Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Olde English Fish 'N Chips Ad – March 1970

Yesterday's post spotlighted a few businesses at the Lorain Plaza Shopping Center on Oberlin Avenue, circa March 1970. Today's post concerns a restaurant that was around during that same time period, but further down Oberlin Avenue to the south.

Olde English Fish 'N Chip Shoppe was located at 4286 Oberlin Avenue, in the building that today is the home of the popular Diso's Bistro (seen at right).

(I first wrote about Olde English Fish 'N Chip Shoppe back here in 2011.)

Above is an ad for the restaurant that ran in the Journal on March 9, 1970.

Hank Cartwright was the entrepreneur behind Olde English Fish 'N Chip Shoppe. He already had enjoyed a successful track record with several Pizza Hut franchises, as well as having launched his own fast-food taco chain called Taco Boy.

Thus Olde English Fish 'N Chip Shoppe was Cartwright's attempt to launch another chain. As noted on this blog last week, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips entered the Lorain market at that same time.

After a few years of fish head to fish head combat in Lorain, Olde English Fish 'N Chip Shoppe sank into the briny deep – while Arthur Treacher's kept pip-pipping right up into the 1980s.

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After my post on Arthur Treacher's – as well as an email I received from Giant Eagle GetGo last week promoting its Beer-Battered Cod sub (called The Captain) – I had fish & chips on the brain.

So last Friday, I enjoyed a great meal of exactly that at Martino's International Café in Vermilion (located in the former Ponderosa Steakhouse building).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan.....Was name Old English any relation to the 2 Old English Parlours that were in Lorain County back in the 80's?....One was on Oberlin Avenue in Lorain and the other was on Miller Rd in Avon Lake.They were good places to dine at...Excellent real ice cream.....Maybe you've already done an article on them.If so,enlighten us please.

Dan Brady said...

Hi,
Thanks for the comment. There was no connection between the Old English Parlor ice cream businesses in Lorain and Avon Lake, and the Olde English Fish 'N Chip Shoppe/Olde English Ice Cream Shoppe on Oberlin Avenue. I think the Oberlin Avenue restaurants (fish and chips and ice cream) even spelled their names slightly different to help differentiate them.

This post explains it:

https://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2011/01/another-oberlin-avenue-mystery.html