In a sleepy Calif. town, there’s a shrine to a 105-year-old fast food chain
A&W employees work at the Lodi flagship in 1919. Courtesy of Pete Knight
From SFGate: One afternoon in the mid-1980s while Pete Knight was managing an A&W location in Saint Helena, an employee popped into his office with an odd request. A woman carrying a brown paper bag wanted to see him. Confused, Knight wandered out to help. The woman handed him the bag, stuffed with six vintage A&W glass mugs dating back to the 1950s. Though he didn’t know it then, the chance meeting would lead to the beginning of a shrine dedicated to the oldest fast food chain in California.
She confessed that she had stolen the mugs when she was a teenager but now wanted to clear her conscience. Knight was taken aback by the unusual encounter but accepted the mugs and thanked her. He wasn’t new to A&W tchotchkes, having kept his work name tags, pins and uniforms beginning in 1973 when he got his first job at the fast food chain. Yet, the serendipitous moment during the 1980s would ignite a newfound obsession with A&W memorabilia. Decades later, Knight’s fascination with A&W collectibles continues at his Lodi restaurant, where a massive collection of uncommon trinkets from the 105-year-old fast food chain is on full display.
RUDOLPH’S SANDERLING BEACH CABANAS DESTROYED
The Cabanas at the Sanderling Beach Club on February 28, 2019. Photo by Francis Dzikowski.
From The Paul Rudolph Institute: This morning we received a message from Max Strang – a local architect in Sarasota, Florida – that Paul Rudolph’s 1952 Sanderling Beach Club cabanas were completely destroyed overnight by Hurricane Helene.
This story is developing and we will share more details as they are received.
Iconic N.J. diner shutting down just 6 weeks after reopening. Here’s why.
Mr. G’s diner is located at the corner of 10th Avenue and East 18th Street in Paterson. Google Maps
From NJ.com: The iconic Mr. G’s Diner in Paterson, which reopened to fanfare just six weeks ago, will shut down on Sunday following a lawsuit accusing the new owners of using the restaurant’s longtime name without permission.
“Litigation over the name of our diner has presented significant operational challenges, which unfortunately prevented our vision for Mr. G’s Diner from coming to fruition,” the owners, Yaakoub Hijazi and Vaughn McKoy, said in a statement. “If we do re-open, it will be under a new name.”
Motel 6 sold to Indian hotel operator for $525 million
This Jan. 3, 2018 file photo shows a Motel 6 in SeaTac, Wash. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
From the Associated Press: The budget motel chain Motel 6 is being acquired by the parent company of Oyo, a hotel operator based in India.
The New York-based investment firm Blackstone, which owns Motel 6’s parent company G6 Hospitality, announced Friday that the deal would be an all-cash transaction worth $525 million.
The transaction will also include the sale of the Studio 6 motel brand, which caters to customers seeking extended stays. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Preserving the past while building a new future: Varsity Theater and Bookman’s Alley mixed-use development poised for success in Evanston
PHOTO COURTESY OF VARSITY THEATER, LLC.
From RE Journals: Some developments just mean more to a community. The former Varsity Theater and Bookman’s Alley adaptive-reuse development in downtown Evanston is an example.
The building at the center of this development once housed Evanston’s beloved Varsity Theater. After redevelopment, the project, spanning 1706 to 1712 Sherman Avenue in downtown Evanston, is now home to a 33-unit multifamily property, 8,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and two live-work units.
The project will also include the redevelopment of Bookman’s Alley, a space that long held the Bookman’s Alley Bookstore opened by Roger Carlson in 1980. That store closed in 2013.
The American Toby Jug Museum in Evanston is closing. What does one do with 8,500 Toby jugs?
Beth Mullins Scales, the daughter of Steve Mullins who founded the American Toby Jug Museum, walks through the museum in Evanston on Sept. 17, 2024. There are over 8000 items inside of the museum which is set to close next spring. The museum was founded by Steve Mullins, an avid collector and historian of Toby jugs. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
From the Chicago Tribune: Stephen Mullins collected Toby jugs.
That’s true, though kind of like saying Michael Jordan played basketball. Some people are the greatest at one thing. Mullins was a champion swimmer, and for most of his life on Chicago’s North Shore, he was a successful Evanston real estate developer. But he was exceedingly good at acquiring Toby jugs. He was so skilled at this that his collection outpaced the size of his sizable home, then his office, so Mullins reworked a former bank into a six-story building on Chicago Avenue in Evanston to keep his collection. It’s still there, at the corner of Chicago and Main; there’s condos in it now and a Subway franchise, so it’s not just storage space for Toby jugs. But really, says his widow, Carol Mullins, her husband wanted it as a dedicated space (with custom shelving) for Toby jugs.
Indeed, at Carol’s home, in the living room, there is one prominent jug on a shelf. It has the likeness of her late husband, wearing a sweater the exact green of his beloved Dartmouth College. Inside the head, where you sip your drink, Mullins’ ashes are kept.