The Green Hut Cafe

The Green Hut Cafe  on West Jefferson was open for at least ten years, from about 1938-1948.

It was first located at 113 W. Jefferson, about a block east of Zang, where the Eli Beauty Salon now operates. Later it moved across the street and down a block to 244, to just across the street from where the Texas Theatre now stands. This was one of the busiest shopping areas in Oak Cliff at the time. The cafe remained at 244 from at least 1939 to 1948. In 1944 the proprietors, Wayne Johnson and E.D. Elliott ran afoul of the Office of Price Administration, which asked for injunctions and damages for selling beer and food in excess of wartime price ceilings. Sometime after this, the cafe was sold to Max Grossman, while Johnson retained ownership of the building. In March 1948 the cafe suffered almost $18,000 in damages from a fire that started in its kitchen, which also damaged several neighboring businesses. It may never have recovered, as I found no mention of it after this.

Harvest House Cafeteria

Harvest House was part of a small chain of cafeterias with locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, Georgia and Missouri. Their first foray into Texas (and east of the Mississippi) was a cafeteria in 1959 at the newly constructed Bigtown mall in Mesquite. It must have been a success, because soon afterward it was announced a second cafeteria would open in late 1960 or early 1961 as part of Phase Two of the brand new South Oak Cliff Shopping Center at Kiest and Lancaster. The 35-acre mall-type shopping center was slated to be a "complete 1-stop regional center" and expected to draw 20,000 cars a day. Both of these Texas locations were still in business in 1966, but in 1967 all the fixtures and equipment of the Lancaster-Kiest business were auctioned off. It is unclear what happened to the rest of the Harvest House Cafeterias, including the one at Bigtown.

Cliff Chicken Shack

We don’t mean to CROW but We Know Our Chicken

I found mention of Cliff Chicken Shack as early as August 1936, which means it may have pre-dated the more well-known Leslie’s Chicken Shack by several years. It may have been the first drive-in fried chicken joint in Oak Cliff. In 1942 the proprietor was listed as J.B. Cohen (or J.R. Cohen). By 1951, the Shack was out of business, and the building at 519 W. Davis (at the northeast corner at Llewellyn) had become Laden’s Food Market. The location was by turns a wholesale sandwich company, hardware store, carpet company, and an auto paint & body shop. In 2009 the unlucky site was home to Honduras Tire Shop.

Charco Broiler

Way before Chick-fil-A’s fiberglass cows there was the giant brown cow atop Charco Broil (or Broiler). In the late 1950s the address at 413 W. Jefferson was home to R L Watson Co., “Dallas’ Home of Fabulous Bargains”, an appliance store where you could buy an automatic portable(!) dishwasher or a TV set. Advertisements in the spring of 1962 announced the closing of the Jefferson store (there was a 2nd store on Lovers Lane). Sometime between 1962 and 1968 the site became Charco Broil, the home of Famous Sizzling Steaks. In 1975 one advertised bargain was a Rib Eye Steak Special for $15.99, which included Texas Toast, Salad, and a Baked Potato. Take that, fiberglass cows!

I seem to remember that cow used to be on another taller building, and that it was moved to the present location in the 1980s, but my memory’s not so good. Can anyone confirm or dispute it?

 

At one time there were two additional locations:

6417 Hillcrest  across from SMU

1612 S. Buckner Blvd.  in Pleasant Grove