Easter Dinner Restaurant Ads – 1971

Here’s wishing all of my readers a joyous Easter!

Are you planning a big Easter dinner? I’m eschewing the usual ham in favor of beef, which I’ll be chewing in the form of Western-style ribs. A real cowboy dinner.

But if you were hoping to avoid a culinary clean-up in the kitchen fifty-one years ago, you had a few restaurant options. But unlike my supper today, beef was not on the menu at Arby’s which was closed on Easter Sunday 1971.

Beef was on the menu at Chris Family Restaurant on West Erie, which was serving up a sirloin dinner, roast chicken, a Hungarian platter and its still-great today perch dinner.

Corinthian Family Restaurant at 1138 Broadway had a great varied menu for Easter, including Roast Tom Turkey, Shiskabob, Swiss Steak, Baked Hickory Smoked Ham and – what else? – Sirloin of Beef. (Maybe having beef today isn’t as offbeat as I thought.)

And lastly, Harvest House Cafeteria at Midway Mall surprisingly did not feature its endless year-round Thanksgiving turkey feast. Its ad described a great Baked Ham Dinner with Sweet Potatoes, Choice of Vegetable, Tossed Salad, Juice, Cheese Cake and Beverage, all for $2.50.

Now that I’ve gotten you hungry, hope you enjoy a nice Easter dinner, whatever is on the menu!

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As noted a few days ago, I’ll be taking this week off as I transition all of my files (hopefully) from my ancient, barely working iMac to a brand new one. See you soon!

Harvest House Cafeteria Ads – October 1970

It’s been a couple of years since I featured the Harvest House Cafeteria at Midway Mall on the blog. My observation in the assortment of posts was that it seemed to be perpetually Thanksgiving at the restaurant, with a roast turkey dinner more often not being the special.

There also seemed to be an endless parade of clown illustrations in the ads, designed to appeal to the kids (in those days before clowns were seen as sinister or hiding out from the law).

Anyway, here is an atypical pair of Harvest House ads – with neither turkey or clown – from the pages of the Journal back in October 1970 – 50 years ago this month.

The first ad (from Tuesday, October 6th) features ‘All the Fish You Can Eat.’ The special was only good on Wednesday. Why not Friday?

A few weeks later on October 23, 1970 (with perhaps the supply of cod or pollock exhausted), the ad promoted ‘All the Chicken You Can Eat.’ This special was good every Sunday, thus tying in nicely with the movie, play and book entitled Chicken Every Sunday.

Hey, I wrote about chicken dinners recently back here.

Anyway, ‘Chicken Every Sunday’ was apparently the menu that my father got used to while growing up. His grandfather raised chickens (and pigs too) right at his home on W. 28th Street in Lorain. Since they all lived together during the Depression (Dad’s parents lost their house), that’s what they had on the Sabbath. 

Maybe that’s why in later years, Dad couldn’t stand chicken in any form.

Meanwhile, my mother reminisces that she hardly ever had chicken while growing up in the 1930s. Her father liked unusual things, like liver – not exactly a kid’s favorite. 

Harvest House Grand Opening Ad – 1966

One of the images that Michael Brown sent me during our correspondence in January about Midway Mall is the above ad for the Grand Opening of the Harvest House Cafeteria. The full-page ad ran in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram as part of the special section about the opening of Midway Mall in late September 1966.

It’s a great ad, showing both the interior and exterior of the store, as well as apparently the first of the ongoing roast turkey dinner specials. (I’m surprised their cafeteria advertising slogan wasn’t “It’s Always Thanksgiving at Harvest House!”)

Since my original posts about Harvest House back in January, I’ve also scared up a bigger version of the postcard showing the interior and exterior of typical restaurants. You can click on for that “You are there” experience.

I also found this matchbook currently on Ebay.

It's Sunday afternoon while I'm preparing this post, and it’s almost time for me to get started on my chili. But for some reason, all I can think of is roast turkey with creamy mashed potatoes, giblet gravy and a warm roll and butter.

And a choice of vegetable.

More Harvest House Clowning Around

Last week I posted this January 1967 newspaper ad (above) for the Midway Mall Harvest House cafeteria. It just happened to be the only ad that I had on file.

