Monday, November 9, 2009

Brady's Restaurant Part 1

I mentioned the old Yeager's Acres restaurant in a blog last week, and decided that long-gone restaurants might make a good string of topics. So first up in this series is a well-known landmark Lorain restaurant with a great name that I actually remember eating at: Brady's Restaurant.

Although Bradys in Lorain County are now a dime-a-dozen (or a dime-a-Bunch), back in the 1960's there were only two Brady families on the west side of Lorain: the Bradys who owned the restaurant and us. And we aren't related. But it was incredible how many times I was asked over the years if we were the ones who owned the restaurant.
Brady's Restaurant was located at 2210 Leavitt Road, at the intersection with 21st Street. (The small white building is no longer there, having been finally torn down a year or two ago.)
The 1955 newspaper ad shown above provides a nice early history of the business. (Click on it for a larger version.) The ad reveals that the restaurant opened its doors in November of 1946 and was originally owned by Chester L. Brady and his wife Esther. The business appeared in the Lorain City Directory as Brady's Drive In. The restaurant's advertising mascot was a whimsical cook on a unicycle, most appropriately since the restaurant was in a fast-paced period of growth and innovation.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool stuff... I remember a place, I think it was called Vianes...or something like that. It was on the east side of the bridge(the bridge that opens) along the lake. I also remember the Anchor Inn. Never went there, but I heard it was pretty good.

Hoy hoy,

Jeff Rash

Dan Brady said...

Hi Jeff,

Yup, I'm definitely going to do a series on Vians, which was on Route 6 out in Sheffield Lake where The Residence condominium complex is now. I live about a mile from where it was, so it's of particular local interest to me.