Gone But NOT Forgotten

Restaurants accessible from the waters of Lake Wawasee

I thought it would be interesting to take a nostalgic tour around Wawasee to find old Lakeside Restaurants accessible by water. Little did I realize how many there were through the years!

The B&O Railroad was completed through Syracuse in 1873-74. Through the summer months, Sunday excursions were run to the northern shore of Lake Wawasee where passengers could take steamboats making stops at Jones’ Landing and the Wawasee Inn on the north shore, at the log cabin springhouse of Mother Jarrett on Buttermilk Point on the far east shore to get a cup of buttermilk, at the Vawter Park Hotel and Lake View Hotel along the south shore, possibly at Conkling Hill hotel (now Oakwood Park) on the west shore, returning to Eppert’s Landing, which was near the old Pickwick railway station.  All of these establishments would have had food available to some extent.

As time went on and cottages were built, vacationers who arrived on the train, were able to travel by launch to a rented cottage. Food staples were brought from home; fish were traded with the farmers for perishables like eggs, milk, etc. Arrangements were made to be picked up in a week or so.

In 1917, there were ten hotels and three hundred and ten cottages around Lake Wawasee.  The rates at the hotels vary according to the accommodations ranging between $2 and $3 per day. New hotels serving delicious food had been built: the Sargent’s Hotel on the north shore (whose structure continued to grow over the years until it was torn down in the late 1950s) and the Brunjes Park Hotel which later became the Tavern Hotel on the western shoreline and burned in the middle 1950s.

 A wide range of cottages were being built 100 years ago.  The one on the left still stands on the north shore; the other cottage belonged to Evelyn Smith on the end of Ogden Island.  At that time you would have paid $15 to $30 per week to rent.  Many of the cottages were occupied by the owners during the summer months.  It became customary for the family to drive to a cottage on the lake for an extended period of time.  Dad would drive the car back to the city to work and come up on the weekends.  This would leave Mom and the kids without “wheels.”  At the time, home milk delivery was available, and at least 3 Syracuse grocers delivered around the lakes.  Also, every few miles around the lake there was a small grocery /restaurant to fill their needs.

Anglers Cove on Ogden Island was built by Claude Mason as a grocery.  Run by Rick Strieby as Strieby’s Grocery, it included a sandwich shop selling bottled beer.  Mary & Bob Fisher bought Strieby’s Grocery (kept name) and ran it from about the Spring of 1947 to 1951.  The “mini mart” & a gas pump were accessible by a channel off Johnson’s Bay.  Strieby’s Grocery was later turned into a tavern, Angler’s Cove, by Billie Emerson and her husband.  Going through a few more owners, by the late ‘60s the bar and restaurant, seating about 40, served good food, especially hamburgers.  The Cove Inn, owned by Carl & Dorothy Hunziker, closed its doors for the last time in November, 1977, and the new owners had it torn down around May, 1978 to make room for tennis courts.

The Guide

The Guide was on the NW corner of Crow Road and E. Wawasee Dr. (near Enchanted Hills)- not really accessible by water, but I couldn’t resist including it.  I found it listed at least as early as 1935.  In 1940, The Guide, on East Wawasee Drive near Waveland Beach, was owned by George and Bessie Curry; picture courtesy of Lana Melton. The Guide made memorable hamburgers & spaghetti.    By 1978, it was named The Pollywog, but when it sold, the new owners restored the name to The Guide II.

Ruple’s Grocery and Restaurant was located just after the S curve on Waveland Beach.  Mr. and Mrs. “Mort” Ruple remodeled their store in 1937. It may have later been called The Overlook owned by the Lawley family. The Harbor House Restaurant which even later may have been here was destroyed by fire in Sept., 1955.

During the summers from 1950 – 1960, Betty and Peter Maria LaCava, a Mishawaka lawyer, operated Casa Maria restaurant located on the channel just before the bridge to Morrison Island. Their son, Pete, recalled driving to Chicago’s “South Water Market’ area to pick up Letza’s Spumoni and canolies for his father.  They packed them in dry ice and “I’d drive like “H” to get home before they melted.”  Pete went on to own a restaurant in Mishawaka.

Bushy Rollert’s Snackery was in the lakeside area at the T past the fish hatchery.  Bushy’s was famous for Key Lime pie.  Later it was renovated to become the Wawasee Plaza Restaurant (open year around), and the Wawasee Plaza Marina & Motel was built. When our girls were little in the about the 1980s, we used to take the boat to get ice cream at the Three Flags at Southeast Bay Marina.  The building came down in 2007-08 in preparation to build Sunset Condos.

Built in 1938 by Forrest “Frosty” and Ruby Galloway, Galloway’s Grocery, to the east of the fish hatchery, had a gas pump, lunch counter, and bait store.  Later, their daughter, Mary, her husband, Bill Hare and their son Kent, operated the store.  Although property ownership never left the family, the building successively housed Waterson’s Grocery, Baywatch Restaurant, Oarhouse Sports Bar, and Porthole Bar and Grill which burned in March 2000.

In the late 1910s, it seems Mr. Johnson took over the Buttermilk Point name and the old log cabin spring-house.  Over the years, he erected new buildings & unrecognizably remodeled the old home at the top of the hill. Near the shore at the landing pier, he built a large, well-lighted building in which will be dispensed candies, cigars, soft drinks and lunch.  Leading up the hill was a concrete stairway.  Chicken dinners were served in a cozy dining room adjoining the house and overlooking the lake.  The property sold in 1969, and 2 phases of Bay Point Condominiums were built.  The hotel remained in operation for a couple more years until the contents were auctioned in 1971, and the building was torn down to allow for the remaining condominium to be built.  Foo & Faye Wong started in business in the 1940s across from Johnson’s Hotel.  The Hickory Pit was there later.

