Restaurants and Eating Places Of The Past

Some places we remember for the atmosphere, other places it was for the food, and perhaps a good memory of sitting around the table eating and enjoying good company with friends, such as one of mine. It was at the Coffee Shop on Main Street, when Bill and Kory Wheeler were owners. Two regulars at our table were Orman Hunt and Ozella Bailey, they are both gone now, but the good times around the Coffee Shop round table remain with me always. 

The 88 Dip is the only eating place that is still operating today under the same name it started with back in 1952, most locations are even gone, but they are still part of our past collective culinary memory.

The Sunrise Cafe' was located on N. Main Street behind where the Western Auto Store was and now the Marion Fire Department is there.

This restaurant had several owners and from what people have told me each had their own eating place personality. Guy and Edith Drennan owned it and their blue plate specials were very popular with the community. Mr. Drennan like to hire local girls to work in the restaurant so they would have a job. 

Another owner of the cafe' was the Baker family, I was told they turned the eating place into cafeteria style. Still remembered and talked about today as a popular place to eat and gather. 

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Lots of people have memories of the tiny eating place known all these years as the "Hole In The Wall." It was located in a small room behind the Farmers Bank, close to where the steps are on W. Carlisle St..  The area now is part of the expanded Farmers Bank. It had only one small booth and a few stools at a counter, but was big on its reputation for good hamburgers and short orders. Owned by Dewey and Sylvia McDowell. Mr. McDowell ran a taxi cab that was located across the street from the restaurant. Besides her regular customers, Sylvia would fix box lunches for some of the local miners. 

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Another place around the court house square that is talked about was Gene Beard's grocery store located in the area of the former Alan Stout office. His lunch counter food is still talked about today. A lot of county people that came to town on Saturday's to do their weekly shopping always loved to eat there. When Gene moved his store to the later location on 641 South where state offices are located now, his lunch counter was still a popular place to eat. It seems two of his lady cooks couldn't get along so he just stopped that by closing the eating area and turned it into the produce department. The good food in the small area was missed daily by faithful patrons. 

One cannot think of eating places in Marion without the Marion Cafe and Cap and Edith Cline being at the top of the list. The Clines first entered the business in September of 1945 as partners with Boyce Belt. At that time, the menu consisted mainly of ice cream and sandwiches.

Through the years they worked with several partners in the business, not taking sole ownership until 1957. As the years pasted the menu was expanded and the business grew until it became known throughout western Kentucky as one of the area’s outstanding eating establishments.

The day’s work for Cap began about 4 a.m. each morning as he prepared a portion of the food for the day along with donuts for the hungry breakfast group which began arriving at the 5:45 opening hours.

At about 11 a.m. Mrs. Cline would arrive to assist with the plate lunches for the noon crowd. She would remain until around 9 p.m. that evening, serving everything from charbroiled steaks to deep fried oysters. So many memories surround the name of the Marion Cafe' and have carried down through several generations. The Botanical Flower and Gift Shop is located in this building today.

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Rohrer and Johnson's Drive-In on Gum Street was another well remembered and popular place to eat. The menu was well-rounded with plate orders and short orders and fountain service. Rohrer & Johnson first opened the Drive-In restaurant in 1950. 

Later this was a favorite place for the high school crowd to gather in the 1960's and find out who was dating who. 

 They had car hop service, where several local high school girls would find work. Lots of good memories here. 

 The popular place was last a coin operated laundry and a few weeks ago (June 2019) this old building was torn down.  Nothing there now to remind us of those good times spent there all those years ago.