Gone But Not Forgotten: Greenwich Restaurants of Our Youth

There is a Face Book group called "You know you are from Greenwich if..." in which people from Greenwich of a certain age wax nostalgic about times gone by in town. Most recently the discussion has centered around long gone local eateries. 

Not surprisingly, many of the places remembered tend to have been teen hangouts in the '60s and '70s or family places from the '50s or '60s. 

The undercurrent of this sort of nostalgia is that things were better in the good old days. I do not think that is true with respect to restaurants. The quality and diversity of local restaurants is much better than in the old days when we were considered much more of a bedroom community for commuters.

Ah, but there was something about those old places that still resonates. 

The Clam Box was a traditional New England fried clam shack which over the years morphed into a huge place that dominated Cos Cob (where a Citibank/condo complex is today). Friday nights at our house frequently featured the "Belly Burster" fried clambake. 

Nielson's (top of the Avenue), Nielson's East (Balducci's) and Nielson's West (parking lot across from the "new" Greenwich Library) were local versions of Howard Johnson's, the places to take your family or date for ice cream, burgers and other traditional American fare. 

Manero's (across from was the Delamar) was the quintisential family steak restaurant, with great meat and cheese salads and singing waiters (if it was your birthday). More sophisticated carnivores favored Lou Singer's (Greenwich Tavern) or Joe's C'est Bon (Gabrielle's).

McDonald's introduced Greenwich to fast food, but there were plenty of places along the Post Road for burgers, fries and shakes, including (west to east) the Hubba Hubba, the Oasis, Dirty Lou's, the Cos Cobber, the Dairy Queen and Wetson's, to name a few.

I have special memories of the DQ, where I had my first summer job, and Vinny's Pizzaria, in Riverside, my second summer job. Those were the days...