From the corner of Memory Lane & Epicurean Blvd.

 In late January I received an email from Paul Younghans informing me that he had just been informed by Kathy Helmstetter Christian that our everyday go-to place, Gary's, had burned down. I, in turn, did the only thing I could think of in my elevated state of anxiety: I emailed our own conveniently located investigative reporter, Lou Bace Hogan, for more in-depth news on the situation. Lou, after a quick recovery from the embarrassment of being scooped by "folks not living in Westfield",  confirmed that, yes, the building on South & Westfield Avenues, which housed Clyne & Murphy's, (a catering establishment), as well as several other smaller businesses, had indeed, burned down. She and her family knew and did business with some of the older proprietors who lost their stores and livelihoods in the fire. A sad occurrence in a town of 30,000 that still prides itself as a small community. Fortunately, no one was injured.  According to an article in the Westfield Leader, efforts were already underway to find alternate locations for those businesses lost in the fire.  Lou's son-in-law, and, Nancy Whalen Goldsmith's nephew, Kevin McCormack, serves in the Westfield F.D., but was not on duty that evening.

Site of Gary's in 2007- Google Maps photo

1/22/2012 fire - firehouse.com photo

Looking at the Google Map photo above and in checking out the details it became clear that that building wasn't the same one that Gary's used to be in. Apparently, the building we knew had been torn down, or drastically remodeled, a few years after Gary died not too long after we graduated. The building that was destroyed in the fire was its replacement. As the Westfield Leader stated, it had been "a landmark building  [in Westfield]  for almost half a century."  Ouch! That sure puts us in our historic place, doesn't it? We're now officially consigned to the ruble heap of the Pre-landmark Era.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      This event got Lou and me rolling into a nostalgic email discussion about some of the old haunts that all of us should still remember from high school days. Carolyn and Mike mentioned some of them in the post above. Tops among them was the Westfield Diner on North Ave., just across from the Jersey Central station. Although there presently is a Westfield Diner, Lou correctly pointed out that the diner we knew was actually called the  Excellent Diner  and that, according to the  Westfield Leader,  it was moved to Aalen, Germany in 1996.

The Excellent Diner in Aalen, Germany - Westfield Leader photo

 Excellent Diner interior  Aalen, Germany - Westfield Leader photo

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Lou added that it was later moved to Euro Disneyland in Paris in 2002. The article in the above link confirms that. And, so, our old Westfield  Excellent Diner  still stands and serves!  [ Click on any of the photos in the link for a better view of what it looks like in Gay Paree.]  If any of you are planning on going over thattaway, do stop in and check it out. I'm curious to know if they serve Frites Libertè  or the less political frites français. [ Or would that be the other way around?]

If you can recall waiting in line outside for your turn to sink your teeth into a juicy, medium-rare porterhouse, sirloin, T bone or filet mignon, served on a spitting, sizzling platter at Snuffy's Steak House in the now almost extinct Pre-landmark past, well,  you don't even want to know what's become of  that!   Italian food?  Snuffy's?

Gone too, but not quite forgotten, is this familiar haute cuisine sight of our youth: The Adventure Car Hop. It's one of the two car hops we all cruised between many a time out on Route 22. The other was called the Big Top.  Here  is an interesting website all about those wonderfully decadent car hop days.

Adventure Car Hop, Union, N.J.  -  cranford58.com photo

 And, finally, since we're in the neighborhood, there's this long-vanished pleasure palace from our more adventuresome years:

Union drive-in, Route 22 - www.drive-ins.com photo

A few tamer memories of the place that produced more fogged-up car windows than an Alaskan Highway blizzard can be found  here .


That wraps up this edition of ML & EB, aka: Stuff We Used To Be Able To Eat With Impunity. Do any of you recall other places in or around the Westfield of our youth that you used to hang-out in? Let us know in the comment box below.