Anyone remember the Blue Light, East Campus, Toddle House, Maola's, or that place where you read comics with your pizza? Just curious?
dang it's an oldies thread and BAT's is in it! it closed after my freshmen year but i went twice. what a joint.
I was a frequent customer at Bat's for Anna's veal parmagiana, ice-cold PBRs, and comic books--and often enjoyed talking sports with Bat when he wasn't serenading the house or on the phone with his bookie; I ran into Bat and Anna and their daughter at La Guardia several years after I graduated, and was amazed at how well they remembered individual students in our circle of friends. Mayola's was a small, traditional NC restaurant around the corner from Bat's, and was about the only place within walking distance from East Campus for a freshman to take a date for a regular sit-down dinner on special occasions like Homecoming or Joe College Weekend. (For more informal dates, especially with girls from up north, the Ivy Room a block closer to East Campus was a decent option, though what they charged for "imported beer" and tried to pass off as a corned beef sandwich was criminal.) The Toddle House was across the street from Mayola's, and was the post-midnight destination of choice--actually there was no other post-midnight choice, unless you had a car and could navigate to Honey's without getting arrested--for hungry drunks; after 2 a.m., it was like walking into a Fellini film, populated by a motley assortment of jocks, Greeks, hippies, rednecks, bums, and characters from the local underworld. Good times...
Mayola's was the frat hangout. Closed circa 1970, replaced by University Grill.
Bat...ah yes, thanks for reminding me. What a wonderful guy. Always friendly to us "boys." I remember the comics were stained with sauce and sometimes bearly readable! Many an hour there... and the other places too...especially late at night. And you could actually drive to the "Hill" without hitting a single stoplight! Kinda nice drive, as I recall. Not so now though. I used to play in a rock band with some "Heels" on weekends and drove it quite a lot.
What about the black "shoe polish" he used to dye his hair with! My fraternity had him come and do a routine sans guitar with "special" lyrics to popular songs. I think Sonny Jorgenson still had the record for slices eaten. What about the hot dog place Amos and Andy's-4 to 6 all-the-way could cure anything, sitting on the wooden Coke boxes in the back!
Originally, Bat's was in a big old house behind East Campus. I think that that was the first Pizza in Durham. It was certainly the first I ever had. I was about 12 so that would make it around 1956. You read comic books in their living room until your pizza was ready and then moved into the dining room to eat.
Well thanks alot. Now I find out I'm old. Merry Christmas to you, too. Bats was our favaorite place, it had that charm you will never find at an "Olive Garden" The people and the pizza were real, not plastic.
Well, the Tod was OK, but if you had a car, the 'best' post-date night eatery was Foy's Grill on Chapel Hill St., just before Duke University Drive splits off. I think it is now a union hall.
I put 'best' in quotes, because it was the funkiest place around. It never had anything better than a B health rating. Old man Foy would work the eggs smoking a cigarette with a long ash. I once saw him drop the ash in someone's scrambled eggs and keep on stirring. Mrs. Foy wasn't much better. Still, the late night breakfast stuff was great. There was no place else where you could get brains and eggs. They did eggs (any way you wanted), bacon, sausage and ham just right. Everything came with fries and toast. It was the greasiest of greasy spoons and I ate there about 3 times a week my senior year after the women's dorms closed on East. I don't think they sold anything beyond the fries that would qualify as a fruit or a veg.
Mayola's was on Gregson. Anotherthyme took over the old Mayola's location, not University Grill. The UG was on Main St. Spent many hours at the UG. Got to know George, the owner and his dad Mr. Jimmy, pretty well... George was a groomsman in my wedding. The UG is something else now, too. Sawyer and Moore was also on Main St. not far from the UG.. a great store which carried all sorts of things.
Do you remember Tops? It was a hamburger joint on the corner near East. Maybe you got your shirts done at the Jack Rabbit. How about the Donut Dinette near East... very small place, but fabulous donuts.
Does anyone remember the pizza place off East where the owner was wheelchair-bound? It's the only za place where the cheese was so hot, it blistered the roof of my mouth on every first bite.
Frankie Valli was a next-door neighbor of Bat's in Jersey. They knew each other for many, many years.
Bat (Benny Malanga) moved to Durham in the early 50's. He had been a brick mason in New Jersey. He plied that trade when he first came to Durham. His daughter, Angie, had an "incurable" disease. The Doctors at Duke Hospital cured her. She grew up and bore Bat a granddaughter who was the apple of his eye.
Bat loved Duke and Duke students. He hired them, fed them and entertained them. Many times a Dukie would be fed for no charge when he or she was short of cash. Bat had a heart of gold. When Duke closed down for the Winter break, he and Anna would drive down to Florida. Bat loved the track and would come back refreshed and lighter in the wallet.
Pizza Palace of Durham was on Chapel Hill Street, just down (west) from Amos 'n Andy's. About a block and a half east was The Palms - where Parris intersected Chapel Hill St. A little further east was the movie theater that was torn down and became Home Savings & Loan.
How about the Criterion Theater? Remember that? Showed the skin flicks.