How did it differ from other places?
I know a lot of people miss it greatly.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 67 | March 19, 2020 2:22 PM |
My shorts ah chock fulla nuts, right here!
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 15, 2020 5:52 PM |
There was nothing special about it at all. Most of them were just a lunch counter. A place to buy a cup of coffee. Not much more.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 15, 2020 5:52 PM |
Is the coffee still available. The can was nice.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 15, 2020 6:11 PM |
It was a lunch counter with good coffee (and even better date nut bread). It only survived because Chock Full Of Nuts was a well known coffee brand. Their lunch counter wasn't even as good as Woolworth's.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 15, 2020 6:11 PM |
Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 15, 2020 6:31 PM |
Their pound cake was good, as was their date nut bread with cream cheese.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 15, 2020 6:50 PM |
Chock Full O Nuts is that heavenly coffee , better coffee a millionaires money can't buy.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | March 15, 2020 6:51 PM |
It was a fast food & drink franchise. Possibly the first indoor fast food franchise in NYC. People could go in, grab coffee and a donut. They were all over the city; the Starbuck’s of their day. A lot of homeless people went in there to get out of the elements. A homeless person could wander the streets, beg for money for a cup of coffee, go into one of the shops, get coffee or a donut, leave an hour later and repeat the process in front of the next Chock Full of Nuts along his neighborhood route. Spies went there to exchange envelopes & microfilms. People who needed to get out of the office for a break or get out of their cramped apartments went there. Cops on the beat went there. Coffee boys went there to buy beans or ground coffee. People in small offices with mostly male employees sent someone out to buy coffee. (Never thinking of making it themselves...that was women’s work).
You could sit there with a newspaper or you could run in, buy & run out. There was no place like it. I went to school on 25th street and was really glad to have one of the last ones nearby on 23rd Street. Eventually it closed & Korean greengrocers took over the “grab a cup of coffee” business. Now Korean greengrocers are disappearing, getting priced out by Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts & “drug”stores (where you can hardly find any drugs anymore).
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | March 15, 2020 7:09 PM |
I'm into old menus. As a cook and food lover, I find them endlessly fascinating.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 15, 2020 7:38 PM |
I like their can. I keep better coffee in it.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 15, 2020 11:16 PM |
Very much a NY kind of place. As described above, it was a lunch counter with decent coffee and good date nut bread. You could sit there for a LONG time unmolested, like Starbucks, but unlike Starbucks there was table service. I kind of miss it, but at the same time cannot imagine it existing at this point in time. It’s completely a thing that belongs to the past.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | March 16, 2020 1:18 AM |
r11, are you the guy who's been posting old menus? Why don't you make a thread with the interesting ones you find? I have a vague memory of a thread like that from a while back.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | March 16, 2020 1:22 AM |
Oh my gawd. I love this cawfee. My dorter buys it the Corstco. So gud. Mmmm
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | March 16, 2020 1:30 AM |
Come on - let's liven this up a bit with more links and shit.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 18 | March 16, 2020 1:41 AM |
They tried to revive it about ten years ago. I think it was a flop. Not surprised if this is what it looked like.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 20 | March 16, 2020 1:44 AM |
Stuff like this is what we want to see. REAL Americana.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 21 | March 16, 2020 1:46 AM |
They were exceptionally clean. Their motto was the food was never touched by human hands. It was the first place I ever remember seeing all those preparing the food wearing gloves. Then the food would be wrapped so the servers never touched the actual food. Their powdered whole wheat donuts were amazing. They melted in your mouth like cotton candy. Their hot dogs were the best. Their tuna, ham, shrimp and other salad sandwiches were so freakin' good and their unique raisin bread, walnut, cream cheese sandwiches were even more heavenly than their coffee. Even their orange drink was the best. God how I wish I could taste those terrific foods one more time.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | March 16, 2020 1:49 AM |
R10, take care of yourself, gramps. Stay out of Corona. Love and prayers.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | March 16, 2020 1:50 AM |
[quote]God how I wish I could taste those terrific foods one more time.
It will never be that way again. All food now has too many preservatives/additives. There is no way we can have the delicious food we once had. Back then, even McDonalds had good food, believe it or not. Woolworth's had women in the kitchen peeling potatoes for their mashed potatoes. They didn't come out of a box back then.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | March 16, 2020 2:27 AM |
In the takeout line, you hac to say 'black coffee" else you got coffee with cream when you just said '"coffee". Also the butterscotch brownies were to die for.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | March 16, 2020 2:30 AM |
I am enjoying these threads about bygone restaurants. I wish I were able to visit the automats. I think there was one near my little place in Midtown.
As a really young person I remember the packaging for foods was different, and candy bars were wrapped in a very crinkly wax paper.
