Independence Twp.-The November sale of the Nickelodeon Restaurant and subsequent remodeling has rekindled memories of days gone by for some area residents.
Jackie Gentile, a Groveland Township resident recalls her father telling her long ago about how M-15 used to be a dirt road and he would stop at a place called ‘The Trading Post? where he would pick up supplies for deer hunting in the late ?20s, early ?30s. Because her father was elderly, Gentile thought it was just a story. But when the wood recently came off the Nickelodeon as reconstruction is done and revealed a building with the words ‘Trading Center? on it Gentile knew the story was true.
In 1954, more than two decades after Gentile’s father bought supplies there, George and Iva Roy bought the property. Included in the sale from a Mr. Whitlock was a garage, party store and gas pumps, It was renamed ‘Roy’s Trading Center.?
Dave Roy, George and Iva’s son, was 10 years old at the time the purchase was made. He lived with his family in an apartment above the party store.
‘That was my childhood, part of growing up,? Roy said. ‘When we were upstairs and heard the gas pumps, we had to run like hell to get down there.?
Dan Miller of Brandon Township recalls his father getting gas there, while he would buy a nickel bottle of pop and penny candy.
‘They had a machine with the coldest Coke,? said Miller, who also recalled that tire and oil changes were done in the garage. ‘They’d let us watch them service the cars while the cars were up on the hoist.?
In those days, the party store accepted bottle returns, which had a two-cent deposit on each.
Betty Vliet-Smith recalled walking to the party store as a child and picking up bottles along the roadside on the way there so she could buy penny candy.
‘It was three pieces of candy for one cent. We’d load up,? laughed Vliet-Smith, whose parents, Dortha and Emerson Vliet, bought the Trading Center from George Roy in the mid ?60s.
Dortha Vliet sold antiques out of the garage and enjoyed it, but her husband did not, so after only about five years, they sold it.
In 1976, Ed and Jan Krause added a greenhouse and dining room as additions to the original building? which was a deli and antiques store and named after a Nickelodeon machine, an antique player piano the Krauses owned.
‘They were real antique people. They collected them, but never sold them,? said Christine Lentine, who came to work for the Krauses when they added the restaurant and would continue as the cook there for 27 years.
During the years the Krauses owned the restaurant, steaks and basket shrimp were on the menu, and they were famous for their sandwiches and chili. They also had a cast-iron cauldron set up as a salad bar.
The restaurant also had a mascot? a parrot. The bird’s wings were clipped and he would stay on his perch when people were there, Lentine recalled. The Oakland County Health Department allowed the bird to stay, because he was there prior to the building becoming a restaurant.
During the early years of the restaurant, business was booming, Lentine recalled. Pine Knob Music Theater would order meat and fruit trays from the Nickelodeon for celebrities. There would also be lines out the restaurant’s door on the weekend, especially Sundays.
The party store was also famous for international beers. The Krauses sold the restaurant when they divorced in the late?70s, but the new owner, Leo Perez, continued selling the beer. German beer and Japanese beer were some that Lou Williams remembers, but Lentine said whoever made beer, they sold it.
‘People would come and have their heritage beers. It wasn’t like having a Bud, it was more expensive. But you expect it to cost more,? Lentine said.
In 1981 three brothers, Demetri Asim, Michael Asim and Steve Gabriel, bought the Nickelodeon Restaurant and continued with a menu very similar to what had made the eatery famous. But business slowed with the growth of the area and competition from other restaurants.
Christine Lentine became a cook at MacPhee’s Restaurant last March, after the Nickelodeon went up for sale. She enjoyed her long stay at Nickelodeon Restaurant, saying it was like a big family there. But she says she has found some of those customers at her new job, which she is grateful for.
In November, the Asims and Gabriel sold the Nickelodeon to Peter Barishaj, who is giving the restaurant a makeover before reopening and in the process has stirred some old memories.