Eating After School In Westbury
Where did you eat after school on the way the home from school? Well if you start off from the Junior High School, (no sense talking about the walk home from the high school. You could starve to death on the way home from there,) there was the candy store across the street from the junior high. It was part house and part store. I even remember going there when I attended Post Avenue School.
After that you could stop at Maxie’s Deli in the little strip mall by the apartment houses on Post Avenue.
After Maxies, you had a choice depending on which side of the street you were on. You could go to Abbate’s for a sit down pizza or you could walk across the street and go to Ciccone’s Italian Deli for a hero.
How about Gabe’s luncheonette right next door to movies – it was always filled with seniors wearing green and gold Westbury jackets. It was a great place to grab a hamburger before or after seeing a movie next door at the Westbury Theater.
Do you remember Bauer’s Drug Store with the soda fountain? It was on the corner of Post Avenue and Drexel Avenue right in front of Sandy Russell’s father’s real estate office. You could buy an ice cream soda made the old fashion way. Across the street from Bauer’s was the Village Deli. When I worked there for a few weeks, I remember one of our underclass young ladies coming in and buying dill pickles.
If you walked a little further you were at the Post Avenue Diner, right next to Parillo’s shoe store. The diner was so well known as part of Westbury.
A diner/restaurant opened up in the middle of the block on Post Avenue between Winthrop and Schenck. It had good food, but wasn’t doing well. Eventually it blew up. I was a volunteer fireman at the time and spent the night fighting the fire. I have a photo from the Westbury Times, with Joe Sawcyn and other people from the school watching the fire being fought.
There was the bakery on the corner of Post Avenue and Schenck Avenue. Hard rolls on Sunday morning or apple turnovers and cheese Danish if you were really in the mood to treat yourself.
Across the street was Shirl’s. So many of you have mentioned Shirl’s in your remembrances of Westbury. However, did you know that at one time that was Windisch’s? There was also a Windisch’s in Lindenhurst when I walked a foot post there back in 1973. Mr. Windisch grew up in Germany with my grandfather.
If you made it as far as Post and Maple Avenues, you had some choices but most of them were out of our high school league. There was the Green Tree Restaurant on the corner. That’s one of the places my grandfather used to visit his bookie before he and I went to Roosevelt Raceway to see if the horse he bet on came in. There was also the Maple House just west of Post Avenue. There was Corky’s luncheonette across the street from the Green Tree. A little further south on Post Avenue and you came to the Candy Kitchen. It was owned by two grumpy old men. Eventually it was bought by John Butler, who eventually became Betty Brunning’s Father-in-law. It was a much nicer and friendlier place.
Then came the deli located on Post Avenue across the street from Wheatley Hills Tavern. Great hero sandwiches served there as well.
If you walked across the street there was the Wheatley Hills. It was a great place to go on a date after we graduated from high school and went to work, but was too expensive while still in high school, unless it was a very special occasion.
Does anyone remember the night club that was located in the next block? I can’t remember the name of the place, but many great musicians performed there. Now it is just a distant memory.
Then there was that all time special place – Frank’s Pizza. How many Friday and Saturday nights did you spend there after seeing a movie or going someplace else on a date?
Who can forget that Dominic’s Pizza was a block away. You were either loyal to Frank or Dominic, but you couldn’t be loyal to both.
Do you remember the big restaurant across the street from the railroad station – the Piping Rock Inn? I never ate there. I had the opportunity to go there one evening with my grandfather, but unfortunately I was too interested in girls to go out to dinner with him. It is a regret that I still have.
Well, we are almost done with our gastronomical trip down Post Avenue. There is one place left that I remember THE POST HOUSE. We didn’t attend while still in high school, at least not most of us. However, it became a place to meet on Thursday nights to meet friends from high school and listen to the Tremeloes and dance and drink the night away.
Westbury had a lot to offer us during our time there. Now many of the old places are replaced with new adventures in dining. However.