Gobble gobble, circa 1948

More from the way-back machine: Sacramento, 1948.

If you made dinner at home, perhaps you would have picked up a turkey from American Poultry Company and some rolls from Muzio Bakery. If you forgot to pick up some candy or adult beverages, no worries -- Tower Drug is open *and* they deliver!

Perhaps you'll be heading over to Hughes Stadium for the City Championship Football Game between the C.K. McClatchy High Lions and the Sacramento High Dragons. (Spoiler alert -- the Lions won that year!)

Feeling like dining out? You have lots of choices around town. The menu at Rosemount Grill and Cocktail Lounge includes whole Pacific baby lobster. How about some roast domestic duckling at Hotel Sacramento? Baked Virginia Ham at the Hotel El Rancho as you enjoy music for dancing by Ernie Hecksher and His Orchestra? Not interested in the usual Thanksgiving fare? Boitano's has the usual stuff plus spaghetti raviolis. Don't know what time to bring your brood over for Thanksgiving Dinner? Bring 'em any time between 12 noon and 12:30 A.M. to Frasinetti's!

And -- don't forget to head to Downtown Sacramento to do your shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

Which reminds me -- be at the corner of 10th & K at noon tomorrow for the unveiling of a window display just like they used to do at Breuner's. Here's an old ad from 1948:

Thanksgiving in Sacramento, 1949

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so I bid all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and leave you with a little piece of Thanksgiving in Sacramento, 1949. Let's take a trip in the way-back machine! "Places to take the family for Thanksgiving dinner":

From my microfilm research: Sacramento Bee, November 23, 1949, page 18

Many familiar players here: The Chuck Wagon, Robert's Fish Grotto, Frank Fat's (the original location near the Capitol -- still in biz -- respect! Redo by Sacramento MCM architect Sooky Lee, I must add).

But sadly, no Zombie Hut :( Bummer! 'Cause that menu looks mighty tasty.

However you choose to celebrate the holiday, have a wonderful one! Aloha!

Serving Suggestion: former restaurant needs TLC

Link to still photos above

Just half a mile up the street from our Eichler Homes neighborhood sits an old shell of a restaurant, Neptune's Table -- once a well known, old-school surf-and-turf in the 1960's to 80's. In its heyday, Hank and Tim Stroh ran this traditional white cloth establishment. Lobster dishes and Cornish hens were specialties.

It is hard to imagine (in its current state) that for 19 years it was also the home of the Raider Rooters Booster Club and visited frequently by Raiders team members for a weekly feast. Per R.E. Graswich, in a Sacramento Bee article dated May 1, 1998, "They toasted victory and vowed revenge, laughed and filled their bellies with beer and booze and chicken and baked potatoes and green beans and French bread."

Also per Graswich's article, restauranteur Hank Stroh owned many other Sacramento bars and restaurants: "Clunie Coffee Shop, Parkview Restaurant, Little Roma, Henry's Bottle Shop and Lounge, the Windsor, the Arcade, and others.... Among Stroh's armada of food halls and watering holes, Neptune's Table was his crown jewel. He bought it in 1967..."

According to my research, the building was designed by William Koblik and built ~1960. It was first occupied by The Red Rose, a cocktail lounge (with burlesque, per Patty Russell, a former dancer.) The Sacramento City Directory from 1962/63 then states the restaurant was home to "Raeders Gourmet Restaurant," later corrected to "Roeder's" in the 1965 Directory. In 1966, it was listed as "Vacant" and then it became Neptune's Table in 1967.

In the late 90's, Neptune's Table was simply "Neptune" under local chef David Soohoo.  Afterwards, for a short period of time it became the Highlander, a Scottish pub/restaurant. However, since 2004 it has been unoccupied. I would love to see this space turned into a coffee shop/diner such as Pann's in LA (the coffee shop in Pulp Fiction) more on their food here; Latif's in Turlock; or Jimmy's in San Jose. Or how about a tiki bar/lounge/restaurant like they had in-the-day here in town, such as the Zombie Hut or Coral Reef?

I'd love to hear any memories of this restaurant or other constructive ideas on how to bring this building back to life. Any local restauranteur or investor willing to step up to the plate -- literally?

More Googie goodness: Eppie's Restaurant

Eppie's Restaurant, Sacramento, CA

This Eppie's Restaurant was designed by world-famous Googie architects Louis Armet and Eldon Davis from Los Angeles. It was completed in 1964. Apparently, per Mr. Armet's self-report to the American Institute of Architects for their directory, Armet & Davis received an award for this building.

