LET'S EAT OUT: Part 1...Long Champ...Longchamp...whatever

During our journey around the country checking out first class places to stay we never stopped to eat. It's time to check out some high and low class food joints.

Now, don't get your hopes up because I can't guarantee they're all still in business, let alone still standing.

First stop Long Champ Dining Salon (also Longchamp) in Amarillo, Texas. I'm guessing this card was picked up by my grandparents in 1949 when my folks drove them across country from Pennsylvania to San Diego along Route 66.

Click on image to see it larger.

So was it Longchamp as shown on the sign or Long Champ as on the back of this Curt Teich card? I have no idea. How could advertising screw up from the front to the back of a postcard?

SOURCE: Amarillo by Ron Smith

SOURCE: Amarillo: The Story of A Western Town by Paul Howard Carlson

Homer Rice didn't just change the name of the place, he changed the whole feeling of the place with advertising in a completely different direction. You can see a few Rice Dining Salon postcards here, here, and here. Doesn't feel as classy, does it? How about an old matchbook or Yellow Pages ad from 1965? I'm sure if I continued digging I'd find more, but I'm not really that interested in what the place became; I'm interested in how it started. Unfortunately, I'm not finding that information.

I did however find a recipe for Rice's Dining Salon Turkey Dressing. Go figure.

As to what sits on the spot once occupied by Long Champ? It's not pretty. According to this web site it's now a "parking lot between Taco Villa & Pinkie's Liquor."

I give you the former site of Longchamp, or whatever it was called, according to Google maps.

The only other thing I'll bring up about this is that Longchamp/Long Champ was recommended by Duncan Hines. I did a post last year which included how important the Duncan Hines guide was when traveling across country which you can read here.

Take a GREYHOUND and your DUNCAN HINES GUIDE

I'm not sure I've ever ridden on a Greyhound bus. The only time I've ever ridden commercial busses have been short trips from the suburbs to the city. No lengthy bus trips.

Click on image to see it larger.

I like this post card because everything looks so doggone clean. It's not a photo of the bus depot, it's a drawing/painting. I'm always fascinated by these sort of cards. They're architectural drawings because a photo just wouldn't do. No trash. No power lines. No people. It's all very strangely sterile. The artists are never given credit though they labored away turning out drawings that could be thought to be a photo. The skies are always lovely with puffy clouds. The streets are always clean. It's how the people who owned the Overland Greyhoud Bus Depot imagined themselves in a perfect world.

The other thing about these sort of cards is how important perspective is. If the artist gets it even slightly wrong the whole thing looks a bit off. I've got a lot of hotel cards that are architectural drawings. I prefer them to the tinted photo cards. They're always just slightly strange. Otherworldly. Unfortunately there is one big problem with this drawing. Something that would surely bring about some serious lawsuits if the depot actually had this item missing. I'll let you figure it out. You'll most likely have to enlarge it to notice what's missing.

The company that printed this card was Barkalow Brothers Publisher. Not finding much online about them. Finding lots of cards, but not much in the history department other the small blurb below found at Metro Post Card.com:

Barkalow Brothers Co. 1865-

Omaha, NE

Publishers and general news agent founded by Sidney and Derrick Barkalow. They became the exclusive distributors of printed materials, including postcards, for the Union Pacific Railroad. The Barkalow Brothers also published non railroad oriented view-cards that were often printed by Tom Jones. They eventually became suppliers of hotel gift shops and moved their business to Fort Myers, Florida.

The other name mentioned on the back of the card is Duncan Hines. Anyone out there remember the Duncan Hines Guides? There were two books my mother always took along whenever we travelled. The book from AAA to find decent motels and the Duncan Hines Guide to find decent restaurants. I used to sit in the back seat of the car and read both books. I found them fascinating. These days Duncan Hines is usually known for box cake mixes. Surely there must be someone out there who remembers the restaurant guide.

Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was a U.S. pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name.

Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Hines was a traveling salesman for a Chicago printer. By age 55 in 1935, Hines had eaten a lot of good and bad meals on the road, as part of his job, all across the country. At this time in the United States, there was no interstate highway system and only a few chain restaurants, except for in large, populated areas. Therefore, travelers depended on getting a good meal at a local restaurant.

Hines and his wife, Florence, began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good restaurants around the country. The list became so popular, that he began selling a paperback book entitled Adventures in Good Eating (1935), which highlighted restaurants and their featured dishes that Hines had personally enjoyed in cities and towns across America.

Hines was so successful, he added another book, recommending lodging for the night.

In 1952 Duncan Hines introduced Duncan Hines bread to the world through the Durkee's Bakery Company of Homer, New York. Principals Michael C. Antil Sr. and Albert Durkee, Lena Durkee, were the bakery proprietors. This was Duncan Hines' first foray into baked goods.

In 1953, Hines sold the right to use his name and the title of his book to Roy H. Park to form Hines-Park Foods, which licensed the name to a number of food-related businesses. The cake mix license was sold to Nebraska Consolidated Mills in Omaha, Nebraska, which developed and sold the first "Duncan Hines" cake mixes.

In 1957, Nebraska Consolidated Mills sold the cake mix business to the U.S. consumer products company, Procter & Gamble. The company expanded the business to the national market, and added a series of related products.

Also in 1957, Hines appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show To Tell The Truth.

Duncan Hines died of lung cancer on March 15, 1959. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

I miss the days of adventure on the road. Today too much of it all looks the same, even off the interstates. People want the same food no matter where they are. Really a shame. Another lesson of how we've lost our souls to corporations. Next time you're traveling search out a privately owned restaurant, not a franchise. Dare to be bold and forget the plastic food that floats amongst the shiny lights alongside the freeway. Even if it proves to be a bad meal you'll have a story to tell. Who tells stories about the fast food joint at exit # 193?