CLAUDIA ESBENSHADE | Community Engagement This story was originally published June 3, 2017 and has been updated April 14, 2023 to reflect restaurants that have closed since first publication.
While the restaurant scene today may be growing, there are some memories of years gone by that make some miss the good old days of the culinary scene in Lancaster.
LancasterOnline took a quick look through its archives and created a list of some restaurants of the past.
Akron Restaurant, 333 S. Seventh St., Akron
According to newspaper archives, Warren G. and Dorothy Royer opened Akron Restaurant in Ephrata around 1950. They moved it to Main Street in Akron in 1954, where it was known for serving traditional Sunday dinners of either chicken or turkey.
In 1971, the restaurant moved to the spot right along Route 272, offering seating for 225 as well as a gift shop.
The restaurant closed in 2004.
DiBlasi's, 328 W. Main St., Denver
Operating for 42 years, the restaurant closed its doors in August 2016. DiBlasi’s featured cheese steaks and Italian sandwiches. It has seating for around 40 but was a popular takeout spot, according to newspaper archives.
Dutch Haven
The distinctive windmill building that became a landmark of local tourism predated the Dutch Haven name.
William B. Franklin, who owned businesses ranging from Lancaster city candy stores to a dachshund breeding operation known as Franklin Kennels, built the windmill sometime around 1930 as part of his Windmill Restaurant.
The business was sold to Roy and Alice Weaver, who opened Ye Dutch Haven in 1948 as a restaurant. Over the years, the restaurant expanded to include a bakery, gift shop and motel. In March 1960, the windmill-topped building was destroyed by a fire but was soon rebuilt.
Paul Stahl and his partners bought the property in 1991, just before a planned sheriff’s sale. The new owners upgraded some parts of the property and sold off the original bakery in 1993, concentrating their operations in the windmill building that had previously been the 225-seat restaurant.
Billing itself as “The Place that Made Shoo Fly Pie Famous,” Dutch Haven at one time produced more than 125,000 of the pies in a year that were heavily promoted to tourists.
The business closed Jan. 1, 2023, but has since resumed part-time sales of shoofly pie as the owner continues looking for a buyer.
Good N' Plenty
Opened in 1969, the Smoketown restaurant was among the first to offer heaping portions of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch food for people visiting the area.
Offering pass-the-dish dining, Plain & Fancy became popular with visitors who sat at communal tables and ate traditional Lancaster County meat-and-potato dishes as if they were sharing a big family Thanksgiving Day meal. The concept proved successful.
The restaurant shut down in December 2021 after 52 years.
Good's Restaurant, 1053 Rohrerstown Road
Open for more than 35 years, the restaurant was known for its ice cream. It also had a restaurant and the opportunity to visit with llamas.
Harmony Inn, 402 N. Queen St.
The restaurant closed in 1991. The location had been a rooming house, bar and restaurant and is now the Belvedere.
Iron Horse Inn, 135 E. Main St., Strasburg
Closed in 2015, the restaurant was known for its German fare.
CHAD UMBLE | Staff WriterKegel's Seafood, 551 W. King St.
Opening in 1941, the restaurant was known for its seafood dishes. It closed in September 2010 after an electrical fire. Chuck Trissler bought the building and reopened it as 551 West.
JENELLE JANCI | Staff WriterManor Plaza Restaurant, Manor Shopping Center, Millersville Pike
The lunch counter was always filled at this diner-style restaurant that was tucked in the corner of the shopping center.
Red Rose Restaurant, corner of N. Duke and E. King streets
Nick Flouras with his daughter, Christina Flouras, at The Red Rose restaurant at Duke and King Streets on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The restaurant is closing in a week.
For nearly 90 years, the Red Rose Restaurant at the northeast corner of Duke and King streets was in the Flouras family until it shut its doors in 2015.
By DAN NEPHIN | Staff WriterRendevous, located inside the former Watt & Shand
Closed in March 1995, the restaurant, complete with lunch counter, had operated in the basement of the department store.
The original Watt & Shand store was founded by three Scotsmen — Peter Watt, James Shand and Gilbert Thompson. The store opened in 1878 at 20-22 E. King St. and moved to a site at Penn Square seven years later, according to newspaper archives.
Rendezvous Steak Shop
Before coming to Lancaster, founder Romolo Joseph “Beans” Gaspari owned a steak shop in Coatesville. A story in the January 1955 Saturday Evening Post credited Gaspari with introducing the Italian steak sandwich to Lancaster.
The popular restaurant, which opened in 1951 at 251 W. King St. in 1951. In 1970, Rendezvous Steak Shop moved to 239 W. King St. in a building constructed on the site of a former hotel. After Romolo Gaspari died in 1973, his brother Roger took over.
The shop closed the last day of 2019. It is now is being revived by relatives of the former owner who say they have been schooled on how to make cheesesteaks the Rendezvous way.
Revere Tavern
Revere Tavern was begun by Jim and Kathy Cosgrove and is now operated by their children Jim Jr. and Tina Edgell. The roughly 150-seat restaurant also has a banquet area that can accommodate around 200.
In announcing their decision to close, the Cosgroves cited the ongoing problems finding enough employees, the ending of some federal relief programs for restaurants and the lingering effects of the shutdowns and restrictions that were meant to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Rose Bowl, 337 N. Queen St.
Opening in 1940, the restaurant once housed a taproom. According to a newspaper story, a menu from 1946-47 shows a martini cost 35 cents, a beer 10 cents and a full-course dinner (tomato juice or fruit cup, a salad, soup, a sirloin steak with a side dish of spaghetti and two vegetables) was $2.
The restaurant continued to operate for a number of years after the brothers sold it but it closed for good in 1989.
The Sun Restaurant, 50 W. James St.
Closed in July 2003 after 71 years of business.
"With meals made from scratch, a congenial atmosphere and what one customer described as 'ridiculously low' prices, the so-called 'biggest little restaurant in Lancaster' drew loyal customers of all stripes for decades," according to newspaper archives.
Woolworth, N. Queen Street
In a newspaper archived article, Rick Bowman, of Marticville, wrote:
"At Woolworth's, you could pick a balloon and pop it to find out how much a banana split would cost. There were small pieces of paper inside the balloons with prices on them."
Zimmerman's Restaurant, corner of North Queen and W. Orange streets
Cindy Minnick waits on customers today at Zimmerman's Family Restaurant, 66 N. Queen St. Jobs in the service sector increased in Lancaster County during 1997.
According to newspaper archives, Earl Zimmerman opened Zimmerman’s Family Restaurant at the spot in 1959, and operated it for 30 years before selling it in 1989 to George Katsaros. In a newspaper account of his retirement, Zimmerman recalled visits from Joan Rivers as well as from Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis, who were in Lancaster County filming the 1985 movie "Witness."
By CHLOE MILLER | Staff writer 
