The Pit – Part 2

Advertisements for the Pit became a familiar sight to readers of the Journal in the restaurant’s early days.

In addition to the original ad above, which ran in the Journal on March 3, 1969, special feature articles ran regularly in the newspaper’s local advertising section. Today, these articles help fill in a little background history of the restaurant.

This March 3, 1969 ad (below) article points out that the restaurant actually opened for business on the last day of 1968. The photo also provides a nice view of how the restaurant looked before it was remodeled over the years.

Here’s one from April 14, 1969 that reveal some of the Pit’s special preparation of its meat. As Mrs. Pinkley explains in the article, “the only way to obtain this special taste is the way we do it here – we barbecue all our meat from 10 to 12 hours over hickory smoke."

This alliterative article from the May 26, 1969 Journal demonstrates just how much of a family affair the Pit was, showing members of the Tedford and Pinkley families at work.

And here’s roughly the same article, without the photo. This ran in the Journal on June 30, 1969.

Here's an ad (below) that ran in the Vermilion Photojournal on May 21, 1970.

The Pit also benefited from ads in the Lorain Phone Book yellow pages. Here’s the ad from the 1969 edition of the directory.

Here’s the 1971 ad.

Next: More of Steve Pinkley’s reminisces