The oldest restaurant in Phoenix in 1900, Coffee Al's


According to this ad in the Phoenix newspaper in 1900, Coffee Al's was the oldest restaurant in the city. At that point it had been for nine years, which meant that it started in 1891, twenty-one years after the city of Phoenix was created. And my only question to that is "why did it take so long?"

I have several cups of coffee every morning. When I wake up, before I feed the dogs, I make a cup. Then I go out for my morning coffee (usually a senior coffee at McDonald's). And I will often make myself another cup of coffee when I get back home, an hour or so later. I like coffee.

And as a corporate guy back when I worked for Valley Bank/Bank One I would get up from my desk several times a day to go get coffee in the break room. I've always given myself a 3pm curfew on caffeine, but up to that time it doesn't bother my nighttime sleep patterns. And besides, it has helped me to socialize with people, which has been good for my career, and my life.

But today I'm thinking about how people drank coffee in old-time Phoenix. No, I don't mean whether they used cream or sugar, I know they did. No artificial sweetener in those days! I mean how much people drank coffee with their meals. If I ordered a sandwich, or a salad, at a restaurant for lunch along with a cup of coffee (which I've been known to do!) I would get some strange looks. I doubt whether the average sandwich shop has coffee, and if it does it's probably not very fresh. The demand just isn't that high! Can you imagine asking for coffee at Subway? I wonder if they have coffee? Maybe I don't want to know.

And how about some ice cream? Coffee Al's was more than just a coffee shop, it seemed to have it all, and was very up-to-date. I'm sure that they used steam for the coffee, and the cold storage would have been wonderful, because who wants warm ice cream?

Somewhere along the line, drinking coffee with meals (other than breakfast) went out of style. I distinctly remember watching an Abbott and Costello clip where they had coffee with their hamburgers. I would do that, but would you?

Hmmm... for some strange reason a cup of Joe sounds good right now!
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Comments

  1. Jeff MoriartyJuly 19, 2020 at 11:02 AM

    Any idea where it was located in Phoenix? I guess it was so well known that ad didn't need an address.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brad HallJuly 19, 2020 at 12:37 PM

      Hi Jeff - yes, it was very well-known, and Phoenix was a very small town in 1900! It was on Washington just west of Central.

      Delete

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