YES! Weekly YES! Weekly
  • News
  • Food & Drink
  • Music
  • The Arts
  • Education
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Film
  • Local & Live
  • Photos
  • Calendar
  • Donate
  • Contact
Go to...

    Breaking News

    • Venezuela alleges Greensboro company transported
    • Stone Temple Pilots to headline
    • Greensboro City Council considers enforcing
    • Crime Stoppers Reward Increase for
    • CHRIS STAPLETON CONFIRMS 2019 “ALL-AMERICAN
    Home»Archives » The simple lunch of yesteryear

    The simple lunch of yesteryear

    Archive Manager
    April 18, 2006
    Archives
    Comments Off on The simple lunch of yesteryear
    Views : 147
    0

    by Brian Clarey

    In the days before mesclun mix salads and egg white omelets, the midday meal was a simple affair with the dual purpose of providing a short break from workaday stresses and filling the belly for what the remainder of the day had in store.

    This was the golden era of the lunch counter, a standard fixture in drugstores, department stores and five-and-dimes throughout the country. In New York they served egg creams. In the South they dispensed orangeade. In sunny California they opened on the street under awnings and in the big cities they existed in the lobbies of office buildings.

    It was in America’s lunch counters that a form of service-industry slang was born, giving us terms like ‘“over easy’” and ‘“86’” which are still used today (see sidebar).

    So imbedded in the culture were they that the right to eat at them became a touchstone for the Civil Rights Movement.

    Everybody around these parts knows what happened on February 1, 1960 at the Woolworth’s lunch counter on Elm Street, but not everybody knows that there is still one place in town that keeps alive the tradition of cheap, simple food at reasonable prices.

    The Brown-Gardiner drugstore exists in the borderlands between the tawny neighborhoods of Fisher Park and Irving Park, a throwback to simpler times when a drugstore meant more than just the place where you buy your Odor Eaters.

    They still fill prescriptions here behind a high counter in the back, buttressing rows of sundry ointments and quick cures. The other side of the room is reserved for the bustling breakfast and lunch crowds ‘— round tables with faux cane-back chairs and a low counter with blue-topped swivel stools. The kitchen is just a cramped space in the corner with a small griddle, a double fryer and a conveyer-belt toaster, where a short-order specialist turns out dishes that are spectacular in their ordinariness. The only thing that’s fancy is the ketchup.

    Egg salad. Hot dogs. Grilled cheese. Burgers. Cream cheese and olives. White bread. Wheat. Iceberg lettuce and yellow American. Club sandwiches. Bologna. Pimiento cheese. Barbecue. BLTs with crinkle-cut fries. In the cold weather they ladle out soups and stews. In the summer they dish out scoops of ice cream in sugar cones. All year long they squeeze fresh oranges on a press over crushed ice and mix in a healthy dose of simple syrup for an orangeade that tastes like days gone by.

    You’ve seen it all before, but the fact that nobody else in town serves fare like this anymore makes it strangely exotic. This is food that could certainly be re-created in your own kitchen, though the experience is one of a kind.

    A recent late afternoon visit showed the tables filled with a cadre of the city’s letter carriers, many of whom had recently pulled their government-issue gray shorts out from winter storage. The stools at the counter were occupied by newspapers readers and gossiping couples.

    Looking at the menu is like looking in your mother’s refrigerator, and after a brief internal debate I order the patty melt ‘— two thin burger patties nestled against a bed of melted Swiss and sizzled loops of thin-sliced white onion between greased and grilled bread. It’s served sliced down the middle with twin pickle chips on top. The fries come in a small cardboard boat with red and white checks on it. Orangeade is delivered in a plain white Styrofoam cup. Fancy ketchup oozes from the squeeze bottle with a light flatulent sound.

    Eating it is like traveling through time.

    To comment on this story, e-mail Brian Clarey at editor@yesweekly.com.

    Share :
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Pinterest
    • Linkedin
    • Email
    Next article
    YES! Spring and summer festival guide
    Previous article
    Planners attempt to make Greensboro bike-friendly

    Archive Manager

    Related Posts

    • Archives, Opinion August 3, 2016

      Greensboro's Civil War

      Greensboro’s Civil War
      Archives, News July 27, 2016

      THE NEW NORMAL

      THE NEW NORMAL
      Archives June 29, 2016

      Coen Crisp changes more than

      Coen Crisp changes more than pronouns
    • Archives May 25, 2016

      MY MOMMA LOVES ME

      MY MOMMA LOVES ME
      Archives, News April 27, 2016

      LIFE WITH A PLUS SIGN

      LIFE WITH A PLUS SIGN
      Archives, News March 23, 2016

      STILL UNBROKEN

      STILL UNBROKEN

    Support Local Journalism

    PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!

    e-Edition

    Advertisement

    Sponsored by









    Calendar

    Recent Posts

    • Eight great things to do in the Triad: Feb. 15-17
    • So Cardi B won a Grammy…I’m not surprised
    • Live from the ADP presents: Gooseberry Jam
    • Kaleideum’s SPECIAL EVENTS and EXHIBITIONS for MARCH 2019
    • GLORIA TREVI ANNOUNCES U.S. ‘DIOSA DE LA NOCHE’ TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUEST KAROL G

    Recent Comments

    • Eight great things to do in the Triad: Feb. 15-17 | YES! Weekly on Anti-Valentine’s Day coming back your way
    • Live from the ADP presents: Gooseberry Jam | YES! Weekly – BidWin Content on Live from the ADP presents: Gooseberry Jam
    • So Cardi B won a Grammy…I’m not surprised | YES! Weekly – BidWin Content on So Cardi B won a Grammy…I’m not surprised
    • KITTLE TO HEADLINE WINSTON-SALEM DASH HOT STOVE BANQUET – Yes! Weekly | Chicago White Sox on FORMER WHITE SOX STAR RON KITTLE TO HEADLINE WINSTON-SALEM DASH HOT STOVE BANQUET
    • Dr. Ajit Kelkar Announced as Interim Director of New Centers of Excellence – JSNN on North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Creates Three Centers of Excellence; Interim Directors Named

    Tweets

    Tweets by @yesweekly

    Facebook

    YES! Weekly
    2018 COPYRIGHT WOMACK NEWSPAPERS, INC.