Barbara Lind wishes we'd write her book, and we probably should. Unfortunately, few might actually believe the tale.
Longtime readers here know that Barbara opened the original Tin Man Diner in a beat-up Sterling Streamliner diner near the Otis rotary in Pocasset, Massachusetts. Despite an endless string of mishaps and obstacles, Barbara and her daughters Lori and Susan Lind managed to eke out an existence and a rabidly loyal following.
Finally, in 2000, the husband of one of her employees suspicious of the time she spent working set fire to the diner, was caught, and went to prison. For the next seven years, Barbara ached to return behind the counter of something. After a series of jobs at lunch counters and institutional kitchens, Lori announced to Roadside in 2007 that she and her mother planned to lease the former Wendell's Corner Snack Bar, an 80-plus-year-old diner tucked away on the old road to Falmouth, Massachusetts.
After an all-too-lengthy period of rebuilding and refurbishing the diner, its attached kitchen, and small dining area, Barbara opened the new Tin Man Diner in May, 2008, generating a grateful response from fans new and old happy to have her back at the grill. And indeed, Barbara's picked up pretty much where she left off nine years ago with the same big portions served with pride, albeit in a smaller and even older setting.
Barbara herself looks great, even after years of struggle in and out of the diner. The condition of the new Tin Man reflects new lease on life in the business.
Find the Tin Man on Old County Road in North Falmouth, Massachusetts. Tell Barbara that Roadside sent you.
Every stop at the Super Duper Weenie reveals yet another pleasant surprise. Gary Zemola, the man behind the magic, loves to tinker in the kitchen, and his efforts have give us some amazing treats.
This time, he's tinkering in the back yard where he keeps a used Brinkman barbecue smoker bestowed on him by a loyal fan. Catch the Super Duper at the right time and you could be treated to Gary's stab at brisket or pork ribs. We missed the opportunity on our last visit but look forward to a return trip very soon.
Meanwhile, we've also learned that the Super Duper Weenie truck will hit the streets once again after an extensive restoration.
Find the Super Duper at exit 24 off I-95 in Fairfield, Connecticut and visit their website here.
At right, Roadside Girl and the Weenieman share a laugh.
Roadside Girl and I have started a little tradition where we take off somewhere together for Father's Day. Of course, Mrs. Roadside raises no objection to getting the day off, so it's a win-win all around. We live around the corner from an active and beautiful train station on the region's far-flung commuter line, so I like to take my kid somewhere by train. This year, I chose the destination of Collingswood, New Jersey.
To reach there from our house, we took the Broad Street Line to Walnut station, walked underground over to the PATCO stop and rode the line, emerges from its tunnel astride the arcing span of the Ben Franklin Bridge and gives riders a stunning panoramic view of the city before it dives under Camden. Total cost of the trip: $7.25, which would have cost even more if we drove thanks to the bridge tolls and gas.
For those who don't know, the media frequently cites Collingwood as an up-and-coming town and a Southern New Jersey gem. Its active traditonal downtown, its stop on PATCO's high-speed rail line, and proximity to Philadelphia attractions and commerce make it a magnet for anyone seeking escape from the whole big-box, chain retail madness. Collingswood does make for a near-textbook-case of a boutique town, but it does still have a few home-grown and useful stores on its main street. Besides the hardware store, it also has a classic "superette," the National Food Market, and a produce store join the retail mix mostly dominated by bistro-type restaurants, coffee shops, and dressmakers. In the heart of it all sits the Pop Shop.
Owned by Connie and Stink Fisher, the Pop Shop makes a earnest attempt to recreate the classic soda shop atmosphere complete with a six page ice cream and dessert menu, counter area, and a concerted effort to target the young ones. The Shop's website has all the details about their offerings, and to us, the Fisher's have struck exactly the right chord for competing on a main street only a few miles away from the Cherry Hill retail megalopolis. Open long hours and catering to kids of all ages, the Pop Shop might not win any awards from the James Beard Foundation, but they serve up what families want when dining out together. Good, basic comfort food, reasonable prices, snappy service, and a boisterous, active room that will make the kids feel completely at home.
The Pop Shop does not make their own ice cream, but instead serves ice cream made by Bassetts of Philadelphia. If you can't make your own, then at least choose the best in your region, and around here, there's none better than Bassetts.
Overall, Roadside Girl and I had a fine Father's Day, one that I can only hope she'll remember after we endure the torture of her teenage years.
World's Largest Catsup Bottle celebrates 60th birthday with a new paint job!