Since I work in advertising (at the low end: direct mail), I found the ad somewhat interesting because it seemed like Woolworth’s was aiming strictly at the kiddie crowd with the clown and balloons. I wasn’t a real big fan of the clown art either. He looked a little creepy.

That’s why I was surprised to find this July 7, 1967 ad (below) on microfilm a day or so ago. Whoevever was in charge of Harvest House advertising must have felt the same way about that clown, because apparently he was fired (maybe out of a cannon).

Note how the layout is exactly the same, but better. This clown looks like he could have Ringling Brothers on his resumé.

The clip art of the parents is a little less cartoony too. (I wonder if Marlo Thomas was the inspiration for the drawing of the woman?)

Another ad (below) from January 19, 1968 featured the same clown. No balloons or Mom & Pop this time.

I’m beginning to think it was always Thanksgiving at your local Harvest House.

And lest you think that Harvest House’s advertising department was a bunch of clowns, here’s another ad, from April 7, 1967. This one tried a different approach – actually showing food and a chef.

Harvest House Cafeteria – Part 2

Courtesy CardCow.com

Harvest House Cafeterias were promoted through a series of standard postcards that depicted what typical outlets in the chain looked like. Some of these generic postcards had a listing of all of the regional locations on the back; others were branded with a single location. But the same photos were used in either case.

These postcards provide a nice glimpse of what customers could expect at a Harvest House Cafeteria.

Strangely enough, while these Harvest House blog posts were in the planning stages last week, I received a nice email from David Howat about Midway Mall. He wrote, “I’ve been on the quest for pictures of Woolworths and the Harvest House Cafeteria that was in the mall. Do you know where I can possibly find any?”

David had the same generic postcards as me, but would love to find photos of the Midway Mall Woolworths and its Harvest House Cafeteria.

He has fond memories of them. “I remember having breakfast at the in-store restaurant the last day it was open,” he explained. “Because I frequently ate there, they gave me a menu on the last day as a souvenir. It’s still in my collection.”

David would also like to contact any former employees, but it’s not an easy task. “I can’t even find one former employee,” he admitted.

If you can help David with his Woolworths quest, be sure to send me an email and I’ll make sure he gets the information.

By the way, David also sent me this great photo (below) that should look familiar to anyone who shopped at Midway Mall in the old days. He noted, “This was the neat setup just outside of Higbees that we all remember. Seeing this picture brought back some great memories for me.”

Me, too, David! Thanks for sharing!

Harvest House Cafeteria – Part 1

It was just a month ago on this blog that we were discussing the stores and businesses that were part of Midway Mall when it opened in 1966. One of them was Harvest House Cafeteria.

You can part of its illuminated sign at the far left of the above photo.

The Harvest House Cafeterias were owned and operated by Woolworth’s. According to the book, Remembering Woolworth’s: A Nostalgic History of the World’s Most Famous Five-and-Dime by Karen Plunkett-Powell, “During the 1960s, Woolworth’s also introduced Harvest House restaurants in American shopping malls, and Red Grilles in their Woolco stores. By then, approximately eighty percent of F. W. Woolworth variety stores were equipped with some type of eatery. Some had small counters seating ten, while others could seat over 300. There were stand-up counters, sit-down counters, full-fledged cafeterias, bakeries, and simple soda fountains.”

Although cafeterias are still perfectly at home in schools, colleges and hospitals, it’s strange (and a little quaint) to think of cafeterias as a dinner option for mall shoppers back then. But it was a successful business model, and an economical choice for shoppers as well. I’m surprised the concept hasn’t made a comeback.

Here’s an ad for the Midway Mall Harvest House that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 6, 1967. (I suppose today the clown in the ad would be a no-no; too scary!)

As you can see, the ad template was adapted for each location. Here’s the same ad customized for Cherry Hill Mall and Moorestown Mall in Moorestown, New Jersey.

I only remember eating at the Midway Mall Harvest House once or twice. I don’t know what the occasions were, but I think I was dressed up.

Anyway, the Midway Mall Harvest House lasted right into the 1990s. Sadly, both the restaurant and the Woolworth’s store both disappeared beginning with the 1994 edition of the Elyria City Directory.

Tomorrow: A Look Inside a Harvest House