Pete & Millie's Revisited

Pete & Millie's was a popular restaurant located on the southeast corner of West 21st Street and Leavitt Road (where the Family Dollar store is today). It was owned and operated by Peter and Mildred Flontek. As I noted back on this post, it first showed up in the city directory in the 1949 edition. But I found an ad from a year earlier that appeared in the Lorain Journal on Sept. 3, 1948 (below). Like many restaurants at that time, it started out as a seasonal drive-in, with curb service only.

However November 10, 1951, this large ad announcing the opening of their new dining room, which enabled them to be open all year round.

It was quite an ambitious menu, with its 'sensational new crab burger,' along with old favorites like Chicken in a Basket. Note that Restemeier's Potato Chips was the brand sold there.

Courtesy Alan Richer

The year 1952 was a big one, with regular ads running in the Journal. My original post featured ads from late January and early February. These two ads (below) also ran in February, keeping the momentum generated by the new dining room going.

Feb. 12, 1952

Feb. 26, 1952

And then, about two years later, it was all over, with Pete & Millie selling out to the Standard Oil Company. I guess the location was just too desirable for Standard Oil to resist. 

Jan. 21, 1954 Journal transaction

Vic's Sohio Service Station would take over the location. Below is the Grand Opening ad that ran in the Journal on August 20, 1954.

Pete & Millie's

I recently ran across a couple of vintage newspaper ad’s for Pete & Millie’s, a Lorain restaurant that I’d never heard of before. It was located on the southeast corner of West 21st Street and Leavitt Road.

The first ad (above) ran in the Lorain Journal on January 31, 1952. It mentions that Pete & Millie had “enjoyed a nice rest" but were now back to serve “those delicious meals and short orders.”

Two days later, on February 2, 1952 this ad (below) ran in the paper.

Intrigued about a restaurant that I knew nothing about, I did a little research.

Pete & Millie were Peter and Mildred Flontek. Pete was a machinist at National Tube before opening the restaurant with his wife. The earliest listing in the Lorain phone book was in the October 1949 edition (below).

Aside from a few houses, there wasn’t much near that intersection in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Brady’s Restaurant was just a little bit to the south on the opposite side of Leavitt. Here’s a 1952 aerial view, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.

I guess there weren’t many phone numbers either for that part of town. Pete & Millie’s 62-072 phone number had previously belonged to Brady’s Restaurant a few years earlier.

Anyway, there’s a reason that I’d never heard of Pete & Millie’s before. By the time of the 1954 Lorain City Directory, the restaurant’s listing had disappeared and the southeast corner of W. 21st Street was listed as being “under construction.”

The building under construction was Vic’s Sohio Service Station, operated by Vic E. Kolar.

And what happened to Pete & Millie?

Apparently still infused with the entrepreneurial spirit, they moved to Florida and opened the Trail Drive-in Theater in Naples Park in the summer of 1954.