Posted on 11/06/2014 12:24:19 PM PST by Idaho_Cowboy
Eating. Humans have done it since, well, the beginning of history. And pretty much ever since the first caveman realized he was too tired to grill a wooly mammoth after a long day of hunting, other cavemen were willing to do it for him. For a price, of course.
While the US doesn’t quite date back to the caveman, it’s still got plenty of old restaurants. And, much like we tracked down the oldest bar in every state, we’ve once again culled restaurant associations, historical societies, tourism boards, and business licensing departments nationwide in search of the oldest continuously operating eateries in America. Here’s the oldest in each state, and Washington, DC.
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IDAHO
Enaville Resort Snake Pit
Kingston, ID (Est. 1880) Though this old silver miners’ bar in the mountains of northern Idaho is the oldest restaurant in the state, it’s come close to shutting down more than once. Its most recent brush with restaurant death was in 2012, when it stayed open one day a week just to keep its liquor license. Other close calls include a period in the ’70s when the owner would take month-long vacations to Mexico every time the alcohol control officials cited her for selling illegal liquor and forced temporary closings.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Bright Star in Bessemer, Alabama is great. Opened in 1907, and been in the same location since 1915. A relative had it, and then it was taken over by the Grandfather of the two guys that have it now. The Grandfather took it over in 1925. Same family for 107 years. Not many restaurants can make that claim.
Wow, I would be surprised (though I do not watch the show). Antoine’s is most definitely not a diner, drive-in or even a dive!
On the West End of Pittsburgh there is a place called the Old Stone Tavern, which has a cornerstone that reads 1752.
That would have dated it to when the French were running the place.
There is some debate as to whether that date is accurate, though there is documentation of the Old Stone up and running in the 1790’s. Unfortunately it would not make this list as the most recent owners closed-up eight or nine years ago.
this would be fun to try to visit each of these.
I went to Antoine’s in 1978 when I was 17. It was the Key Club convention. I still have the menu. I think the Oysters Rockefeller were $1.75.
The one for Georgia is incorrect. The Pirate’s House in Savannah was established in 1753.
Mrs. abb and I had dinner there last spring. First time we’d ever been. The Souffle Potatoes were a real treat!
for later
I can’t remember why it was on, but I remember him hosting the/a show. It may have been one of the holiday things he does, but Guy’s hair is distinctive! :)
I enjoyed the Pirate House very much while celebrating my sons return from Iraq not too many years ago. We ran around inspecting the whole place after we ate dinner. Loved it actually.
I still have a couple of skull mugs from there.
Cornerstone only says when it was built, or laid. Does not mean it was a restaurant. Indeed, one of the old places listed here states it was a hotel before a restaurant, but the date is for the latter only.
True, but I’ve eaten at much more expensive restaurants that aren’t nearly as good. Pompano en papillote is my favorite fish in a paper bag. I saw a guy in a polo collar shirt once, tucked in with dress slacks turned away because he didn’t at least have a dress shirt. They will give you a ‘rental’ jacket and tie, but you can’t put a tie on a polo shirt.
As the crow flies, the Snake Pit is less than five miles from where I sit. I have eaten there too many times to count over the decades. Depending on the owner (I've known at least five) and the cook on duty the food ranges from great to passable. Had my first yak burger there. Rocky Mountain oysters were a specialty ... gone from the menu with the current owners.
A frontier dance hall, Finn Hall, now burned down, was just 100 yards up the road. Seventy-five to 120 years ago most dances there ended with a knife fight.
Log drives in the early years took place on the Coeur d'Alene River, running very near, sometimes during floods, right to the door step of the Snake Pit.
In the early days steam boats came up the river from Coeur d'Alene to withing 10 miles of the Snake Pit.
Ladies of the evening occupied the second floor at various times over the 130 years or so of its existence.
Some years ago, there was a sheaf of menus that had been autographed by well-known personages who dined there. Don't know if those menus are still displayed or not.
If only those walls could talk.
CONNECTICUT
Griswold Inn
Essex, CT (Est. 1776)
Eating in a restaurant as old as America is probably attraction enough to make it to Essex on the banks of the Connecticut river. But this inn – one of the oldest continuously operating in the country – also has art tours, a tap room, historic rooms and a weekly “hunt breakfast”, a brunch spread it’s been serving since 1812, that’ll put anything at a luxury hotel to shame
I’ve been there many times. Before Mr Kitty, I dated a liquor salesman and this was one of his accounts. He could write our dates off on his taxes. Yeah, he was a bit sleazy, but at least he had good taste in hand-out. And they do have a lovely bar. Nice mixed age crowd.
Food is very good, as are the prices.
Oh, agreed, it is not truly “exhorbitant”, but not cheap.
As my husband agreed, entrees averaged around $30, and it was a`la carte (nice, actually). I don’t remember anything being more than $40.
They also had very nice service. Husband recalls (amazing how much I do not) being annoyed when the busboy took away our breads. But in the next second a totally fresh hot set of bread was on the table! LOL - I don’t mind the old bread, give it all to me!
It was a nice place.
When I lived in CT, it seemed there were no good “cheap” every-day places to eat, anywhere. Everything was bad - except down the street from me.
But the “expensive” places where you pay at least a good moderate price - lots of really nice restaurants in that group and up.
Griswold was one of those. Others were Ye Olde Taverne, and Flood Tide, and Norwich Inn, etc. All good places on the upscale.
You mean the one in New Orleans? I was there in 1950. The book Dinner at Antoines had come out only a couple of years before that. I remember having Oysters Rockefeller.
Thanks for the post - added to the bucket list!
(A single road trip...?)
Don’t know about the oldest, but Gibson’s in Chicago is incredible. Pretty expensive, by my cheapskate standards, but I had the best steak I ever had there. And I grew up in Omaha.
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