Although Consolidated Foods owned both the L&K chain as well as Manners Big Boy, its new restaurant and motel took the name and branding of another chain the firm owned: Lawson’s.
The 1972 city directory listing shown below (with the original L&K Restaurant highlighted) tells the story, with Lawsons Motel Inn motel at 832 Leavitt and Lawson’s Restaurant at 900 Leavitt. (They first appeared in the 1971 edition, however.)
The Cleveland Memory Project website features a postcard with a Lawson’s motel and restaurant. The back of the postcard reads, "LAWSON'S RESTAURANT & MOTELS 16201 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44112,
Phone 216-281-2600;
Restaurants and Motels in Ohio, Motels in Stow, Montrose, North Canton, Amherst
and Macedonia. Swimming pools; Color T.V. and phones in all rooms."
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| Courtesy Cleveland Memory Project |
There was another Lawson’s Restaurant – the first in the chain – on Babbitt Road in Euclid.
The Lawson’s restaurant/motel experiment apparently did not last very long, because by the time of the 1973 Lorain city directory, both properties were rebranded as part of the L&K chain as seen in the listing below (with the original L&K restaurant highlighted).
Thus, there were two L&K restaurants on Leavitt Road within the same quarter mile– the original next to the Marathon station, and the L&K Towne House, home to many club meetings.
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By the mid-1970s, the L&K Motel appears to have taken on a new name, judging from various online newspaper accounts from that time. It was often referred to as the Penny Pincher Motel (or L&K Penny Pincher Motel.)
Commercial development consisting of national restaurant chains continued to thrive along Leavitt Road. Sambo’s opened its Amherst location in the spring of 1977. Below is an ad for the pancake house that ran in the Amherst News-Times on May 5, 1977.
An announcement of the construction of a Bob's Big Boy on Leavitt near the Route 2 interchange ran in the Amherst News-Times on November 10, 1977. And McDonald’s made its appearance at 500 Leavitt Road as the 1970s drew to a close.
Next: The 1980s and the fate of L&K
Next: The 1980s and the fate of L&K
3 comments:
Hi Dan, When I saw your first post I remembered that there were 2 L&K Restaurants on that same block (at least for a couple years). I see the 1973 city directory shows 2 L&K's one at 900 and one at 940.
My aunt and uncle lived on that block, it was cool to see them listed in the old directories. They eventually sold out to Bob Evans.
Now I avoid that stretch of 58 when I come into town with all the traffic.
Chuck
Jackson MI
Hi Chuck! I'm glad that you were able to find your aunt & uncle in those listings, I was hoping that a reader might find them interesting or know someone in them.
And you're right, that's a particularly grueling drive through there now with the congested traffic, lights every few hundred feet and a concrete barrier to make it tough to get to a business on the other side of the highway! Much different than it was in the sleepy early 60s.
Lawson’s isn't dead!
It still lives on in Japan!
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