By Ed Shannon, Between the Corn Rows

Here&8217;s a nice way to start a conversation based on memories of the past with a person who happens to be a seasoned citizen. That last part is someone&8217;s cute way to describe a person with a long memory. Anyway, the one topic which may result in a multitude of recollections is based on eating places of another era.

Through the years Albert Lea has had many eating places. Some were called cafes, restaurants, drive-ins, bars, coffee shops, inns, grills, supper clubs and diners. And as I will soon prove, there are still a few more descriptive titles which can be used for those places which became alternatives to eating at home.

Through the years I&8217;ve featured drive-ins, confectioneries and various eating places in specific articles with photos. Now, for this column, let&8217;s consider what the folks had for eating out choices five decades ago. To do this, I found a list of local restaurants in a 1957 city directory.

First on this list in that edition was the Avalon Cafe, 140 W. Clarke. Now here&8217;s one of three errors on this listing. Maybe it was a proofreading

error. Then again, as I will soon emphasize, these errors were part of a gimmick to catch mailing list thieves.

The next two places on this list, B & B Cafe, 321 Sibley Ave., and B & W Lunch at 115 S. Washington Ave., are still very fine parts of local life. However, B & W is now Nancy&8217;s Cafe.

To continue on, 50 years ago there was the Big Dipper, 927 S. Broadway Ave.; the appropriately

named Bridge Cafe, 302 Bridge Ave.; Bruce & Mamies&8217;s Cafe, 1118 Marshall St.; Bungalow Cafe, 800 S. Broadway Ave.; Canton Cafe, 321S, Broadway Ave.; Clark Street Cafe, 127 E. Clark St.; Coffee Cup, 1135 S. Broadway Ave.; and Dee&8217;s Grill, Highway 65 East (now East Main Street). Of this group, the Wong family and their Canton Cafe with its Chinese food was certainly one of the most popular eating destinations for many years.

The Elbow Room at 310 E. 8th St. is still a very active eatery.

Resuming the list of former eating places of five decades ago, there was Gold&8217;s Grill, 121 N. Broadway Ave.; Hamburger Inn , 135 E. Main St.; Hi-Way Cafe, 1316 Marshall St.; Hotel Albert Coffee Shop, 335 S. Broadway Ave.; Hyde Grill. 139 E. William St.; Lake Side Cafe, 404 Bridge Ave.; and M & St L Lunch, 625 W. Main St. The last place was located inside a railroad depot. And the present Lakeside Cafe and Creamery at 408 Bridge Ave. is a revival of the earlier restaurant near the dam.

Ma&8217;s Cafe, 533 S. Broadway Ave., was also listed as Ma&8217;s Place in an earlier city directory, and is now better known as the Kaffe Hus.

Back in 1957 the only local restaurant or fast food place with a name one might encounter in another community was Maid-Rite. The Albert Lea franchised version, the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop, was located at 214 E. William St. Produce State Bank is now at this site.

To continue on, here are three more former eating places: Meixell Lunch, 268 S. Pearl St.; Mickey&8217;s Cafe, 222 E. Clark St.; and the Midway Sub Cafe, 735 Babcock Ave. By 1960 or so the name for Babcock Avenue was changed to East Main Street.

The second error on this list was Park Inn, 1268 Washington Ave. There&8217;s no such address. South Washington Avenue ends in the 900 block. Again, I think this was a deliberate error made by the directory publisher. In checking the alphabetic part of the book, I found out Park Inn really had the address of 126 S. Washington Ave.

Next on the list was Paul&8217;s Cafe at 735 Babcock Ave., near the channel.

The third obvious error was for &8220;Pfardon Dinah J. Mrs 16 Bard Av.&8221; Here was a trap intended to catch anyone using this copyrighted book for a mailing list.

The book said the fictitious Bard Avenue was &8220;from 1220 Pine to Bartling, &8220; two more fake streets. Mrs. Pfardon supposedly operated a restaurant on this avenue, was the widow of Henry, and lived at 106 Klann, still another mythical street.

To close off this list, here are the final five real Albert Lea eating places of five decades ago: Phil&8217;s Cafe, 123 E. William St.; Red Top Diner, 133 W. Main St.; Redwood Inn. 119 E. Clark St.; Stieler&8217;s Hamburger Shop, 115 W. College St.; and Tennyson&8217;s Park &8216;N Eat, 1436 Frank Ave.

Ed Shannon&8217;s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.