Tastee-Freez -- a bittersweet farewell to a classic location; a salvaged Taco Bell sign; a new reel in the story of America's oldest drive-in | Rolando's Roadside Roundup
Plus, new Weinerschnitzel buildings don't hold a candle to the old and other roadside Americana headlines
Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, has become a home away from home for me. I’ve had family there for almost 15 years now, and not long after checking in with family during my visits, I’d check in with RJ’s Place. [Map]
Before it was RJ’s, it was Tastee-Freez, and RJ’s didn’t mess with the storefront perfection you see here. That made RJ’s a relic of Tastee-Freez, and the best kind — the sort still in use.
Now you knew this was coming: RJ’s shut down earlier this year — their final Facebook posts complained of staffing shortages.
Today, it sits there, derelict, the signage partially stripped and what’s left of it sagging.
My sister took these photos for me. Normally, she’d be sitting in the car, watching as I took pictures of RJ’s. I wish it were, for old time’s sake, the other way around.
Oh, it’s a sad sight, and sad ending for this Tastee-Freez.
Like a determined cold front, Tastee-Freez swept across America starting in 1950, catering to our seemingly infinite appetite for ice cream. There were thousands of locations by the late 1950s, and the chain became a reliable roadside presence, like Dairy Queen.
The Tastee-Freez brand is still around, and it occurred to me this was as good a time as any to celebrate some of the legacy locations. You can take an architectural tour of Tastee-Freez past across America, if you know where to look. Here are some examples you might enjoy visiting.
It’s closed for the season, but this Tastee-Freez in Bennington, Vermont, in one of the nicest around. It opened in 1961 — the original owner wanted to open an A&W but got beat to the punch by the Jensen family. That former A&W still exists, pilgrim hat intact, as a restaurant down the street called Jensen’s, but there is nothing former about this Tastee-Freez. This picture is from my first visit here, back in January 2021. [Map]
A Tastee-Freez of similar logo design, now called The Freeze, survives in Madison, Virginia, which I checked out back in February 2022. [Map]
A Tastee-Freez with an earlier sign variant can be found in Delmar, New York, just outside Albany. Jim’s Tastee-Freez has been around since 1963. This photo is from my visit in May 2020. [Map]
Up in Keeseville, New York, I explored the remnants of a Tastee-Freez a few years back. In a later iteration, this was known as Guiseppes, but the traces of Tastee-Freez were never quite erased. They didn’t try very hard. [Map]
During my trip to Idaho last February, I stopped by the Fanci Freez in Boise, Idaho, which was once a Tastee-Freez. Check out this old ad below from 1955, as published in the Idaho Statesman.
It’s fascinating to see the ad addressing people’s concerns about their weight even in the anything-and-everything-goes-on-the-plate 1950s. “Low calorie … high protein” seems like a guilt-easing claim pulled from an ad today.
This store, at North 14th Street and West State Street, may have opened as a Fanci Freez in March 1959, or was at least using that name by then, according to another old newspaper ad. The sign here says 1947, three years before Tastee-Freez even began as a chain, so clearly there’s another mysterious timeline Fanci Freez is using.
As Debra Jane Seltzer explains in her amazing roundup of Tastee-Freez locations, this is not a little confounding. Even the present owners are unclear of the origins of the 1947 reference, she points out. This seems like a fun archaeological dig, and I’m happy to work the shovel. [Map]
When I visited Snow Palace in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, workers were touching up the blue paint to kick off the 2019 summer season. This location was also once a Tastee-Freez, but has morphed into a popular local spot with its own history. [Map]
Is there a current or former Tastee-Freez near you that you love? Please let me know about it in the comments, and send along a picture if you’d like!
The nation’s oldest drive-in theater, in Orefield, Pennsylvania, has been sold
When Shankweiler’s screened its first film in 1934, in Orefield, Pennsylvania, it was only the second drive-in theater to open in America, after New Jersey’s Camden Drive-in, which flickered to life the year before.