Morrison’s Chicken Dinners was located in what later became the Bolles cottage at what I would call the top of Highland View Gardens.  Thank goodness this late 1800s cottage was featured in our very first Centennial Homes program because it was torn down Fall, 2024.  It may have been in business from the 1920s to the early 1930s.  The cook, Anna Morrison, is said to have rowed a boat across the lake to get to work.

In our first Centennial Homes presentation this summer, Irv Deister said his family had Sunday chicken dinners in the Mellinger home in Vawter Park.  Chicken dinners were quite popular in the lake area.

(The locations of the next eight slides have Lake Wawasee in front and old State Road 13 running along the back.)

South Shore Inn was built by John Boyts in 1919 replacing the 2nd Vawter Park Hotel which had burned in 1918.  The popular hotel with a bar in the basement and elegant dining room overlooking the lake continued in seasonal business until the fall of 1964 when it burned to the ground.  The South Shore Condos occupy the site and are built in a style that I think is a tribute to the hotel.

Frank Rudy’s Deptartment Store in Vawter Park became Louie Solt’s Grocery in 1911 across the road from South Shore Inn.  After extending the building, Louie’s Grill was opened in 1935, specializing in fried chicken.  Johnny Sheire married Cecelia “Ceil” Solt, and they operated Louie’s Grill and Solt’s Grocery for around 25 years.  There was a pier on the lake.

In 1921, Jake Krieg of Wabash, IN, conceived the idea of Ideal Beach on the south shore of Lake Wawasee, using three lake lots as an amusement area.  Krieg built a 60-foot tall, wooden toboggan slide.  My parents were the last to run the Sandwich Shop for a couple years after WWII ended.  They tore down the slide, and the little garage still known as the “Sandwich Shop” was the only surviving structure until it was torn down in 2014 to make more parking.

Beginning c. 1920, Al & Effie Emerson ran Emerson’s Grocery and Sandwich Shop on old State Road 13 – now Waco Dr.  According to a summer, 1938 newspaper ad, “A full line of groceries, fruits, vegetables, and cold meats are carried in stock.  Besides serving delicious sandwiches in the sandwich shop, soft drinks, homemade pies, and ice cream are served.”  Later Elmer Bellman ran a grocery and bar there.

Waco Dance Pavilion was on the Big Band Circuit from about 1933 – 1950. When the big bands appeared, the crowds were so large that dancing was impossible.  In those cases, people simply stood, listened and watched the musicians.  Liquor was not served, but mixers were.  The drink counter inside the Waco Dancing Pavilion is shown in this 1949 Garry Ringler photo.  Left to right are Tom Prickett, Virginia Lawley, Chris Panagos, and Louie Byland.  Next door, Mock’s Marina had candy and pop.

The Waco Dance Pavilion was torn down late 1957. Carl and Herb Queisser of Indianapolis and the lake then built Q’s Waco drive-in. In late 1976, the property was sold to Wawasee Development Corperation, which bought it with the intention of building condominiums, but it was divided into four lots on which houses were built.

We keep looking for information on the Lakeside Grocery that we believe stood about the middle of the Yacht Club Bay.

Huston Winters’ Sandwich – Shoppe was in a small guest house that still stands between the Sleepy Owl and Waco.  The Waco house band members would enjoy burgers after an evening’s work.  Huston, who always wore a white shirt and a watch on a chain, was quite a character.  He fried hamburgers in an iron skillet on a kerosene stove and put it on a stale bun.  Then he would put it in a press like a smooth waffle iron so it ended up pretty thin, but it tasted good.  My Uncle Jim would say, “Run it through the wringer, Whit.”

From the humble beginnings of pushing a cart among the ice fishing colony on Conklin Bay selling ice fishermen coffee and sandwiches, Charley Dalke went on to open the Sleepy Owl and later build The Frog Tavern in 1937.  Now we’ll travel the Kale Island road.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, the A & W Root Beer Stand in the Channel was owned by Jack and Florence Pennington. There were a few stools inside, maybe some booths, but the big draw for youngsters was the case of penny candy.  Car hops, always in skirts, delivered the usual “drive in fare” to boats and cars.  Later this property was the home of the Shrimpboat, the Waterfront, the Mariner, and in 1995, the present Channel Marker restaurant opened.

King’s Grocery on Kale Island was converted into the Beacon restaurant by Mary Evans.  In the 1950s – 1960s, owners Mary and John Kimble had a pier on Wawasee so diners could come by boat – an actual beacon used to sit atop the restaurant.   Don & Janet Hays owned the Beacon from 1976 through 1990.  Open for lunch and dinner, they offered pan-fried chicken every Sunday and prime rib on Friday & Saturday.

Along the north shore, I haven’t run across any small groceries/restaurants.  However, meals were probably available to members at the Cedar Beach Clubhouse.  I don’t know for certain about the Wawasee Inn, but the Spink Hotel was American Plan – meals were included in the price of the room.

I hope you’ve had as much fun as I’ve had learning about the many eating establishments around the lake that are “Gone but NOT Forgotten.”  Remember them when you visit the Channel Marker, the Frog and Oakwood by boat; maybe you could even park at the Syracuse municipal pier and walk uptown to eat!

Script written by Ann Vanderford Garceau for the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum’s August, 2020 Centennial presentation based on historical research.  It is not to be used without permission from the museum.