Old Restaurants

[jon hynes]

[jon hynes]

[jon hynes]

[bobbbiez]

My favorite spot in old downtown Utica was the Waffle House.
Looked like a dive, had very little room inside,but they served up great food. My Dad use to call it the best greasy spoon place around. ;D Another was the Jet Diner in Marcy.

My Dad being a truck driver use to say, if you see trucks parked in front of an eating place, you know it means real good, home cooked food."
We also found Flo's Diner with the 10 cent cup of coffee near Sylvan Beach because of truck drivers. Still opened and enlarged with the best home cooked meals you could ask for and the prices are super low. A cup of coffee is still only 10 cents.

Hey Clipper, am I showing my age when I say I remember eating in front of Donalty's because women were not allowed in the place. My Dad use to go in and bring their delicious sandwiches out to the car for my Mom and his four daughters, (me included), to enjoy.

jon hynes, Jan and Busey are my cousins. We were always there at the restaurant and my Mom worked there many, many years ago.
Did you know my cousins Jeanie and Fred Bednarz? Freddie tended bar and Jeanie worked as a waitress. Busy is the only one still with us and living with my cousin Gary. Even though related, they were all wonderful people and ran the best Polish restaurant around.

And Kewpees? Was my second home. Great burgers but also a meeting place for us when we were in our teens.

So many great places holding so many wonderful memories.

[Clipper]

Wow sunshine. I remember Flo when she worked at the truck stop down the road BEFORE she opened up on her own. She always baked the pies. I saw her a couple of years ago at her own place, and she had slowed down, but still made all the pies herself and worked as hard as ever, although fewer hours. She is a sweetie. Still 10 cent coffee and still the best breakfast anywhere around the Oneida Lake area.

[jon hynes]

The Waffle House had the best home fries I've ever had of that type. (shredded-grated potatoes) I used to watch them being made trying to figure exactly how they did it. Whatever it was that they poured over them out of that little pitcher was the secret. It was most likely oil of some type or another.

Flo's was another place my first wife and I used to frequent way back when, after the Beach, on our way back to Utica.

I have a bunch of stuff yet to finish putting together about Donalty's.


John and Anna (Ma) Bednarz were the owners when I first started going to the Anchor.

I knew the Swierczek's, Janet and Bushy (Francis), Gary and Bobby. I knew others but not sure how they fit in. There was a Candy there. Gary and I were close friends, he used to come and see me playing at Arnold's and the Body Shop. I haven't seen him in years now. I usually steered clear of the Anchor on Fridays while they were still serving fish fries, and came shortly later. But do remember most of the other people that worked there, but only by sight.

[bobbbiez]

Yeah Clipper, Flos is still as good as ever with the homemade pies and cakes. My favorite is their strawberry shortcake with a scope of vanilla ice cream in the middle.

Their breakfast are excellent but all other meals they serve are just as delicious. I love the fresh perch dinners or bullheads (in season), the pork steaks and their liver and onions are out of this world also.
Sh*t, where else can you get these meals and more for just $5.00? The price is a bonus because the food is well worth much more then they charge and no one leaves hungry.

We still go at least once a month and more during the winter.
Can't beat the place.

[bobbbiez]

jon hynes, looking forward to seeing articles about the old Donaltys.

Gary had his first house on Erie St for years just down from the restaurant and I lived directly across the street from him.
Cookie lived right across the street from the restaurant.

Gary hung with my old boss Joey Lewis. Do you know Joey? Everyone knew him. ;D After last call and we all got done working we would all meet up with Gary and go to either the Patio (which was opened all night then) or Rosie's on Columbia St for breakfast.

Small world, isn't it?

[Clipper]

I used to hang at the Patio at night when I drove for Central NY Coach Lines, before I went to work at the base. Ike and Gussy were there at night, and I can't remember most of the regulars, other than Phillie Gulla from Beacon Body, and a couple of others.

We used to go there at night for free food when I used to hang around with Anthony while I was in College. We would get shitfaced at McGuirl's and then go to the restaurant for breakfast before I took him home to Dudley Ave.

[jon hynes]

Nov 17, 2008 0:10:17 GMT -5 Clipper said:

I used to hang at the Patio at night when I drove for Central NY Coach Lines, before I went to work at the base.

I guess I could be considered one of the regulars being there most nights. I remember the Patio when Ike had car-hops. Ike raised the price of his hamburgs when McDonald's came to Utica because he thought that people would think his were better quality.

I was good friends with Tony from the age of about 14. Phil is Cheryl Bodie's cousin who was Eric's girlfriend when I first joined the Chessmen. I used to hang around Phil's and his father's garage back when he was on Potter Street across from Potter School.

This is starting to get a little spooky being that I still can't place you or Bobbbiez, and we all seem to know all the same people and hung around the same places.