The Camden Drive-in is long gone, and so are most of America’s drive-in theaters, which peaked at 4,038 in 1958 and are now down to 318.
Pennsylvania has 29 of those, second only to New York state in number. And now, one of them, Shankweiler’s is in new hands.
The theater was purchased by Matthew McClanahan and Lauren McChesney, owners of The Moving Picture Cinema. McClanahan was a force behind the remarkable comeback story, showcased in a documentary, of the Mahoning Drive-in, which is up in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, about a 35-minute drive away in light traffic.
The Moving Picture Cinema wrote on their Facebook page:
We are beyond excited to announce that we are the new owners, operators, and caretakers of a Lehigh Valley cinematic institution! Shankweiler's Drive-In Theatre in Orefield PA has been lighting up the night sky for moviegoers since 1934, and is America's oldest operating drive-in! It has long been our goal at TMPC to sink down roots into a permanent space and cultivate our own creative projects as we continue to engage in diverse programming and partnerships all across Pennsylvania. We couldn't be more honored to take the reins of this legendary theater, and we are so excited for what the future holds. See you (very soon) at the movies!
I can’t wait to see what creative things they do with this historic drive-in, a national treasure.
Sign Spotlight: A Taco Bell relic
There is only place in America where a Taco Bell sign of this vintage survives in service, and that’s at a location in Savannah, Georgia. “In service” is a charitable description — it’s sort of forgotten in the parking lot out of back, which may be the secret to its longevity. [Map]
But I was happy to see this photo the other day in my Instagram inbox. Jack Maley (@jack2thefuture) sent it along, saying these signs were salvaged from a Taco Bell around San Jose, California, that was remodeled 30 years ago.
They spent years hanging in a Madera, California, barn until the owner died, the content of the barns were cleared out (alas, you can’t take a Taco Bell sign or anything else with you) and they ended up in Jack’s trusting hands.
These signs were standard from the 1970s through the mid 1980s.
Do you own any cool fast-food relics? Send me a pic and I’ll share them here! I’ve got some good ones — maybe some day, I’ll even have a barn to store them in.
Notes From the Road
Good news! The demolition of the longtime home of the Tasty Nut Shop in White Pigeon, Michigan, has been put on hold. [Sturgis Journal] [Map]
Madeline Wong, matriarch of family that owns the iconic Kowloon Restaurant in Saugus, Massachusetts, dies at age 95. [WCVB]
Cape Cod’s Lobster Pot stores its neon ahead of the cold and snow. Below is what it looks like in all its blazing glory, as captured in August 2019. [Lobster Pot Facebook page]
The Savoy Tivoli, a 117-year-old restaurant in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, is finally reopening after closing during the pandemic. [SF Eater]
Like the hands of time, the Midnight Diner is on the move in Charlotte, North Carolina. [WBTV]
It’s a bad time for lovers of bowling alleys in Austin, Texas. [Towers]
Prayers answered: Inside the efforts to restore the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama. [Moultrie Observer]
The historic site of the Cigar Hut in Fort Myers, Florida, did not survive Hurricane Ian. [Fort Myers Beach Talk]
A new Wienerschnitzel in Bentonville, Arkansas, is opening, and it sure looks nothing like the classic ones of yore. [Arkansas Money & Politics]
Below is what a Wienerschnitzel should look like — this is on Union Avenue in Bakersfield, California — and note the affiliation with Tastee-Freez, displayed in the sign out front, making this the perfect way to end today’s newsletter!
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Rolando! We have two awesome connections:
First, I live in Lancaster, PA. I couldn't place the Snow Palace, and looking at the map, I see it's in York, PA, our neighboring county. I'll have to check it out.
Second, my buddy lives in Fuquay-Varina, NC, and I actually talk about the place (and its bobbling between rural and suburban development) in the column below. I'd love your thoughts.
Thanks so much for writing! I hope to catch up with you soon.
https://tombecker.substack.com/p/big-ideas-small-town-guy