Can garlic chicken ward off vampires?

This is a portion of a story from March 2001. I had forgotten that the 54 Cafe was closed for a period of time.

About a month ago (February 2001), Mike Farran was telling me about the new deli he and his wife Shirley, were going to open. It will be located across the street from H&R Block on East Walnut. In the course of our discussion, we began to talk about food items, and in particular the subject of fried chicken.

I told Mike that the best deep fried chicken I had ever tried in my life, was that served by Harpy's Chicken Inn. Mike immediately became excited, and told me he had never visited that restaurant, but he thought the name was familiar. It seems that his uncle used to run a supply outfit in Joplin that made restaurant menus.

Mike has made somewhat of a collection of these menus, and he promised to look and see if he could find the Harpy's menu. I had just about forgotten our talk, when a few days later he came into my office, carrying an original Harpy's menu. (Mike's wife's family also operated another famous chicken restaurant a few years later -- MarLon's).

Harpy's was a family owned and operated restaurant. Lena and Tom Harpold ran the restaurant, formerly known as Houchin's, for more than a decade beginning in 1958. The restaurant was located in what is now the front yard of the 3M offices. In those days the restaurant was open 5-9 p.m. each evening and 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. on Sundays. (When I originally wrote this story, Lena was still living, and we had a wonderful visit about this famous Nevada eatery).

The most popular item on their menu was the garlic chicken dinner. You could order four pieces with potato salad and garlic slaw, for the staggering price of $1.25! There were other chicken entrees, plus a great selection of steak dinners. Drinks were cheap at 10 cents. There is no question, that during those years, Harpy's was one of the most popular dining destinations in Nevada.

Reminiscing about Harpy's encouraged me to try and remember some other restaurants from that era. Most, like Harpy's, are no more. As one entered town from the north on Highway 71, there were a host of restaurants. The first was the Quick Dine. Two blocks south was an ice cream place called "50 Flavors in a Tub." Later it became a popular local restaurant called Tee Dee O's.

Right next door in those times was one of my favorites, A&W Root Beer. In the next few blocks south on Osage, there were two more full service cafes, Stockers and Huff's. Just as Osage winds into those two gentle curves, there were two (what were fast food locations in that era) restaurants. One was the Big Boy Hamburger Shop, the other was the family owned, Creek's Taystee Cream. At the south end of the same block was the Wagon Wheel Cafe.

As I am revisiting this story, I am amazed at the actual number of eateries on Osage from that time in Nevada. One block south of the Wagon Wheel was one of my father's favorite dining places, Harold's Steakhouse. As you neared the grass covered triangle junction of 54 and 71 west of the underpass, there were three more locally famous venues.

The White Grill is the only one that remains today. To the east was a diner style place called the Speedy Queen, and at the west end of the triangle was another ice cream place named the Taystee Freeze.

In 2001, I had to try and remember many of the other dining businesses from the past, but I met with only limited success. Here are some that made the list. Dixie Donuts, Witte's Bakery, Charlie's Place, Welty's Cafe, West Side Cafe, Mitchell Hotel restaurant, G.I. Cafe, Vieth's Cafe, the Bus Stop Cafe, Mom's Cafe, Dairy Queen (the original), Skinner's BBQ, The Chat and Chew, and the Sale Barn Cafe.

At that time, there were also four drug stores on the Square that also offered food, beverages, and ice cream, in what we called "soda fountain" venues. They were Thomas Pharmacy, Pokorny's Pharmacy, Wigg's Pharmacy, and Flory's Pharmacy.

A quick note about those soda fountains. The old high school was located just a block off the Square on East Cherry. I have been told by many from that era, that each drug store had their "click" of high school kids, that made one of the drug store soda fountains their "hangout." As a young kid, I used to love to go to Wigg's and order a special item they called a "plain water" coke.

Restaurant businesses have come and gone during our community's history. Some places seem to survive the passage of time, like the White Grill, the 54 Cafe, and the Quick Dine, but for many others, the restaurant business proved at best fickle.

Now that Highway 71 has become Interstate 49, the number of food venues appear to be moving that way. With the amount of traffic, the adjacent hotels, and the seemingly always busy truck stop, all creating a huge influx of visitors to our town, it would seem that there will certainly be many more restaurants open soon in the future.

In the article from 2001, I noted that many of the restaurant owners were telling me of a common issue for them. They were having difficulty finding help. From what I hear today, that problem is still prevalent, if not worse.

Harpy's Chicken Inn was a great place. Their garlic chicken dinner was fantastic. If there is one thing missing from the local restaurant scene today, it is a good friend chicken venue. How can a person expect to ward off vampires, without regular doses of garlic chicken?