Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Flint Artifacts: Walli's Matchbook



Thanks to Leon Baker for this artifact.


6 comments:

  1. I remember Walli's. A true Flint institution! Right up there in my fond memories with Bill Knapp's ('A Snack or a Meal'). Thanks for the pic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, Walli's, remember them well. I was a cook and worked at all three Walli's.

    I remember when Walli's North (on Saginaw) still had the drive thru operational. We used to sell fish & chips takeout dinners for $1.95 each. Sold a ton of those every Friday and Saturday. At Walli's West, there were lines out the door every Friday night and most people had the fish & chips. I worked Walli's East on third shift and we had quite a unique bar crowd come in, especially some of the characters from the "boys only" bar in a non-descript brick building on Center Rd.

    Walli's had good food for the price.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved the smorgasbord at Walli's! It was way better than the one at Sweeden House. My heart broke when I heard it burned down. But then it got better when they started it again at the West-side restaurant close to our house.

    Miss the food but miss the tacky decor even more. Who has a restaurant with red velvet walls and an organ playing for all to enjoy anymore?

    Does anyone know why the West-side Wally's went under?

    ReplyDelete
  4. For some strange reason, Wallies East was always where we went for Mother's Day. It was great for kids but not sure my mother particularly enjoyed it. Anyway, I remember loving the roastbeef sandwich with mashed potatoes and that thick brown gravy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I remember both East and West. We used to go to Walli's West off of W. Pierson Rd. after church on Sundays. We did that quite a bit. My mother loved the way they did their poached eggs for some reason. Being a kid, breakfast was always pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh boy! My dad practically lived at Walli's West. He was there every morning for breakfast, before work, then he'd stop there every day after work. We'd all go there to eat as a family, too. We practically knew everyone who worked there, including Bob Walli. We must've had 100 of those matchbooks around the house over the years. Great memories!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.