It’s so interesting seeing remastered films from the 60’s that show clearer images of labels and consumable things that are no longer common. It’s like looking into a time machine, the same is true for cars, and kitchens and bathrooms. I am fascinated by the giant smooth enamel bathtubs and the really cool old gas ranges, things like these. I was born too late.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | March 16, 2020 2:32 AM |
The automats are one thing I miss about New York. It's what made the city solidly middle class.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | March 16, 2020 2:37 AM |
If you're from a certain age and from the provinces, you know "Chock Full'O Nuts" as a brand of coffee, with commercials featuring a jingle we would never forget. See R8.
Coming to NYC and seeing all of these CFON stores was startling. Going into them was disappointing. No big deal.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | March 16, 2020 2:38 AM |
Its unusual name derives from the 18 nut shops that founder William Black (c. 1902 – 1983) established under that banner in the city beginning in 1926. When the Great Depression struck, he converted them to lunch counters, serving a cup of coffee and a sandwich for 5 cents.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | March 16, 2020 2:40 AM |
Their signature "nutted cheese" sandwich, made of cream cheese and chopped nuts on dark raisin bread, cost a nickel with a cup of coffee when the company was founded. When coffee prices went up in the 1950s, Black, like other restaurateurs, held to a 5-cent cup of coffee by watering it down
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | March 16, 2020 2:41 AM |
In the 1970s, the lunch counters gradually closed. After Black died, the company sold its remaining 17 restaurants to the restaurant company Riese Bros. In 1988, investor Martin D. Gruss and the companies he controlled purchased a 10-percent stake in the Chock full o'Nuts Corporation, saying he might seek control of the company. In 1993, Chock Express stores were introduced.
The Sara Lee Corporation purchased Chock full o'Nuts for $238 million in 1999. In May 2006, it was purchased from Sara Lee by Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, along with the MJB, Hills Bros., and Chase & Sanborn coffee brands.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | March 16, 2020 2:42 AM |
Chock full o'Nuts is that heavenly coffee
Heavenly coffee, heavenly coffee
Chock full o'Nuts is that heavenly coffee
Better coffee Rockefeller's money can't buy
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | March 16, 2020 2:44 AM |
Originally a person or thing stuffed to the point of choking was “choke-full.” In modern speech this expression has become “chock-full,” or in less formal American English, “chuck-full.” Chalk has nothing to do with it.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | March 16, 2020 2:46 AM |
R20 the new location on 23rd near Fifth Avenue failed because the specialties people remembered didn't taste the same. I liked their whole wheat doughnuts, new ones didn't have crunchy crust. I
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | March 16, 2020 2:52 AM |
Original jingle said "Better coffee Rockefeller's money can't buy." When the family threatened to sue, it was changed to "millionaire's."
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | March 16, 2020 2:54 AM |
Knowing the average time spent at counter during lunch hour was 12-minutes, the stools were designed with hard seats to discourage people from staying,
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | March 16, 2020 2:57 AM |
R26 When I first moved to NY (many years ago) I would go into a deli and order a coffee. They'd say "Regular?" and I'd say yes. To my mind that mean regular coffee - black. Nothing added. Nope. I would receive coffee with milk, sometimes coffee with milk and sugar.
It took dim me a few times to figure it out - I thought people were just making mistakes.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | March 16, 2020 3:02 AM |
I used to work down by Bowling Green in Manhattan, and the Chock Full O'Nuts on Broadway, just up the street a little, maybe 40 Broadway, was one of my regular lunch haunts. Two cups of coffee, a hot dog a bowl of split pea finished off with one of the date nut bread/cream cheese sandwiches. It was counter seating only, and I remember the waitresses were very sweet and attentive. This was back in the early 1980's.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | March 16, 2020 3:10 AM |
R38, I had the EXACT same experience. Coming to NYC from the midwest, "regular coffee" meant just the coffee, nothing added, in a standard size cardboard cup, as opposed to the truck driver sized jumbo tumblers.
I would ask for coffee, because I only wanted coffee. Then because I had not specified how I wanted it served, they would say, "Regular?" And I always agreed. Then I got this fucking awful coffee with milk and sugar, more like syrup than coffee. It took me more than just a few times to get that fully sorted.
After about a year, I got short of money and took a job waiting tables. People would ask for cream. So I brought them a small pitcher of cream. After about the third day, a customer called me back. "Excuse me, this is cream." I reminded her that she had asked for cream. "But when you ask for cream for coffee, you're not asking for cream, that's just what you're saying when you ask for milk." So I got her milk. And I asked others working in the restaurant. They all agreed with the whiney customer and though I was the one who was crazy.
Regular means milk and sugar and cream means milk.
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | March 16, 2020 1:33 PM |
I have never heard of “regular coffee” in NYC. That’s a Boston thing.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | March 16, 2020 1:41 PM |
[quote]After about a year, I got short of money and took a job waiting tables.
