re: How Many Of Y'all Eat At Cafeterias?

quote:

---

Piccadilly-

Chopped beef.
Mac n cheese
Broccoli rice.
Custard cup.

---

I think we were separated at birth. This was my meal exactly.

One of the hospitals I work at is extremely small and in a tiny town. It has a daily breakfast crowd and a Sunday lunch crowd. You have to make sure you get your lunch before the churches get out. Some of the best chicken tenders I've ever had

At Piccadilly:

Fried codfish
French fries or mac & cheese
Okra or carrot soufflé
Roll or Mexican cornbread

Or étouffée as a single dish.

That is usually what I got.

I remember that my Mother loved the broccoli salad, my Father loved the rotisserie chicken, my Grandfather loved the carrot & raisin salad, and everyone loved the bread pudding. When I was a kid I loved the jello cubes as well.

In college, we would eat at Piccadilly because it was affordable, solid, you could get vegetables, and it wasn't fast food. It was always a group of about 4-5 of us.

I remember they would frick you hard if you went outside the dilly system: entree, two sides, one bread, one drink was $5.55. If you went outside the system they would charge you individually for each item.

My friend Tom could never successfully navigate the system. He knew what he should do but it always went out the window because he would get excited and get an extra side, or he would get hush puppies not knowing they counted as a side, or he would get two breads, etc.

We would all sit down and eat and he'd be looking at his check..."Hey, how much was yours?"

"$5.55"
"$5.55"
"$5.55"

"shite, they fricked me again!"

"How much is your ticket?"

"$10.95!"

"We told you not to get that extra side."

"shite!"

Repeat on next visit lol. Good times.

I would hit the Piccadilly in Cortana regularly when I worked at sears in the 90's. We would get 30 minutes for lunch and that was a 2 minute walk so it was perfect.
The Dilly
Catfish, fries,coleslaw and tea for 4.75.
It was perfect for a poor college kid making $6 an hour.

A & G .....I think the Ganus family started it and remember eating there a few times when I would visit New Orleans as a kid. Decided to google them and found this:

"The first A & G Restaurant in New Orleans opened in 1932 at the intersection of Canal and N. Broad streets. The original restaurant was replaced in 1947 with a new glass and brick building in the streamline moderne style.This building was significantly remodeled by August Perez and Associates and reopened as the A & G Cafeteria on November 21, 1968. The cafeteria has since been razed and replaced by a Rite Aid Pharmacy."

Below is the picture.

LINK

I went to work for Piccadilly as a manager right out of college in the early-mid 90's for about 3 years(didn't really know what I wanted to with a business mgt. degree). I can tell you at that time damn near everything was homemade...from squeezing a case of lemons for the lemon icebox pie, to coring out a case of apples for the apple pie, to taking the leftover desserts at the end of the night to make "harvest" cake the next day...don't eat the harvest cake. Your leftover fish was mixed with canned salmon to make salmon patties...leftover roast beef or chopped beef patties made the stuffed bell peppers or dirty rice....leftover chicken was pulled to make chicken pot pie.

Food & labor cost was everything to the general mgr. & the associate mgr. as they got great bonuses. The guy at Cortana was making around 175K/yr around '93 or so(#1 store in the company at the time). The managers at Sherwood Forest, Essen Lane, Monroe & Jackson were all making around 120K at the time.

We worked our employees hard in the kitchen. Too easy to buy bought products now and can't get the labor to work like that. Eat there occasionally now and can tell they aren't making all their products from scratch anymore. The coconut meringue pie was my all-time favorite...now they use a bought custard and slap whip cream on top.

quote:

---

My friend Tom could never successfully navigate the system. He knew what he should do but it always went out the window because he would get excited and get an extra side, or he would get hush puppies not knowing they counted as a side, or he would get two breads, etc.

We would all sit down and eat and he'd be looking at his check..."Hey, how much was yours?"

"$5.55"
"$5.55"
"$5.55"

"shite, they fricked me again!"

"How much is your ticket?"

"$10.95!"

"We told you not to get that extra side."

"shite!"

Repeat on next visit lol. Good times.

---

That's really funny. Reminds me of the very first scene in "The Wire":

"If Tom always ordered outside the dilly, complained about the price, and you had to explain it to him, why'd you let him keep coming?"

"Got to man. This America".

At Piccadilly on Sherwood right now. It's legit. I had Neptune salad, stuffed bell pepper, carrot soufflé, and broccoli-cheese rice with a hot roll. Little son had the chopped steak w/ gravy, mashed taters, and mac n' cheese

I'm going to Picadilly this week. I want red beans and rice but the stuffed pepper looks promising.

The cafeteria at the new Woman's hospital is great. Looking forward to the arrival of another kid so I can stuff myself for a few days.

I remember going to Kmart as a kid in the 70s and early 80s and Kmart had a cafeteria in the back of the store. I use to get the spaghetti.

There's still a Golden Corral in B'ham that I've eaten at a couple times. It's actually pretty good.