FROM THIS VALLEY By Pete Steiner
(CONTINUED FROM THE JUNE ISSUE)
Long lost eateries I
t’s a warm late-summer evening. Can’t think of anything that would taste better at this moment than a big mug of cold root beer, dripping condensed droplets of August humidity onto a tray that’s cantilevered on my open car window. Come to think of it, it could be even better if there were a scoop of ice cream added. Trouble is, you’d have a heck of a time finding that particular taste treat these days without going into a mall somewhere. A few towns still have real root beer stands, some even still have carhops. But not Mankato, not anymore. nnnn Since the June issue came out, referencing the old Oasis, different folks have reminisced about different root beer stands where they’d hang out. Jovaag’s was on Madison Avenue (near Long John Silver’s empty building.) North Mankato had a drive-in on Lookout Drive. There was Salfer’s Grove (near the nowdefunct Buster’s at Madison and Victory). All of them long gone, as is the old A&W (near C&S Supply on North Riverfront). In the June issue, Dave Bell of the Oasis described “the cruise,” all along old Front Street, between his west-end place and the A&W. Dean Otto, whose family ran the north-end A&W for almost 25 years, elaborated for me recently. Before it was bisected by “urban renewal” and the Mankato Mall in 1977, Front Street was Mankato’s main drag. “The cruise” would typically begin about 3:30 in the afternoon, after high school students got out, especially on weekends. “It was continuous,” Dean says. “Cars would be backed up for a block (at the A&W). Our parking lot would fill up.” If no spot opened, the cars would turn around and head back toward the Oasis near Sibley Park.
nnnn The Mankato A&W franchise was granted way back in 1949. For part of the 1950s, it was operated by the Anderson family, whose children attended Bethany College; the boys would sleep on bunk beds in the back room during the busy summer season. Chuck Otto, Dean’s dad, bought the business late in 1961, when it was still seasonal. They reopened in the spring of 1962, and Chuck, with a degree from the University of Illinois, prepared to give up his accounting job. With his wife, Ruth, they would eventually employ all four of their children. Dean began working that first summer at age 15. Chuck was in the kitchen, Ruth would cashier, cook or even carhop if necessary. Chuck was referred to as “Papa Burger,” Ruth was “Mama Burger” and Dean was “Teen Burger.” While Dean was away getting his degree and then teaching for a couple of years, the decision was made to make “the AW,” as it was called by many, a year-round operation. In the fall of 1972, Dean returned as a full-time partner, and the quaint old shack-like building was torn down to make way for a new and expanded restaurant. nnnn Unlike in “American Graffiti,” the Otto’s carhops never wore ro l l e r s k a t e s . B u t e v e n a f t e r expansion, they kept the carhops
until they sold the business. “The cruise” took some big hits in the 1970s. Dean points out, it wasn’t just the building of the downtown mall that altered traffic patterns: Highway 22 closed for two summers in the mid-‘70s, so “lake traffic” started using the Airport Road east of Mankato, diverting customers from their North Front location. Then too, there was the Arab oil embargo of 1973 that sent gas prices soaring and cut back on driving. Dean notes, it might well have been that oil embargo that did in the Holiday House, that renowned old fine-dining spot in Kasota, so dependent on commuters. n n nn Sales were flat through the early 1980s, although Dean smiles recalling their most successful promotion, “Coney Day.” Coney dogs, an all-beef hot dog with choice of toppings, were sold for just 15 cents apiece; suddenly Tuesdays, their slowest day of the week, became their biggest, with sales immediately doubling, reaching $2,400 on a typical Tuesday. By 1985, tiring of many 6 a.m. to midnight summer days, Chuck was ready to retire. Dean had earned his MBA through night classes at MSU, and would soon join the business faculty at Mankato Technical Institute, where he’d stay for 24 years. They transferred ownership of the A&W as of New Year’s 1986; the business would close for good in 1990. n n nn This all gives me a notion to procure a growler of 1919 root beer and take my Kirby Puckett Twins’ mug down to Sibley, stream “American Graffiti” in my EarPods, and repeat 100 times, “Nothing ever stays the same.” Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.
56 • AUGUST 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
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