When the wind direction was right, the distinct odor of Mr. G’s fried onion rings wafted up your nostrils from his roadside stand miles away. On the corner of Route 40 West and Johnnycake Road in Baltimore, MD this modest building served its share of the billions and billions. On hot summer nights a long line formed with families who had piled the kids into the car for an ice-cream cone, hot dog or a slice of pizza. As I recall there was no place to sit down inside but there were picnic tables outside.. A variety of old-fashioned red and green neon signs directed the traffic flow on the parking lot. For a while Mr. G, who obviously loved signage, put a marvelous foot long hot dog painting on the side of his restaurant. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to get an impression of it in the 1980's. Within the last five years I read with great sadness about a fire that destroyed part of the current version of Mr. G's. But since then apparently it has been rebuilt and continues to serve its hungry customers.
Mr. G's had root beer they served in frozen mugs that were wonderful. Also, they had a guy whose only job on Fri & Sat nites was to cook onions. There was a grille approx 4' x 4' and about 6 inches high and all he did was keep turning and turning until they were done. The steak & cheese subs with everything weighed about 10 pounds each.
ReplyDeleteWe hung out at the Varsity or Champs but ate at Mr. G's because the food was so good. The best steak subs and onion rings I ever had, even until this day. They also gave you about 8 inches of soft ice dream on a cone!
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