JANUARY 6, 1988
Grandma puts a little too much salt in her soup, but otherwise it’s very good. The beef is plentiful and tender. The vegetables are cut in chunks just the way I like them.
I learned about her vegetable-beef soup when we stopped into Gramma Butterwicks Family Restaurant on South Washington Street on Saturday. When it was first built in 1960s, the restaurant was known as Sambo’s. Then it became Seasons. Up until a week or so ago, the place was known as the Crestwood Restaurant. All of a sudden, it sprouted a new sign. “Gramma Butterwicks.” It made me curious.
What I found was the same restaurant with a new image and a very appealing menu. It makes you feel good all over when you come to the children’s part of the menu marked, “Grandchildren’s menu.” And then if you’re more than 60, you like the next page. It’s the seniors’ menu, “for Gramma’s friends 60 years and over.” She likes her senior friends so well, in fact, that “Gramma” offers them free apple pie with dinners served between 4 and 9 P.M. on Sundays.
Actually, there is no “Gramma Butterwick,” but it sounds very nice. Kevin Dorman, part-owner and manager, says it’s a way of marketing specialties on the family restaurant menu. Dorman is staking his hopes for the success of Gramma Butterwicks on such homey foods as pot pies and apple pie. He’s quick to admit that he relies on Charlie’s Bakery for his pastries and that there is no grandma in the kitchen.
We were well satisfied with our lunch stop there. With my soup ($1.45), I had the salad bar ($3.25) served with Texas toast. Constant Companion ordered a Philly steak sandwich. The sandwich ($3.99), is made of thin slices of beef with mushrooms, green peppers, onions and Swiss cheese served on a hoagie bun with a small bowl of au jus—or maybe just bouillon. Anyway, he liked it.