Edible relics

K.W. Stanley / News Virginian
Published: July 3, 2007

"Blue Plate Specials" originated on October 22, 1892, when Fred Harvey restaurants along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad served traveling passengers when trains made brief stops for meals. Fred Harvey's blue sectional plates were similar to Josiah Wedgewood's plate designs. The quickly-served, inexpensive "Blue Plate Specials" were welcomed by train engineers and passengers as locomotives stopped for additional water, coal and sand. By the 1920s, restaurants across the country were serving these meals.

Old maps of Basic City and Waynesboro between 1897 and 1913 show several caf-s and restaurants that served "Blue Plate Specials" to railroad passengers. The Exchange and Belmont Hotels were located near the N&W and C&O Depots off Commerce Avenue in 1897. Each had a dining room that offered quick meals. By 1907, a restaurant and a lunch caf- were operating on Commerce, a few stores from the C&O Depot. The Exchange Hotel located north of the Belmont Hotel, off Commerce, closed as a hotel by 1907 but continued serving passengers in its dining room operation. By 1913, a restaurant serving "Blue Plate Specials" was operating on the corner of North Wayne and Spring Alley, less than two blocks from the C&O Depot on Ohio.

The depression economy of the late 1920s and 1930s made inexpensive "Blue Plate Specials" popular. Many Waynesboro restaurants between 1930 and 1960 offered these meals to patrons. Restaurants on Commerce near the C&O and N&W Depots included Joe's Lunch (1946-48), later the Flamingo Club (1950); George's Lunch (1948 to the mid-1950s), later Bea's (1957-65); Country Kitchen (1935-54); East Side Caf- (1935), later Meadow's Restaurant (1946), later George's Caf- (1950), later E&J Caf- (1957-59); Vennie's Caf- (1954-59), later Flossie's Caf- (1959-1965); Grady Morris Restaurant (1946-1956); Lambert Lunch (1935-1948), later Baker's Lunch (1959); Park Station Caf- and Sandwich Shop (1935-59); and Shamrock Caf- (1935), later Sanitary Caf- (1937), later Chili Bar (1946-1950).

Since 1937, North Wayne Avenue caf-s and restaurants near the old C&O Depot on Ohio, which was demolished before World War II, have included Casey's Caf- (108 North Wayne, 1935), Crank's Restaurant (133 North Wayne, by 1946) and Valley Caf- (137 North Wayne, 1950-59), later Terry's Grill (1960-69), later Fauber's Grill (1971-74) and currently Schooners (1976-2007).

After the C&O Depot on Ohio was demolished, the restaurants on North Wayne retained patronage because "Blue Plate Specials" were available. Donna Rosen, owner of Schooner's restaurant at 137 N. Wayne, serves "Blue Plate Specials" to this day.

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