Welcome to Matchbook Monday. Several matchbooks of Jackson's past are posted below. Feel free to add your stories or any information about them in the comments section. Enjoy these blasts from the past. Readers can email copies of any old matchbooks they might have to kingfish1935@gmail.com.
First up is the old Dennery's Seafood House on East Silas Brown Street. Many a date was wined and dined at that longtime Jackson establishment.
The restaurant moved to its final location on Greymont Street by the Coliseum.
A reader submitted a copy of these matchbooks from Capital City Shoe Repair. The Kingfish remembers it being next to the Midnight Sun on Capital Street. Nothing like visiting the shop on a Monday morning when the parking lot still smelled of the after-effects of a weekend of partying at the Sun. The matchbooks are rather distinctive.
6 comments:
Never ate at the old Dennery's. Wasn't on my parents' rotation and by the time I learned of it as a teenager, they wouldn't serve my because my hair was too long... so of course we went regularly just to get thrown out. Aside from a handful of corporate functions, don't remember eating at the new Dennery's either (sort of out of spite), but did spent some time in the bar when an older friend played the piano there. The shoe shop I was first thinking was the one that's still there in the same block with The Mayflower, but when I looked up the Midnight Sun (which sounded familiar, but I couldn't place), it was listed at 323 West Capitol, which is on the west side of the train overpass (viaduct), which I think was an old ICG/CN building that much later housed the Blackwater Cafe briefly in the early 2000s. Anyway, I vaguely remember that other shoe shop too... and wasn't there a newstand nearby?
When will "Ashtray Tuesdays" begin?
When you had a shoe repair done at Smith's, they would give you punch card for 10 free shoe shines. Even after the punch card was empty, they would give you punch card for more free shoe shines. In the late 50's, I would still tip the shine boy(man) a dime. Always a great shine. The old Dennery's was great; best restaurant in town. The new one, now shuttered was a second generation operation. I'm guessing Jackson's demise caused it's problems.
You mean Ash(tray) Wednesday?
Not so sure about "Jackson's demise caus[ing] its [corrected] problems". John Dennery decided to retire, no one in the family wanted to take over, and no one wanted to buy it as a going concern nor apparently turn it into a venue. That fact that he couldn't sell it could, I suppose, be due to "Jackson's demise", although a lot of other successful restaurants have opened in Jackson since then. Location wasn't so great. Didn't the state, however, recently buy it with plans to make a parking lot?
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the Older Mr. Dennery lived to see the new restaurant open before the flood of 1979. The restaurant flooded badly. Prior to then, the major walls above the chair rail were solid colored wallpaper, a rust to pumpkin color, and gave a great deal of class to the restaurant. It was rather loud to sit near the fountains tho'. After the flood the only wallpaper they could find fast enough to reopen in the huge quantity they needed was the flame pattern and was way to busy for the classical Greek architecture. Mrs. Dennery married someone in the local media after the reopening and John took it over. The cheaper motels in the area and poor management of these motels are probably what created the lack of business in general.
Post a Comment