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Old Posted Feb 10, 2012, 5:16 AM
alittle1 alittle1 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2010
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Restaurants and lunch counters on Portage Avenue.

Every time that I drive down Portage Avenue, my mind's eye takes over and I see all the restaurants and lunch counters that used to dot the street as I roll along.

The Child's at the N/W corner of Portage and Main, midway to Notre Dame, was an adorable spot that my Mother took me as a small boy. Where I sat up straight in a oak armed chair boosted up to table height with a padded wood step. I drank my first glass of real chocolate milk and blew bubbles out of my nose, when the waiter tickled me. I also remember the long heavy draped windows that allowed the sun to peek in as they moved when people skirted by them.

Tamblyn's Rexall Drugs, at the N/W Portage and Notre Dame, used to serve a great boiled hotdog and had a super soda fountain with marble top and front with high stools.

The Chocolate shop, on the S/S between Garry and Smith, served an excellent dessert and coffee after an day of shopping down Portage. Does anyone remember the old teacup reader, Ester King, who provided many hours of enjoyment for the ladies and girlfriends that begged the question, "Where will I be in 15 years?". Ester, with a blink of her eye (glass eye), would go in to a semi-trance and spin a tail of woo take would make a grown woman gasp as to what the future had in store for her and her family.

The Marti-Gras, on the N/S between Smith and Donald (next to Gensers), with the wishing pond and fountain in the front foyer and the spiral staircase up to the loft on the second floor provided a cozy place to take a first date and impress her.

F.W. Woolworths, at S/E Donald and Portage, offered the best 19 cent hot dog and fountain coke that any Portage standup lunch counter had to offer. The weiners came fresh from Dent's on Fort Street every morning and the buns from Bryce's Bakery on St.Marys Rd. Coffee was a dime and there was at least six Bunn vacuum perculators going with fresh hot coffee. Takeout coffee was a mug with a foil top lid, paper wrapped cube sugar and a three corner Silverwoods individual creamer with a tear-off sticker. The coffee-jerks that used the elevators in the Somerset Building next door, would carry up coffee in stainless box trays for the office workers and professionals that couldn't come down for coffee.

Moore's was at the N/E Donald next to the Capital theatre's Portage entrance (with its 25 stair walk-up), had a heavy oak paneled foyer and the decor included heavy padded arm chairs and thick oak tables in a club atmosphere that was definitely 'Old English'.

That gets us down to Eaton's, which had at least a half a dozen or more eating areas including the exclusive Georgian Room with the private dining areas. Let's see who can remember their favorite eating area and what they served.
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