Work begins today to repaint the World's Largest Catsup Bottle in Collinsville, Illinois. The world-famous Brooks catsup bottle water tower last received a fresh coat of paint 14 years ago. A nation-wide "Paint It" campaign by the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group raised the necessary funds to save the landmark from possible demolition and have it restored it to its original appearance. Judy DeMoisy, known as the Catsup Bottle Lady, created the preservation group in 1993, and has again coordinated the effort to get the job done. "We've been working behind the scenes for a while now," she said. "All the pieces came together late last week and it's time to get it done." One of the pieces is painter Rod Reinneck. His company, Diversified Coatings of O'Fallon, Illinois, handled the restoration of the catsup bottle in 1995. He has been contracted to do it again.
"This is an exciting, once in a lifetime opportunity," Reinneck said. "And we get to do it twice."
Unlike with the previous restoration, this time there is no need for a massive volunteer fundraising effort.
"The catsup bottle is actually owned by Bethel-Eckert Enterprises, not the city as a lot of people think," DeMoisy said. "Thanks to the generosity of Bethel-Eckert, the project is under way. We can't thank them enough for taking care of this." Public Relations Director, Mike Gassmann, the Big Tomato, reminds everyone to follow the project online. "Our web site is www.catsupbottle.com," Gassmann said. "We have a complete archive of the history, all the festivals, the media appearances, everything ever having to do with the catsup bottle." Photos and reports will be posted to the blog so fans around the world can follow the progress.
RoadsideOnline announces its new Riding Shotgun section, coming soon to this site.
The deal is pretty simple: You publish your roadside-related experiences and/or observations at our site and keep 100% of any ad revenue your pages generate.
Yes, you could just do the same thing with your very own blog using Wordpress or Blogger or whatever, but unless you already have a large readership and have taken the time to set up and maintain your Google Adsense account, you're not likely to earn much if anything from your efforts. Google Adsense only disburses fees one month after you generate a minimum $100 in revenue.
By clustering with Roadside and other Shotgun bloggers, your words have the potential to reach a bigger audience and therefore bring in more ad revenue at a faster rate. Plus, you have the added benefit of an association with a website that has a reputation for quality, integrity, and honesty. We will publicize your efforts on the site, on the Napkin Notes e-Newsletter, and to other media.
You also retain all rights to your work and grant us indefinite permission to use on RoadsideOnline. If you have your own domain name, we'll even help you point it directly to your section.
Roadside provides you with everything that any online blogging site might -- a personal login, a powerful text editor, and the ability to upload your images. We have deployed the Joomla content management system to support and present RoadsideOnline, which allows us to build in new features and capabilities without the need for custom code development.Joomla is a safe, secure, and widely distributed CMS that allows us to open up RoadsideOnline to the community in ways we never could before. We host our site with Pair Networks (pair.com), the provider used by the Obama campaign, which gives you some idea of Pair's reliability.
We take "the more the merrier" approach, and it allows us the opportunity to include a divergent group of voices under the Roadside banner, a goal of ours since its founding in 1990. If you think you have something to say that our readers want to read, get in touch and we'll see if we can't work together.
I haven't visted as many coffee shops as I have diners, but I've seen my share. In modern society, it seems that the local coffee shop has all-but-replaced the neighborhood diner as the focal point of the community. While I hardly lament this development, the lack of great little diners run by rough-hewn characters with hearts of gold that serve rib-sticking comfort food does mean we live in a diminished culture.
That said, the very existence of the coffee shop concept continues to provide individual entrepreneurs with an opportunity to stake a claim in the local marketplace and if done right, can make a community not only worth inhabiting, but visiting as well. A good café may never become a destination attraction, but its existence in a commercial district provides a touchstone for all who live and work in the surrounding area.
Here, then, are a few Roadside-Approved criteria for what constitutes -- in our humble opinion -- a superlative coffee shop:
Barbara Lind wishes we'd write her book, and we probably should. Unfortunately, few might actually believe the tale.
After an all-too-lengthy period of rebuilding and refurbishing the diner, its attached kitchen, and small dining area, Barbara opened the new Tin Man Diner in May, 2008, generating a grateful response from fans new and old happy to have her back at the grill. And indeed, Barbara's picked up pretty much where she left off nine years ago with the same big portions served with pride, albeit in a smaller and even older setting.
Every stop at the Super Duper Weenie reveals yet another pleasant surprise. Gary Zemola, the man behind the magic, loves to tinker in the kitchen, and his efforts have give us some amazing treats.
World's Largest Catsup Bottle celebrates 60th birthday with a new paint job! 
I haven't visted as many coffee shops as I have diners, but I've seen my share. In modern society, it seems that the local coffee shop has all-but-replaced the neighborhood diner as the focal point of the community. While I hardly lament this development, the lack of great little diners run by rough-hewn characters with hearts of gold that serve rib-sticking comfort food does mean we live in a diminished culture.
