Matchbook cover ad from a posting on Ebay
Address:
Old Address: 7 Bloomingdale Avenue
Other names: McVeety's Diner, 1933; White House Restaurant
Year built: 1929
Other information:
The Miss Saranac Diner, located at 7 Bloomingdale Avenue, was built from a trolley car, with a dining room attached. 1 It was operated by Ernest & Grace E. Hoeth. It was owned by Hugh McKillip.
It started as McVeety's Diner in 1933, and became the White House Restaurant.
Donald L Clark was a short order cook there in 1948 prior to re-enlisting.
North Country Catholic, June 2, 1946Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 11, 1948
DINETTE AND DINER BOUGHT BY RESIDENTS
The Miss Saranac Diner and Dinette located at 7 Bloomingdale avenue has been purchased by Earl E. Campbell and Ernest M. Hoeth, residents of Saranac Lake.
The business was purchased from F. H. McKillip. The diner has accommodations for 19 persons while 36 persons can be served in the dinette which connects with diner.
Twenty-four hour service is available to the public in the diner while the dinette is open, from 8 a. m. until 12 p.m. daily. Full-course meals as well as short order snacks are featured and the new management is providing food orders to be sent out.
Sixteen employes are available to serve the public at the diner and dinette.
Mr. Campbell was formerly in the roofing and sheet metal business and during the war years was employed in the General Electric company in Schenectady. Mr. Hoeth has had wide experience in the restaurant business and was associated with the Grove restaurant in Pottersviile. For seven years he was restaurant manager for the G. C. Murphy Co., stores.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 17, 1961
LIFE WITH RILEY
By Howard Riley
SALE OF RESTAURANT IS END of ERA
When Maurice Mitchell sold his White House Restaurant on Broadway to Robert Birk, an era ended in the reign of short-order cooks in Saranac Lake.
Mitchell, with his wife Evelyn, had owned and operated the restaurant for the last 10 years, but he had worked as a chef in this area for the past 40 years.
When the Saranac Lake Diner was placed on its foundation in 1929 Maurice went to work there as the establishment's first cook and stayed on the job for 20 years. The building that is the diner was constructed by Jerry O. Mahoney in New Jersey, was purchased by Tom McVeety and shipped to Saranac Lake on a railroad flatcar. It was mounted on wheels and towed by trucker Dan Foster from the RR station to it’s present site. Mitchell recalls that they had a difficult time making the swing around the St. Regis corner and nearly every man in town was on hand to help. He said the building cost $10,500 and when it was removed from its wheels, the wheels were shipped back to the factory and McVeety received a $400 rebate from the Mahoney firm.
Chill Con Carne
Mitchell also claims that he made the first fresh chili con came in Saranac Lake. He obtained the recipe from a chef in San Diego and returned here as a cook at Wheeler's lunchroom (site of the present A&P) and made the place popular with the chili in 1923.
Serving with the Asiatic Fleet for 5 1/2 years Mitchell went to Siberia during the Bolshevik uprising to protect the Standard Oil Interests. He was aboard one of gunboats that Admiral Dewey captured in Manila Bay.
Yantse Pirates
Mitchell remembers the Pirates on the Yantze River in China. Thought the gunboats carried only 1 pounders for weapons fore and aft, the pirate ships cleared out at the site of a gunboat. Dewey had taken 6 of the boats and the U.S. never changed the names of the craft but merely placed U.S.S. before the titles.
He likes to tell of the Christmas dinners served to the entire fleet that were paid for by John D. Rockefeller, complete with a fancy menu. Some of the items on the menu, which he still has include: Spiced Ham, Boiled Ham, Boiled Spanish Mackeral, Roast Turkey, Roast Fillet of Beef, Roast Capon, 6 or seven kinds of vegetables, Waldorf Salad, Mince Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Plum Pudding, Chocolate Eclairs, Fruit Cake, Pound Cake, and fruit and candy and all types of relish and pickle trays.
Do the men in service eat like this now in 1961. Perhaps not, but then they don't have a Rockefeller buying their Christmas dinner.
Amusements
Among the amusements scheduled for the holidays was boxing, cup bouts, shoe race, Tug-of-War, Pie Eating Contest and a Potato Race all printed in the colored menu along with the names and rank of all the crew members. On the cover it reads, Hongkong, China, 1919.
Under terms of the agreement Mitch cannot open another restaurant for 10 years, and not within a 10-mile radius, and probably at this time he couldn't care less if he ever opened another restaurant, after the long and tiring hours in the White House.
Old Faithfuls
We are sure that Mitch is going to miss some of the permanent fixtures at the restaurant such as Francis, Lenore, Bill, Joe, Boyd, Ray, Armand, Roger, and the many traveling men who make it a point to stop there to hear the early morning banter between Mitchell and friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell will take an extended vacation, going first to Florida, but his customers won’t soon forget the man who is part comedian and philosopher and one who pours forth [illegible] like an electric computer.
Mr. Birk, an experienced man of the grill worked as chef of Paul Smith’s College and with General Foods for 25 years.
The Great Lakes Dining Car Wagoneer 2005-2006
The Miss Saranac Diner was an O’Mahony [coach] purchased in 1929 for $10,500. The diner was shipped by R/R, mounted on wheels and towed to its location. Afterwards, the wheels were returned for a $400 rebate.
Comments
Footnotes
1. Howard J. Riley, "Let's get a bite to eat", Adirondack Daily Enterprise, February 24, 2007
