Today is the day I start my series on the restaurants that I miss. Given that I've got adult children, and I live in East Central Indiana, much of my selection will be limited to my general area, but there you are.
Many of the restaurants I mention in this series are not only closed, but many of them are just plain forgotten, or remembered so vaguely that they might as well be forgotten.
I haven't forgotten them, however, and miss them very much. Without further ado, we start our series in Winchester, Indiana.
--The D&J Drive-In - A stand-alone fast-food style restaurant from my own childhood, which closed, if I remember correctly, in the 1980s. The one item I miss is the sandwich called the Farm Hand. I have tried for years to find out what ingredients were put on, and in what order and amounts, but to no avail.
I even asked the man who ran the restaurant that existed after the D&J closed, but he didn't even remember the sandwich, and he's only two years older than me. Oh, well.
What I do know is that the Farm Hand had two beef patties, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a generous helping of a cole-slaw-style dressing. It was also a sloppy sandwich, since the drive-in bought cheap hamburger buns for this and they tended to fall apart. It didn't matter, though, because the sandwiches were that good.
The only fly in the ointment for this place was their soft drinks. They would take a to-go cup and cram it full of shaved ice, and then add maybe four or five ounces of a soft drink to fill in whatever spaces were left. It was a criminal rip-off, in my opinion, and it always ended up in a watery-flavored flat soft drink. Were I to go back in time to this place, I'd bring my own bottled pop.
If my memory serves me right, this practice was once common in restaurants, but not anymore. After all, all of the fast food places I visit now have good-tasting soft drinks where you can tell that they're carbonated.
--The Courtesy Café - This was a cafeteria-styled restaurant located just off of Winchester's courthouse square. It is the one place that comes to mind when I think of one of my favorite main courses: Swiss steaks. Whenever my family and I ate here, I always ordered the same thing: Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, stewed tomatoes, and a roll. That was topped off with a ten-ounce bottle of Pepsi-Cola that I had to pour into the glass myself.
Going here was always a special occasion for us. We all loved it, which is funny when you considered that my sister and I grew up with McDonald's and our desire to eat there. But, as a kid, I thought the Courtesy was that good. I still think so.
The only minuses that comes to my mind were the long lines to get served (actually that was also a big plus - that was how good and popular the restaurant was) and the seating.
About the seating, picture, if you will, a steel (or aluminum - I'm not sure) dining room set (steel tables with cushioned steel seats.) Now multiply that many times over for a style that evokes a crowded high school cafeteria.
I should point out, in all fairness, the food more than made up for that deficiency. It was that good.
That's it for part one. More later.
Peace be unto you.
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