The roadhouse that went from serving South Africa’s first hamburgers to being demolished

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kirsten Minnaar
  • Start date Start date
Hemi300c said:
I remember as a kid, pilling into the car with my folks on a Sunday afternoon and going for an ice-cream or a milkshake.

Simple times in the 60's
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I'm also a 60's kid. Born 1963. We had the best times as kids growing up in those days. No cellphones and kak. Just outside getting dirty and doing crazy **** on our bicycles with mates until the sun goes down. And than home.
 
They made the best chips (note, not crrrisps) and a great toasted chicken mayo sandwich. Lived both sides of them, went to school next to them, used them from the 60's to their recent closure.
Born a year earlier.

My mom used to hang out at their place as a teenager.

Reason for closure was said to be the Nigerians who took over the flats and shops across the road, but the last owner looked tired and uninterested to me.

@wingnut771 - another trip down memory lane for you too I'm sure
 
Brian_G said:
They made the best chips (note, not crrrisps) and a great toasted chicken mayo sandwich. Lived both sides of them, went to school next to them, used them from the 60's to their recent closure.
Born a year earlier.

My mom used to hang out at their place as a teenager.

Reason for closure was said to be the Nigerians who took over the flats and shops across the road, but the last owner looked tired and uninterested to me.

@wingnut771 - another trip down memory lane for you too I'm sure
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Also double decker buses and Datsun Skyline cop cars with bull bars on the front.
 
I think I must've consumed a few tons of Dollhouse chips and toasted steaks...all somewhere between midnight and 2am
 
gogga_ said:
I'm also a 60's kid. Born 1963. We had the best times as kids growing up in those days. No cellphones and kak. Just outside getting dirty and doing crazy **** on our bicycles with mates until the sun goes down. And than home.
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Faaaaak you old.......................oh wait I'm also 1963.
 
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Pretty simple.
Roadhouses could sell cheapish food because they only needed a small space for the restaurant and people eat in their cars. These days people are not interested in eating in their cars. Its uncomfortable you have trays hanging on your window and you try to make space for plates and drinks in your car without making a mess.
Try eating a Dagwood in your car while using one hand to hold the plate and not make a mess.
So the last 30 odd years the surviving ones made space with tables inside to eat. They quickly realized that it all cost money and prices went up. Then they were just independent little restaurants that cant compete with the proper restaurants with food quality and they could not compete with the Burger Kings/KFC/ McDonalds on price for junk food.
 
Brian_G said:
Part of the fun.

These smartphone & him/it/they generations need to develop some spirit of life, go play outside :thumbsup:
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Used to love going to the Durban drive in and watch some movies in the 90s, then the place got decolonised and crime went up and people stopped going.
 
Brian_G said:
Part of the fun.

These smartphone & him/it/they generations need to develop some spirit of life, go play outside :thumbsup:
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BS We have taken our kids to a few of these remaining roadhouses. There is a big/nice one at Hartbeespoort dam also nice one in Margate.
first few times we decided to give them the vibe by eating in the car. They did not complain. Me and the wife decided when we went again to rather sit inside. Four people with plates and milkshakes inside a car is just uncomfortable.
Also you sit around a table and look at each other and talk etc. In the car you all look straight out the front window. At what? car in front of you or the roadhouse big menus?
Life has moved on.
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
BS We have taken our kids to a few of these remaining roadhouses. There is a big/nice one at Hartbeespoort dam also nice one in Margate.
first few times we decided to give them the vibe by eating in the car. They did not complain. Me and the wife decided when we went again to rather sit inside. Four people with plates and milkshakes inside a car is just uncomfortable.
Also you sit around a table and look at each other and talk etc. In the car you all look straight out the front window. At what? car in front of you or the roadhouse big menus?
Life has moved on.
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You don't know how to talk in a car? :unsure:

Anyway, each to his own boet :- )
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
Pretty simple.
Roadhouses could sell cheapish food because they only needed a small space for the restaurant and people eat in their cars. These days people are not interested in eating in their cars. Its uncomfortable you have trays hanging on your window and you try to make space for plates and drinks in your car without making a mess.
Try eating a Dagwood in your car while using one hand to hold the plate and not make a mess.
So the last 30 odd years the surviving ones made space with tables inside to eat. They quickly realized that it all cost money and prices went up. Then they were just independent little restaurants that cant compete with the proper restaurants with food quality and they could not compete with the Burger Kings/KFC/ McDonalds on price for junk food.
Click to expand...
Just yesterday, I noticed how many people drive around eating in their cars. Perhaps not interested in eating in a parked car, but driving and eating is popular.
 
there is still the fireplace roadhouse in the east rand, even today its still going, makes an awesome sunday lunch.

do remember the doll house dimly as this place next to Shul, but there was also a Falafel place we would go to across the road to it.

CPT from my understanding has Zero roadhouses now, or maybe I haven't been down here enough to find any.
 
I had a friend who worked at the Doll House many years ago. He told the owner he wanted to resign. The owner told him "Here you do not resign. You just hand in your cap and apron, and go."
 
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