Photos around Cape Archives

June 30, 2016

The Butcher Block Closes

The Butcher Block at 1157 North Kingshighway looked awfully dark when I passed it the other day, so I scoped it out on June 25.

The business was housed in the building that used to be Esicar’s, a meat-selling landmark that opened in 1934. It became The Butcher Block in 2012 after a fire and several changes in ownership caused Esicar’s to close for good.

Yep, dark and empty

The Butcher Block Facebook posted a notice on June 6 that “the doors are closed and the shelves are empty. Thank you all for your patronage.”

A reader who asked if “Anybody know why it closed?” got this answer: “Tired of trying to find a real butcher. And with living 2 hours away. And having several irons in the fire. Something needed to give. Sorry cape lost the only meat shop it had. But family always needs to come first. Thanks for your business though.”

Previous stories about 1157 N. Kingshighway

June 10, 2016June 10, 2016

A Rose Garden Party

A celebration honoring the 1953 founding of the Capaha Park Rose Garden by Arla Harris and Gladys Stiver was held June 8 at the garden. The event included women in fancy hats and clothing, a collection of garden club archive photos, refreshments, and a live band.

Earlier stories about roses and the garden

Garden party photo gallery

Everybody was friendly and full of smiles. I guess you can’t be grumpy when you don hats like these. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move around.

June 8, 2016June 8, 2016

Is McDonald’s Wimpy’s?

Road Warriorette Shari came down from St. Louis for a few days to see her mother and to attend a ceremony recognizing her late grandmother’s work on the Capaha Park Rose Garden.

While we were cruising town looking at all the changes, it dawned on me that I had never been in the McDonald’s on Broadway near Central High School. We wondered if McDonald’s was this generation’s version of our Wimpy’s Drive-In with teenage drivers making an endless loop of cars between the long-gone burger joint and Pfisters. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

Lines, but no looping

There was a steady stream of cars pulling into the parking lot, but they usually just queued up at the drive-in window, picked up their orders and took off. There weren’t any cars full of teenagers checking out each other or sitting and talking. Maybe they were all on social media.

The first Broadway McDonald’s was built in 1967 by Jerry Davis, who owned several landmark Cape eateries. He and flight instructor Kenneth Krongos were killed when the small plane they were in crashed in bad weather in 2003.

You can read about Mr. Davis’ restaurants here.

My perfect record is intact. I still haven’t been inside the store. That’s not to knock the business; it’s just that there are too many other places I’d rather eat in the area.

June 6, 2016

KFC Update

After I ran pictures of a closed KFC at the corner of William and Sheridan, a reader asked if it was going to reopen and, if so, when?

I can’t answer the latter part of the question, but I drove by there Sunday and see they are making good progress on yanking it out of the ground. Looks like the big challenge will be pouring the parking lots and finishing the interior.

KFC photo gallery

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the images.