catalina. In the background was a 1964-1966 Chevrolet C series Stepside pickup.
And a L & K Restaurant that image notes place in Detroit, Michigan. L & K also had motels, with locations in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. I am a bit skeptical about the location here, as most of the cars appear to have an Ohio license plate. And either this was a restaurant only facility, or the motel was out of the picture.
Their customer cars that day were from the left a 1970 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan, 1974 Chevrolet Impala or Caprice Custom Coupe, 1967 Ford Galaxie 500 4 door hardtop, 1972 Mercury Montego MX 4 door Pillared Hardtop, and a 1973 or 1974 Ford LTD 2 door hardtop.
We will finish today with a man and a girl showing us the way to a Dairy Queen where they had 15 cent hamburgers. There was a tire store with a Bear Alignment sign in the right background. The dry grass points to a hot summer day photo; otherwise there was not many location clues.
The photo subjects were posing by a 1961 Cadillac Sixty Two Six Window Sedan that appeared to be a Short Deck model.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
The first picture (Tas-T-O’s Donuts with a ’69 Grand Prix) was taken in Fort Walton Beach, on Eglin Parkway. The tall building in the background was the headquarters for Eglin Federal Credit Union, and that building still stands.
Then-and-now comparison and Google StreetView link from the same general area (I think the donut building has been demolished):
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xBPFigiDGYJ7RjET6
Can you do the “Grande Cafe”. pic too?? t/y
Here’s the Grande Cafe location in Redding. Like Patrick wrote in his text, the building’s been heavily modified (all the windows have been covered, and a new entrance has been created), but it’s the same structure. The Grand Cafe opened in 1953, so the vintage shot here was taken when the building was just about a year old.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/M8Nx9RHrPFtri7ij7
thanks much.
Anyone know what “Gaylord’s”, was?
Gaylords was a discount department store.
We had one in my hometown until about “74”. Was wondering if this was one ((in the pic)) as well.
We really missed it when it closed.
I recognized it immediately! I’m on a FWB Facebook group and just last week there was a post about Giff’s Sub shop which was there (Home Of The Fighter Pilot!). I remember going to this place as a kid in the 1970s with my dad and grandfather on Saturday mornings when the grandparents would visit for the weekend. I loved those donut holes!
I just looked at your after shot. That’s not the same location as where this donut place was. Your shot is on Eglin Parkway. Tas-T-O’s donut building was in a parking lot at the southeast corner of Racetrack Road and Eglin Parkway. This is the location which is now a car wash. And yes, that building is long gone. After the donut shop it became a very popular sub shop as I first replied with earlier. You can see here that the Shell gas station building shown in our photo still stands:
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.4412814,-86.5984333,3a,75y,98.43h,95.47t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDTQUUAhUXuAik4mXA1ICTA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-5.472432254779434%26panoid%3DDTQUUAhUXuAik4mXA1ICTA%26yaw%3D98.43077282293423!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgyNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Thank you! I figured the donut place was at or near that intersection, but I couldn’t figure out just where.
I had to circle back on this even though most have moved on. Just for historical record, if you go back in time on Googlemaps and street view to 2013, you can see the building was still there! I was thinking it was demolished longer ago than that. It apparently went back to a donut shop at some point after the sub shop closed as you can see the outline of donut something!
Thanks for all today’s assortment. It seemed logical to finish up with the rise of the national franchises; ubiquitous today, but oldsters here remember when that wasn’t so. My town’s first McDonald’s was entirely take-out or eat-in-your-car; the inside seating came later.
“Hamburg” (for either the sandwich or for ‘ground beef’) or “hamburg sandwich” was predominantly a Northeastern U.S. thing–Toledo being around its ‘western edge.’ It persisted on some menus and advertising even into the 1970s, but I see the rest of the country settled on “hamburger” decades earlier—as “burger” and “burger stand” creeps into usage.
^^^^All the above based on a very quick newspapers.com sampling, so very rough and un-detailed!
The cafeteria cook at my high school, who was the electric shop teacher’s wife, introduced me to the term ‘hamburg” (and cheeseburg). They were cooked to order, and when it was ready, she would call out loudly, in a very non-Californian accent “Haambuuuhhg!” . As I recall they cost 50 cents which was usually out of my budget so I subsisted on 35 cent hotdogs. I didn’t hear the term again until I met my mother-in-law, from New England.
