Sometimes it's a good thing to shake off the modern world and take a trip back in time. Back to a time before cellphones and electric cars when things were slower and people used to take a casual stroll downtown to enjoy window shopping a good meal. Sometimes both shopping and eating took place under the same roof. Back in the day many department stores and pharmacies had a soda fountain or a lunch counter so busy shoppers could take a break and enjoy a meal.
Most inside store eating establishments went the way of the dodo (became extinct) decades ago. Retailers simply needed to space for more items to sell to out went the counters and in came more racks of polyester blouses, or toasters, or whatever that particular store wash selling.
In rare occasions a retailer would embrace the nostalgia of yesteryear and keep their soda fountain in operation if only for the purpose of enticing customers to come in off the street to simply gawk at it. Some stayed in operation simply because they served up some darn fine cooking and people flocked in for the food over the merchandise.
Such is the case for Watson's Soda Fountain & Cafe in Orange, California which started off in 1899 as the local drug store. Over the decades the addition of the soda fountain took president over the medications and eventually the store became a memory and the cafe kept going strong.
The town of Orange is actually one of my favorite places in California. The whole town still has that vibe from the past. You can sit and imagine what it must have been like to be there in say the 1930s, 40s or 50s. The stores and homes are all still period. Many of them dating back to the era when Watson's first opened it's doors. It's the kind of town where you can spend the entire day admiring the old homes, wandering in and out of all the amazing antique stores and ultimately end up at Watson's for a great meal. It's a wonderful package that all fits together for a fun time traveling down memory lane.
Sadly I have just learned that Watson's is about to become a thing of the past just like all the other store/eateries of the past. The owners have sold out to a company that are going to turn it into a Mexican restaurant this Fall.
From KOAT 7 Los Angeles
"There's going to be a lot of sadness and resentment because this place has been a part of people's lives as far back as we can remember," said operations manager Abel Rullier. "Depending on your age, you, your parents, your grandparents, maybe even your great-grandparents, always knew of the Watson's here."Rullier said the current owners took over the property nearly a decade ago, but always struggled to make a profit. Consequently, he said they made changes to try to make the restaurant more appealing to the current generation.
"It was our hope to elevate this into something more modern, keeping the old school, classic soda shop feel, updating the menu," Rullier said. "We gave them a bar, we wanted to elevate this place, but also staying true to the tradition to what this place is and what it's founded on and that's what we tried to do."
But Rullier said not all the changes were popular with the community.
"We understand that the community hadn't always liked the changes we did to Watson's, and they spoke out by not supporting us at times," Rullier said. "We completely understand that and unfortunately, we made some mistakes along the way too, but it was always our intention to do this place justice."However, the COVID pandemic and sky-high inflation dealt the restaurant such incredible challenges, they were unable to recover.
"We felt the effects just like everybody else did. But unfortunately, we don't have the deep pockets," Rullier said. "We're not a corporation and don't have 10, 15, 20, 30 other restaurants that we can lean back on for financial support.. So, in the end it really crippled us."
Here is the history of Watson's from their website:
Watson Drug and Soda Fountain; a product of the Golden Age of American History, somewhere in time when Main Street, U.S.A. was the center of life for every American City. This was the era of the Gay Nineties. The horseless carriage had just been introduced, gold was discovered in the Klondike, rural free postal delivery had been established drives in a surrey were still a way of courting. Dr. John T. Dorrance developed Campbell's condensed soups, which sold for 10 cents. John Kellogg, a physician at the Battle Creek Sanitarium and his brother, Will Keith Kellogg developed wheat flakes (called Gransosa) in 1894, in a attempt to create a more digestible bread. The cereal, a vegetarian diet and water treatments were such a success that people came to the sanitarium from all over. In 1895 Charles W. Post was one of the patients. He took some of Kellogg's ideas and developed Postum, a malt beverage and Grape Nuts. The foundation for a drugstore and soda fountain emerged. Drugs were freely available and abuse was common. Heroin was sold as cough medicine. The American Drugstore began with the introduction of scientific fact into pharmacy and medicine."It's sad... I just look at what a great experience it is for a young family or kids to have come here over the years," Phanner said. "And I wonder what they'll have that isn't a prepackaged franchise experience. This is unique."
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