[Clipper]

I got to know Tony when I was in college at MVCC. A friend of mine from high school went to MV also. We graduated from high school in the same class and we hung out together in college. Art was his name, and his cousin lived on Rutger St. She was a tall and good looking gal, and was a senior at Proctor, as was Tony. We all started hanging together, as I had a car and nobody else did. We drank beer at McGuirls, Marcy Tavern, and lots of other young people's hang outs, and usually ended up back at the Patio in the middle of the night.

I remember when Gulla's was across from Potter school, but I got to know Phil when I worked at Hinckley and Wurz Ambulance Service in the mid 70's. His body shop was already on the corner of State and Oriskany by then. We also got to be acquainted with each other over coffee at the Patio.

Did you bowl when you were a kid? Tony used to spend a lot of time bowling at the old Royal Bowling Alley on South St. He is still a great bowler as far as I know. I remember his mom well also. She was a big woman with a heart as big as all outdoors. Ike had left them before I met Tony, but I met his mom a few times and she was a very nice lady and Tony was her life. He took good care of his mom.

Ike and Gussy became closer friends of mine after I kept Gussies son alive after a motorcycle crash on York St by Kernan School. He hit a van head-on while turning left, and took out the door post with his head. His girl friend was thrown onto the school lawn, but the boy was laying on the sidewalk, with both his legs broke, and his face smashed in. He had broken his eye socket, and really crushed his face pretty badly. He survived, but lost the sight in one eye. He was a good kid, and I met him later on, after he recovered. It was one of the worst trauma cases I ever treated and transported. Although I only did what I was trained to do, they were forever grateful. I was glad to simply be able to keep him alive long enough to get to St Lukes.

Hopefully we will get a chance to meet one of these days. I am sure you will know Bobbbiez when you see her. She is the good looking blonde that we all called sunshine back then. I think she was married to Vinnie back then. She is still a good looking blonde, but has a few more miles added since those days, (couldn't resist it Sunshine, haha) Hell, don't we all? I myself have only managed to maintain a mere smidgen of my former good looks, LOL. I think Sunshine drove a camaro or a firebird back then, but I am not sure. It seems that I remember a sunshine vanity plate but I could be wrong.

We will all get together one of these days. If Clipper's Corner has done nothing else, it has found old friends and made new ones for all of us. Gotta love it!

[jon hynes]

Nov 17, 2008 10:31:41 GMT -5 Clipper said:

Did you bowl when you were a kid? I remember his mom well also. She was a big woman with a heart as big as all outdoors.

Gussies son alive after a motorcycle crash

I am sure you will know Bobbbiez when you see her. She is the good looking blonde that we all called sunshine back then.

We will all get together one of these days. If Clipper's Corner has done nothing else, it has found old friends and made new ones for all of us. Gotta love it!

No, I only bowled a few games in my lifetime.

I remember Tony's mom back when she cooked at the Patio. She was the real cook until Tony took her place. I see her in a black dress. Tony took after her as an exceptional human being, and a great cook.

I only remember Gussie telling us about the accident and crying.

Good looking blonde. Well explain things, being as shy and tongue-tied as I am around pretty girls I don't know.

That would be great to meet you guys somewhere. (but TN is a long walk for me)

Keep up the good work!

[Clipper]

Bobbbiez, do you remember June that worked nights at the Jet? She was my sweetie. She loved bingo, and went to every bingo in the area. We used to play cards in the middle of the night. Me, June, Bill Sypeck, and sometimes her boyfriend Eeb, who used to drive a milk tanker. When I was single, I would sometimes get hungry for a little snack or just lonesome, and I would wander over to the Jet for a couple eggs and toast, or just coffee and company.

The jet kinda went to hell when Ellen Fish, Stan Fish's wife, took over from her brother. I drove for the brother for just one trip. He had a bunch of old tired tractors, and ragged trailers, and hauled Miller Beer from Fulton to NYC. It was suicide to drive one of those wrecks, haha. I remember when all the trucks were parked overnight on a christmas or new years, and they all froze up and would not start. All the beer froze and the cans were busting and bulging, while they tried to keep it thawed with salamander heaters long enough to start all the old junkers so they could deliver the beer. I can never remember the guys first name, but I think it was Frank. He and Ellen Fish were brother and sister to Don Reile that used to be the mayor in Herkimer and ran the big junk yard.

[jon hynes]

Nov 17, 2008 12:19:59 GMT -5 Clipper said:

I can never remember the guys first name, but I think it was Frank. He and Ellen Fish were brother and sister to Don Reile

Ironically the 'guys' name was 'Guy' Reile.

[Clipper]

;D LOL that IS ironic. I have to correct my last post about the diner. Junes friend's name was Eife Deeling. Not Eeb. I drove a truck for the same company he did for awhile later on. We both drove for Bill Ahles in Verona for a while, delivering Sams Club stuff out of Taylor Pa, near Scranton, to a place in Westchester County about two miles from the Tappanzee Bridge, near White Plains. He had a brother Delbert that drove for Freddie Burrows for years.