Gurl, where did you work? - if that's not too personal a question.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | March 16, 2020 1:44 PM |
R41, 'regular coffee' is a bedrock NYC thing.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | March 16, 2020 1:45 PM |
It's "coffee, regular," not "regular coffee."
But either way, why would you think it was the same as "black coffee"?
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | March 16, 2020 1:46 PM |
Chock Full O’Nuts was one of the first restaurant chains to offer employment to African-American women. In the 1950s, when most places had only white waitresses, it was notable that the Chock Full restaurants had mostly African-American waitresses. The jobs probably didn’t pay very well, but they were a welcome source of employment at a time when black women were particularly excluded from the job marketplace.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | March 16, 2020 1:47 PM |
[quote] But either way, why would you think it was the same as "black coffee"?
Because in some parts of the world it is. The NYC conception of "regular coffee" is not universal. Duh.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | March 16, 2020 1:52 PM |
[quote]Then I got this fucking awful coffee with milk and sugar, more like syrup than coffee.
You'd have hated my mother's "coffee": 1/3 coffee, 1/3 sugar, 1/3 evaporated milk. I grew up detesting it so, I didn't drink it myself until I was 25, and my new boyfriend made Sumatra from McNulty's in a Mellita and served it to me black. Now that's what I call coffee.
The boyfriend didn't last, but I'm still drinking good coffee, black. I've even gone back to making it pourover.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | March 16, 2020 1:54 PM |
So you never heard of "black coffee," r46? And btw, "regular coffee" to me means "not decaf."
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | March 16, 2020 1:55 PM |
All of this talk about New York coffee brought some brands of coffee back to mind. I do think there is something about blends of coffee being regional. Living in Chicago, I will buy nothing but Stewarts Private Blend, roasted and packed by a century old Chicago firm. This coffee seems to be the best with the local water. When I lived in New York, however, I usually bought Martinson or Savarin coffee. I once brought a can of Martinson back home and made it with Chicago water, and it did not taste the same. I was also looking for Savarin, but could not find it. Is it now out of production?
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | March 17, 2020 2:19 AM |
Yes, me, too. Took a while to say "coffee, black". Please ... I had manners. The jingle was sung by the owner's wife, Paige Morton Black. The can used to be a pound, 16 oz, Changed not to 14oz. Can looks the same, Now they don't include a scoop. I used to keep the yellow ones, to match my sunny kitchen.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | March 17, 2020 4:39 AM |
Don't tell anyone but I used to go there in dark sunglasses and a baseball cap. It was my favorite coffee.
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | March 17, 2020 5:16 AM |
[quote] And btw, "regular coffee" to me means "not decaf."
Exactly! Coming to NY from California for the first time in 1980 I had been warned ahead of time by a transplanted NY'er that if I wanted plain, black coffee to order "black, no sugar". Forty years later, I still order my coffee 'black, no sugar', although now in my 60s, I order "decaf, black, no sugar" any time after lunch.
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | March 17, 2020 11:29 AM |
My mom used to take me and my siblings to lunch at Chock Full of Nuts at Herald Square after we finished shopping at Gimble's. It was a treat for us because we rarely ate out.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | March 17, 2020 11:51 AM |
It should be chocked full
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | March 17, 2020 5:13 PM |
I'm even older, R52. But I'm here.
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | March 17, 2020 7:16 PM |
[quote] My mom used to take me and my siblings to lunch at Chock Full of Nuts at Herald Square after we finished shopping at Gimble's.
oh dear!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 56 | March 19, 2020 3:25 AM |
Speaking of nuts, I got a can of nuts from Sees as a Christmas gift. They were amazing! Much better than the crap you get in a Planters can.
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | March 19, 2020 3:47 AM |
r57
Sucker. The same nuts, but one goes into a Planter's can and the other group goes into a See's can
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | March 19, 2020 4:01 AM |
[quote]I have never heard of “regular coffee” in NYC.
Maybe because it's supposed to be coffee REGULAR (two sugars and milk) or coffee BLACK.
| by Anonymous | reply 59 | March 19, 2020 4:05 AM |
No R58, the Sees were remarkable better.
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | March 19, 2020 4:48 AM |
Costco's Kirkland brand of Mixed Unsalted Nuts are EXCELLENT quality.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | March 19, 2020 4:51 AM |
I agree with the nut nuts here. There are better and worse nuts. Planter's are ok. Sees are excellent. And I also like Costco, especially the Virginia peanuts. Trader Joe's is alright, but they stale quickly. Get those bags in to a sealed container soon as you open them.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | March 19, 2020 5:58 AM |
R56 Gimbels! Wow I haven't thought of them in decades. Their windows were so much fun at Christmas time. And I loved the hot merchandise spread out on blankets and tarps on the south side of the building...of course it all "fell off the truck". They'd have a lookout at each end of the block, and as soon as the police were spotted the ends of the blankets and tarps were pulled together, and they were off down the street. