This was my Mom's lil' country restaurant "Eddy's Cafe" in Havensville, Kansas. Mom had the restaurant from 1963 (the year Dad stopped farming) until 1970. It was a busy, thriving little restaurant when Mom owned it ... but she didn't make much money ~ and you will know why when you look at the menu below. Mom never turned away anyone who was hungry ... if they didn't have enough money to pay for their meal, she fed them just the same, and told them to "pay me when you can" ~ no records were kept, no IOU's were issued. The tabs were always paid. I took the picture above in 1985 ~ 15 years after Mom closed the restaurant. Today nothing remains ~ just an empty lot where the restaurant once stood.
This is an actual menu from Eddy's Cafe. I can remember my Dad typing these menus on his old Underwood typewriter, and Mom had 12 menu covers so he had to type 12 of them (because there were no Kinko's around in them days either). After a few years, an executive decision was made to raise prices ... so some of the breakfast items went up a whole nickle!! LOL When is the last time you went to a restaurant and got a hamburger for thirty cents? Mom's daily "Blue Plate" lunch special was $.95 ~ beverage included. I've never been able to figure out the logic behind the $.12 pricing of the cinnamon roll.The cafe was open for breakfast and lunch only ... and on Sundays it was only open for lunch, to get the after-church crowd. Service was family-style on Sunday, and was always pan-fried chicken, swiss steak, real mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, corn and hot homemade dinner rolls. On Sundays the crowds were so big that we had to rent the American Legion building next door, and set up tables & run food over there. We served homemade ice cream (vanilla & maple nut) and fresh baked homemade pies.
Wow, these prices are just a blast from the past. It's a good memory to know the kindness of your Mom to feed anyone who was hungry. She filled alot of empty tummys I'm sure! Their used to be a old diner car that was pulled in where Mom used to live. It was a great place to go and eat at the lunch counter when I was a kid!
ReplyDeleteI didn't live in the area until the 80s, but I've been to Havensville several times. Wish I could have gone to the cafe! We went to a lot of cafes of that type when I was a kid, dad insisted on it. Oddly, we never ate at the one cafe in town (Friendly Cooker in Wamego) for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteinteresting that you have been to havensville ~ not many people even heard if it, let alone been there. my folks lived in wamego for a couple years right after they got married - dad met my mom in a lil' drug store in wamego, where she was working during high school as a soda jerk. dad was going to kstate at the time (on the GI bill) - he played sax in a dance band while going to college, and they were playing a dance in wamego one night, he arrived in town a couple hours early to get something to eat before the dance ... went down to the soda fountain to get a sandwich & that's how he met my mom. as the years went by, we went to wamego quite a bit ... to eat at a supper club called *trade winds* and also to visit my folks friends, the baldersons (they owned a plant that built snowplows & other heavy equipment)
ReplyDeleteI lived across the street from the Baldersons, actually. That drug store is still a drug store, I went to high school with the 2 sons (or maybe it was the grandsons) of the owner. Last I knew the soda fountain was still there, but I confess it's been over 15 years since I went in. The building next to the drug store had an apartment in the 2nd floor, and my husband and his mom lived there until the owner kicked them out without notice (his wife had kicked HIM out of the house, so he needed a quick place to stay!)
ReplyDeleteThe Tradewinds is where all the Chamber of Commerce lunches were. I worked at the CoC when I was in high school so I went to the lunches several times. All I remember about it was that it was poorly lit!
I lived there a few years ago and I am not sure if I remember that building or not. There was a little beer joint that looked a whooooole lot like this building, though...
ReplyDeletego TIGERS!!!!!
- Joe