HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 3-24-12

Eating Out

How many remember the days when there was no “fast food”? The first place to open up was Carroll’s out on South Salisbury Boulevard. This opened up the world of 15 cent hamburgers to a town that had previously only had places such as Johnnys and Sammys where hamburgers were 20 cents in 1952. Generally people only went out to eat for some special occasion. They usually “dressed up” because that was the thing to do.

My grandfather built two restaurants in Salisbury. The first one was the Shoreman. Most recently it was the police headquarters on the campus of Salisbury University until it was demolished for a new building. It was my grandfather’s practice to take us all to dinner on Sunday at the Shoreman and it was quite a treat in those days. My grandmother always drank her water and ate the rolls so that when they came to take our order, she would always say she wasn’t hungry and wouldn’t order anything. This angered my grandfather, but, she not being able to hear, his arguments were always ignored.

The other restaurant he built was built around 1960. It was the restaurant and motor lodge of Howard Johnson out on Route 13 North. It was because of his building the restaurant and motor lodge that I got my first real job as busboy in the restaurant. Towards the end of the summer of 1960, the management put up a sign that anyone breaking any dishes would have to pay for them. It didn’t take me long to figure out that my weekly pay of $33.75 (of which I cleared $25.87) would be wiped out by one tub load of dirty dishes. Since the doors to the kitchen swung both ways and waitresses were always coming and going, I figured it was only a matter of time that we would meet in the middle, with my tub of dishes making me the loser.

There were other fine places to have dinner. The Wicomico Hotel had been serving meals since it opened in 1924. It was an elegant place with their name embossed on all the silverware. Tea was served by way of an individual silver teapot filled with steaming hot water and the tea bag in your cup with it. The former hotel is now One Plaza East and has nothing but offices in it now.

Another fine eating establishment was the Chantry House. It was located directly north of the Court House where the government office building is now. Like the hotel, they had cloth table cloths and napkins and their name embossed on the tableware.

Looking at the menu from Johnnys and Sammys from 1952, some of their famous cuisine was as follows: Clam chowder – 20 cents, oyster sandwich – 30 cents, seafood platter (fried shrimp, scallops, oysters, crab cake, breaded haddock, choice of two vegetables, rolls, butter, and coffee or tea) - $1.75 and, my favorite, Maryland fried oysters, pickle and chips - $1.25 (no vegetables, just a whole plate of single fried oysters). Of course, in 1952 the people made a lot less money so the prices are probably in keeping with the times. The quality and quantity are not the same, though.