For some reason as I was driving to JoAnn to help my wedding dress friend attempt to exchange one of the fabrics for her dress (a great story for another time), I couldn’t help thinking about Marchocolate.
In the town I grew up in, we had a legendary restaurant called Kewpie. Their logo and mascot was a Kewpie doll and they had the best hamburgers in town. “Hamburg pickle on top makes your heart go flippity flop.” (What that really is referring to is the heart attack you get because of all the grease, but that’s why we LOVED it, gimme grease!!) It was THE local hangout hamburger place, and I have so many memories of Kewpies. When my brother and I would be with one set of grandparents, Grandpa would regularly go out and come home with a bag full of Kewpies for dinner. We’d attack the bag like animals looking for our “special.” I remember regularly going to Kewpie with my other set of grandparents as well. In fact, that Grandpa loved Kewpie so much that at his funeral, his long-time neighbor put a couple coupons in Grandpa’s pocket, you know, in case he needs them in Heaven…or something.
The local urban legend is that Dave Thomas copied Kewpie when he started Wendy’s. I can see how that conspiracy would start, what with the square hamburgers and the frozen chocolate malts. I have no idea as to whether or not its true, but given the many, many bizarre conspiracies the locals have concocted over the years about my hometown, I really doubt it. (If the Russians would have bombed us during the Cold War, our little no-name town was in the top five places they’d hit!)
During February and March, Kewpie ran specials on pies. Maybe it was to drum up post holiday business or maybe just to help with the doldrum of winter, but to this day it’s Februcherry (obviously, cherry pie) and Marchocolate (chocolate silk pie). I have no idea what brought this memory up, but oh how I wanted a piece of chocolate silk pie. In fact, I dug through my pantry to see if I had any chocolate pudding to make a pie, but alas there was none. So instead, I reminisce about a childhood hamburger joint that holds so many family memories of loved ones long-gone. At least I still have the loving, greasy memories.
Oh the memories of childhood days gone by. I remember a lot about the Kewpee and so does your Dad. Especially the turntable. The downtown store was the original and still, as far as I know, serve their malts in tall glasses. At that particular store they were boxed in by buildings so they had a very small parking lot so they had a turntable at the back of the lot to turn your car around so you could go out the way you came in. They got rid of it when they torn down some of the surrounding buildings. There was also a man that originally owned the store and your Great Grandpa called him “Stub” Wilson. Probably because he always had a stub of a cigar when you seen him. Now your Aunts, who faithful read this blog, could probably give you a lot of stories about this man and his character cause they knew about him longer than I. Everyone always looked for him when they made a trip to the Kewpee til he died.
I ate there last night!!! Yummo!