(Remembering life as a boy in Lewisburg, WV, an amazing town and an amazing time to live)
Recently, I saw a list ranking the Top Ten restaurants in Lewisburg. In 1955, there weren’t ten restaurants in all of Greenbrier County, and there was just one in Lewisburg – the Court Restaurant. Supply and demand restricted the number of eateries in those days. And there was very little demand. Everyone ate at home.
Most ladies in Lewisburg were stay at home moms and excelled in home cooking, so why eat out? A special eating occasion for our family was TV dinners served on trays while watching Ozzie and Harriet.
The Court Restaurant was a snapshot out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Waitresses in gingham dresses took your order and kept ice tea glasses and coffee cups full. The restaurant was clean and bright and about a half step above a diner. The Court offered daily specials and did a big lunch business with the local merchants and lawyers. There were lots of lawyers in Lewisburg, being the county seat.
We ate at the Court Restaurant only rarely, but it was always good and reasonably priced. If you ever saw a child at the Court Restaurant, he or she was well behaved. There was no running around, playing with food or jabbering. Children were to be seen and not heard in a restaurant, and if they misbehaved once, that was it as far as their eating out was concerned. So kids behaved. Ladies wore dresses and men always took off their hats as they entered the restaurant. It was the gentlemanly thing to do.
For truly special occasions, my family would occasionally make the ten mile drive to White Sulphur Springs where we ate at Paul & Alfred’s Restaurant. Paul made his own house salad dressing, which I remember to this day. It was excellent; blue cheese, as I recall. I can also remember him coming to our table and personally showing me how to debone and eat a whole, grilled rainbow trout. Paul & Alfred’s served outstanding food, often catering to guests at the Greenbrier. Non-guests could also eat at the Greenbrier, but that was beyond a special occasion. That was, and still is, an expensive proposition.
There was another good restaurant between Caldwell and White Sulphur Springs – The Pines Club. Children were not allowed there because the club had a few slot machines, which were absolutely illegal, but tolerated, for the most part. Occasionally, the police would make a raid on The Pines and fine the owners a few bucks, but they were back in business in the next few day.
There were two other places that were popular eat-out places for the locals at Lewisburg – Jim’s Drive-In, west of town, and Spud’s Barbeque in Fairlea. These were typical drive-in restaurants of the 1950’s.
But that’s another story.