Earl Abel's Restaurant San Antonio Landmark. (original) (raw)

by Mike Cox

Earl Abel's, an Alamo City landmark since it began business in 1933 at the depth of the Great Depression, will be closing on March 15 to make way for a 25-story condominium.

Though it originally had several locations, in 1940 the restaurant opened at Broadway and Hildebrand. That was long before I-35, when Broadway served as the main thoroughfare into downtown San Antonio from Austin and points north.

Photo courtesy Walt Lockley

The restaurant, started by theater organist Earl Abel when he couldn't get a job involving his musical skills, became a regular stopping place for travelers and a favorite of San Antonioans. Mounted on the wall over the coffee counter, where for a few weeks patrons can still sit and ogle the restaurant's famous pies, are seven humorous signs reminiscent of the now mostly forgotten Burma Shave signs that used to line highways across the nation. I don't know when the signs in Earl Abel's first went up, but they've been there since at least the early 1960s, when I first remember seeing them.

Dating to when the restaurant stayed open 24-hours-a-day, one sign says:

Our Clock
Will Never
Be Stolen
The Employees
Are Always Watching It

Back then, inflation didn't mean much to as many people, but whoever commissioned the signs - probably founder Abel - clearly understood his macro economics as well as macoroni:

The Reason A
Dollar Won't Do
As Much As It Once Did, Is,
People Won't Do As Much For A Dollar
As They Once Did!

My favorite sign is the one my grandfather first pointed out to me back when I was in the sixth grade. "What does that say?" he asked with a smile. I studied the words, but couldn't make sense of them:

Seville Dar Dago
Tousin Busses Inaro
Nojo Demstrux
Summit Cows In
Summit Dux

If you haven't figured it out, here's the translation:

See, Willie, there they go
Thousand buses in a row
No, Joe, them's trucks
Some with cows and
Some with ducks

Whoever composed the sign misspelled "buses" with one too many "s's," but it continued to give me a smile every time I ate at the restaurant. Long after my granddad had washed down his last piece of lemon meringue pie with a cup of coffee, I got to pull the same stunt with the sign for my daughter.

Another of the signs must have predated the creation of Weight Watchers:

Earl Abel's doesn't offer oysters on its menu. In fact, as one of the sign says:

It Was A Brave Man
Who Ate The First Oyster

Another of the signs certainly is well aged:

Its (sic) Tough To Pay
$1.25 For A Steak
But 50 [cent] Steaks
Are Tougher

Rather than steak, on my last visit I opted for the "Petite" ham dinner with mashed potatoes and one vegetable. I choose black-eyed peas. The waiter brought two homemade rolls, but I could only hold one.

After all:

Eating Good Food
Keeps You Able
Eating Here
Keeps Earl Abel

Photo courtesy Walt Lockley

The meal cost only $7 and change, but I charged it just so I'd get a printed receipt with "Earl Abel's" on it as a souvenir of 45 years worth of visits.

After I signed the receipt, I noticed that the Abel family had placed two guest books on the counter for farewell comments from long-time diners.

A quick look told me that not every customer had been taking the time to leave a written sentiment, but I couldn't pass up the chance to say good bye in print.

"I've been coming here since I was a kid, now I'm 57," I wrote. "Sorry to see you go�"

Guess they'll be hauling off all the restaurant fixtures, including the familiar signs, in trux.

� Mike Cox

"Texas Tales" - February 13, 2006 column

September 19, 2007 Update:
Happily, San Antonio businessman and long-time customer Roger P. Arias re-opened Earl Abel's at 1201 Austin Hwy. inside of two miles of the original location. He bought and has used most of the restaurant's familiar fixtures, including the famous signs, and retained the basic menu. For more information on the venerable eatery, check out their Web site at www.EarlAbelsSA.com

Subject: Earl Ables article
Thanks for the memories. I was stationed at Lackland in 1957 and 1958 and sort of adopted by Dr Passmore and his family who were members of First Presbyterian Church and who lived in Alamo Heights. Earl Able's, which was not far from where they lived, became a hangout for his kids and I. The restaurant and signs were already there then and were not new. I would estimate that they had been around from as early as 1950, although probably changed from time to time. One I remember was over the door as you left. It said:
I EAT HERE TOO!
EARL ABLE

The food was great, but what I liked most was the welcoming atmosphere. It reminded me of home and of Jack Trayer's on Moore Street in Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee, where I grew up. Everybody's hometown should have such a place. - John McDaniel, April 17, 2008