Did You Have A Cafeteria Where You Grew Up?

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

Did you have favorite dishes?

I usually spent the weekend with my Dad's parents whom had a large fine shoe store down town.

I new many of the people in the stores and my grandmother always gave me a "50 cent piece" to get a drink or whatever.

After the store closed in the evening we would walk down and across the street to the S & W Cafeteria. I loved the roast beef and their little dish of mashed potatoes with the brown gravy. The salads were so pretty, I usually got a tossed one, and maybe strawberry shortcake, choclate pudding, or egg custard pie for dessert.

All the business people and shoppers ate at the S & W. There other choice was the counter at Woolworth's or a few booths at Eckard Drugs, and one other soda fountain that made wonderful hamburgers.

There were two other cafeterias in town during that period, one being Pickadilly which I liked, but they didn't survive.

On It · ‎03-15-2021

Until recently we had the best cafeteria in Dallas called the Highland Park Cafeteria. It served Southern style cooking and every time we were in Dallas we ate there. It was some of the best food and desserts I have ever eaten. My favorites were the smothered steak, candied sweet potatoes, and coconut pie.

My local town had a Luby's but it has closed. Their food was good and so tempting. I don't know why cafeterias haven't survived.

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

When I was very young, we ate often at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Knoxville, Tennessee. I've always loved cafeteria food. It's the only place I'd eat fish and liver & onions and the desserts always looked heavenly.

My favorite though was a Luby's Cafeteria, a chain, but one in Houston had a pianist who played a baby grand piano while we ate. Their Millionaire Pie may be my all-time favorite dessert.

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment

ECBG · ‎01-08-2011

@On It wrote:
Until recently we had the best cafeteria in Dallas called the Highland Park Cafeteria. It served Southern style cooking and every time we were in Dallas we ate there. It was some of the best food and desserts I have ever eaten. My favorites were the smothered steak, candied sweet potatoes, and coconut pie.

My local town had a Luby's but it has closed. Their food was good and so tempting. I don't know why cafeterias haven't survived.

@On It

My theory on "why cafeterias closed" is people became more urban based and McDonalds and similar places offered new tastes. You could eat in your car and go.

"Drive in"s did great here. We had one, Babe Maloy's that did the most delicious "chipped ham" sandwich with a mustard pickle relish.

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spiderw · ‎06-14-2010

Growing up across the river from Manhattan , I had so many places to eat all different foods. My favorite cafeteria was Horn and Hardart. You would put your money in a slot, open the glass door and get your sandwich, pie or whatever. The excitement as a young girl to pick out my food from such a selection was a thrill! I also loved going to Woolworth's and having a piece of pie, delicious.

We have plenty of diners and I always enjoy going to them, all different food and plenty of it!!!!!

Carmie · ‎10-25-2010

Unless we were on vacation, my family did not eat out. We always ate a home cooked meal.

My parents owned a resturant and we sometimes ate there. During the summer months, we would call Mom and ask her to bring home cheeseburgers. They were the best cheeseburgers ever.

People still talk about them. Just the other day my DH said he was hungry for one,

When I got a bit older, my older sister would take me shopping and we would eat in the store's resturant. I would always order a club sandwich from Pomeroys and bring half home for later.

If we were in Hess's, we always ordered the strawberry pie. It was a mile high. I always got a chef salad in JC Penny's.

Our town had a soda shop like the one on Happy Days. In HS, we would all stop in on our way home. Cokes were 5 cents and 7 cents for cherry Coke's. Great memories were made there.

We did not have cafeterias where I lived..at least non that I ever knew of.

On It · ‎03-15-2021

@spiderw wrote:
Growing up across the river from Manhattan , I had so many places to eat all different foods. My favorite cafeteria was Horn and Hardart. You would put your money in a slot, open the glass door and get your sandwich, pie or whatever. The excitement as a young girl to pick out my food from such a selection was a thrill! I also loved going to Woolworth's and having a piece of pie, delicious.

We have plenty of diners and I always enjoy going to them, all different food and plenty of it!!!!!

NYC is such a special place. I have seen those cafeterias on TV but never in person. The neighborhood diners are the best. I often wished I could have lived there.

candyagain · ‎04-11-2010

When I was a college student in Boston my friends and I would go to Hayes-Bickford cafeterias (Hayes-Bick we called them). The food was cheap and filling, I used to get french fries smothered in gravy and pudding desserts. Other things, too, but those are what I remember.

One we went to was near the Combat Zone and I remember actually seeing people down on their luck buying a cup of hot water and emptying ketchup packets into it for soup.

I like cafeteria style and do miss it. I like buffet style restaurants, too.

PreKteacher · ‎03-17-2018

I think when I was really little, Friendly's was a cafeteria-style restaurant. At some point, they changed it so it was a regular order-off-the-menu restaurant, but I can't remember when.