Pecos Cafes
Dub Martin
In Pecos, during the forties and fifties, there was a little cafe located across the street from the Pecos Steam Laundry, maybe a block or so West of the West Tex Hotel (on Highway 80). It was a half block East of Gaither's Grocery Store (I think).
Do you know the name of that little cafe?
Ray & Jo (Pouns) Boulter (Classes of '57 & '59)
Hi, to all---here is a question for your memories (??) from Dub Martin (class of "54) and Ray Mack Thompson for you.....the early bird gets the worm---or should I say the early PECOS EAGLE gets the worm? IF you can answer Dub's question, maybe they have a prize worm for you! The fun part is everyone 'typing' to each other and creating good Pecos memories! Dub, let us know who comes up with the answer.
Virginia (Bond) Gordon
Is he thinking of Foster's Cafe?
Jerry Wanslow
Dub, was it the Pig Stand or Fosters?
Mickie Buchanan, Class of '50
Dub,That was the "Buffet" Cafe that was across from the laundry and right across the alley from Gaither's. I'm positive of that, because my mother and step-father, Betty and Bill Borchardt owned it. During it's heyday they were famous for their steaks and pies. Bill also made his own salad dressing and even sold some of it at the Leader Grocery. People like U.S. Rep. Ken Reagan and others would come all the way from Midland to eat Bill's Steaks and pies.
Laura and I had our wedding reception there when we were married in Aug. of 1955. We still have two of the oil paintings that were done by Mae Finley of Marfa that hung in the restaurant for years. When I was still in school I would walk to the cafe and eat lunch almost everyday, for free naturally, since Mother owned it. That is probably more information that what you wanted, but you punched one of my buttons.
You may be thinking about "Foster's" Cafe which was a half block East of Gaither's and West of the West Tex Hotel, but was not across from the Pecos Laundry. Foster's was across the street from Harrison's house on highway 80. I'm not sure what the name of it was before the Foster's bought it. You might want to ask Harry Foster, I'm sure he can tell you. I think in the 30's there was a cafe there called the "Pig Pen". Really, that was the name of it and it was owned by Lenard and Zip Grogan.
Dick Holloway
I think it was called "AR's" owned by A.R. Elliott.
p.s. - had great tamale pie!
Jim Smith
According to the 1952 city directory it was called the Buffet Lunch. It was owned by the Borchardts.
Jo Boulter
ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT JIMMY STILL HAS A 1952 CITY DIRECTORY! PECOS EAGLES ARE AMAZING!
Jim Slack
I can think of two little restaurants on Hgwy 80 . The one near the westex was the pig stand and was run by Robert Buford's mom. The other one was West of Gaither's and was run by Jim King and was mainly a chili joint.
Duke Hobbs, PHS '43
Wow!!! So many changes in such a short time!! I left Pecos in the summer of 1943 and there were very few familiar business names in these emails.
Harry Foster
The café that occupied the space where Foster's Restaurant was built, was named "Pecos Sandwich Shop," but was called "The Pig Stand" for some unknown reason.
Dub Martin
Well, Mickey Buchanan was the first to contact me to say his mom owned the cafe and its name was Buffet Lunch Cafe. Jimmy Smith was also correct and only minutes behind Mickey.
We established Gaither's Store a half block West of the Buffet. It seems that when Gaither's store closed, the little grocery store just across the alley East of the Buffet opened. Now I need to find out the name of this grocery store. Folks may get it confused with the grocery store a half block East of the Bus Station. Lets see if we can get these two grocery stores named.
This has been very enjoyable to me because during this search, folks would recall interesting stories connected to the sites. Thanks to all who gave suggestions.
Jim Smith
Both Gaithers and Fred Skaggs Serv-All grocery(across the alley from the Buffet Lunch) were in business at the same time.
Leroy Gray
My first job ws there in the little Serval owned by Fred Skaggs. The manager in the mid 50's was Jack Hopper. He was one that hired me. I did a lot of odd jobs, like clean the alley, backroom, & sack. I was about 12 or 13 years old. He was a good friend of my brother-in-laws, Jerry Thomason.
Betsy (Glenn) Cunningham (class of 61)
I don't know about the old cafes, but the BEST food in the world was Enchiladas from Ben's Spanish Inn, Texas Cream Pie from Foster's and everything from the Brandon Hotel Coffee Shop-especially Chicken fried Steak, grilled cheese sandwiches from Bozeman's drug, Hamburgers from Al's Burger Bar. ummm, think I'll go find a snack.
Ray Mack
Betsy, I was going to say exactly the same two places!
Marie Otto
My memories are of the Continental Cafe, owned and operated by Levi Garrett in 1950 when Bob (Otto) and I were married. Levi was married to Bob's cousin Earlene (Kelly), so we ate there pretty often.
When our son Rob, Jr. was about 12 (that would have been in '66) Levi offered him a job helping out in the kitchen for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure what Rob saw, but it was two years before we could get him to eat out anywhere again!
Jim Smith
Seeing a story on Pig Stands on T.V. took me to a google search. The first one was opened in Dallas in 1921, featuring 'carhops' and 'curb service'. They became a franchise and the last three, 2 in San Antonio and 1 in Houston, were closed in late 2006 due to chapter 11.
Also for Dub, the grocery store east of the bus station was Red Bluff Grocery, next to the Red Bluff service sta. Joe Hagar ran the place even after the Hagar Brothers had opened their supermarket on Cedar street.
Ralph Holm
And so who replaced Fred Skaggs after he moved to Kermit?