Louis L. Armet (1914-1981) & Eldon C. Davis via GoogieArt.com

Per the current website for Armet Davis Newlove Architects "In the 50's and 60's the firm became internationally known for its "Googie" design style and built hundreds of restaurants that reflected the nation's emergence into the age of flight and its look to the future."

Rendering of Eppie's by Armet and Davis via GoogieArt.com

Per a Sacramento Bee article written by Jon Ortiz dated April 28, 2004, "The chain started in 1964, when founder Eppamianondas "Eppie" Johnson opened the first 24-hour restaurant at 30th and N streets. At its zenith, it boasted 20 shops stretching as far south as Fresno."

Sadly, this coffee shop/diner has been closed since 2004. However, restauranteur Eppie Johnson is still working hard. Mr. Johnson founded The Great Race in 1974, reportedly "The World's Oldest Triathlon", which generates "over $600,000 in donations for regional programs that benefit the physically and mentally disabled" per their website. More here.

Other posts in this blog regarding Sacramento's Googie architecture can be seen here, here, here and here.

Hope your weekend is filled to the brim with fun!

Blast from the past -- Zombie Hut!

I am transfixed with all things tiki, so of course am very sad I never got to visit the Zombie Hut, which used to be so close to our neighborhood at 5635 Freeport Boulevard (before it was bulldozed and replaced with a strip mall.) I imagine this must have been quite the happenin' exotic spot.


Some great sleuthing has been done by Amadscientist, who has written a Wikipedia entry regarding the Zombie Hut's history and includes images from their business card.


The Zombie Hut lives on as a reincarnation in Brooklyn, NY per several Sacramento Bee articles written by R.E. Graswich:

August 14, 2002: "The Next Big Thing in New York might be straight from Sacramento. We are talking about the Zombie Hut, a long-gone bar on Freeport Boulevard that featured bartenders in Hawaiian shirts, plastic tiki idols, pink umbrella drinks and Ed Leeteg's sexy velvet portraits of Polynesian maidens. This week, amid much fanfare, the Zombie Hut reopens - 3,000 miles away on Smith Street in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I was born and raised in Sacramento and worked as a busboy at the original Zombie Hut," said Tod Bullen. "I decided the time was right to bring it back." Since moving to New York, Tod has become a mini-tycoon in the Brooklyn restaurant scene, having partial ownership in several establishments. The new Zombie Hut, which opens Friday, is in Carroll Gardens, a gentrified Italian neighborhood known for its mob connections (Al Capone was married there). If the Zombie Hut is a hit, it's only a matter of time before some smart operator brings the concept back to Sacramento."

A post on Tiki Central from Psycho Tiki D lists this enchanting painting, "Native Dancer" original oil on silk, by Burke Tyree, 1964, as having been hung on the wall at the Zombie Hut.


A really great and in-depth history, as well as other excellent examples of Burke Tyree's velvet paintings can be seen on Minnie's Restaurant & Bar's website.

Another painter, Ed Leeteg, reportedly had several paintings at the Zombie Hut. Per another Sacramento Bee article from August 25, 1999:

"The former Sacramento sign painter, whose velvet tropical maidens are craved by collectors in Los Angeles and Honolulu, has re-exploded onto the Sacramento scene. Leeteg died in 1953, but a mention of his name right here stirred readers who recalled him hanging around the old Zombie Hut on Freeport. "He had four or five pictures there. He would sell them for a bottle of rum..."

A great article regarding Ed Leeteg is posted on Barracuda Magazine's website.

Mary Z. Johnson was a waitress at many local restaurants including the Zombie Hut. Per her May 7, 2008 obituary in the Sacramento Bee, she had quite a following according to her sister, Josephine Bodda:

"Funny and charming, she loved meeting people from all walks of life. She teased politicians at Dick and Eddie's downtown, joked with fishermen and tourists at the Crow's Nest in Isleton and dished with gay men who gave her pet names and insisted on sitting at her station in the Zombie Hut.

"She had a big gay following," said Bodda, who managed the Polynesian-themed restaurant on Freeport Boulevard. "All her tables would be full, but they would say, 'We'll wait for Mitzie.' Sometimes they would leave her a hundred-dollar tip."

Does anyone have any fun stories, pictures, artifacts or mementos from the original Zombie Hut to share?

Napkin via mcclatchy1958.com
Matchbook cover via Psycho Tiki D, Tiki Central Forum post.