As for McDonald’s, although it started in southern California they were quite rare in the Bay Area until the late-seventies. I think I went to Jack in the Box more often.
There was one of those original googie-styled McDonald’s near me on Rt.1 in or near Beltsville, MD – it’s a liquor store or something now, but if you drive around back you can still see the horizontal red and white stripes. The third McD’s ever built, in Downey, CA, still stands with its original appearance intact; there are only a few others still standing, despite being built until the late ’60s.
Fast food joints and mid-priced restaurant chains spelt the end of most of the sort of establishments shown here.
The one on “Duke St”, “Alx, Va” ((near “Beauregad St”)) was an old school one up to about “1985-6”. Was the chrome. aluminum, type with some (few) small tables.
Went just before it was closed, rebuilt. After all the times passing it by, felt I had to.
Looks like the Cajun Kitchen was located just outside of Lake Charles, Louisiana – the bridge in the background in part of the Calcasieu River Bridge.
The Cajun Kitchen was located just off of US-90, and behind a motel called the Chateau Charles, which can be seen on the left of the image. Both the motel and the restaurant are long gone, but the restaurant building was standing until about ten years ago. The back end of the restaurant was visible from an I-10 entrance ramp, and can be seen in this circa 2013 Google StreetView image:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hXxvkYXqQLD65GiRA
The last photo piqued my interest as I’ve been looking for the short deck (Park Avenue) version, or called Town Sedan, too. Uncommon.
Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips has been a popular brand for decades here in Canada. Here’s a picture of their ketchup flavored chips, a variety that I believe is unique to the true north, strong and free.
Their Sour Cream and Clam are great. Really!
The LTD at the L & K Restaurant is a 1974. The ’73 LTD’s back bumper did not jut out that far.
Cool pics, and I love the name you gave the Blue Car Cafe! I’ll take the ’55 Chevy to go, please.
A place on Pico Blvd in Santa Monica offering foot long chili dogs in 1966. Looks like a DeSoto and Honda CL160 stopped at a light in front of it.
A controversial comment…but here goes…
I believe that a set of Pontiac Rallye II wheels makes every car ever built (I’ll qualify that by saying cars built from 1947 thru to 1997) look better.
Those Magnum 500’s found on some FoMoCo products are pretty darn fine too.
I grew up in Benton Harbor, Michigan, across Lake Michigan from Chicago. Hamburg was often used, along with hamburger. Burger was not common in the ’50’s, but became more popular in the ’60’s.
We had a Henry’s Hamburger chain fast food burger joint (also 15 cents) before we had a McDonald’s. While popular and growing for a couple of decades, the Henry’s Hamburger chain has shrunk until there is now only 1 left — still located in Benton Harbor.
Great pics and research. Brought back memories of lunch at the L & K in Columbus on Hudson St in the mid-60’s – they had great hot dogs in grilled buns.
That Dog n Suds took me back to growing the up in the 50’s-60’s in St Louis. It was the only one I’d ever seen.
Cool to see one in Oregon.
Great collection of cars in this listing.
Amazingly, the pebbled Concrete tables out side the TAS-T-O donut shop are still in use all over Southern California .
All these are great photos and I appreciate the effort in the comments to show them today .
-Nate
The L&K restuarant and motel chain was a very good customer of our family electrical contracting business in the 1960s and 70s. We wired most all of them in southeast Ohio and did service work for many years afterwards. If I recall, L&K stood for Ludwig and Kipling, or something like that. Those were the two founders. Not sure when they went out of business but many of the restuarants were later converted to Denny’s.
Doggie Diner has a smoke stack behind it and there were only a few I can recall seeing. Putting that along with Doggie Diner known locations it would seem the 701 3rd Street location would be the closest as only a block away was the old Southern Pacific Passenger building from the 1800’s still used till 1975. There was an old coaling station with smoke stack on the property. Today you wouldn’t recognize the area at all after the Giants Stadium went in. I recall sitting with a friend on the loading dock where he had his printing business, sipping Bushmills, and looking across an empty field in 1995. How SOMA has changed is stunning with everything new. Makes me appreciate the Tenderloin as the buildings date back to after the earthquake and this area is unlikely to get re-developed.
From having been a SF resident for 42 years, the Doggie Diner was located near the corner of 3rd St. and Townsend…
Great comments and information today!
Many thanks to all that contributed.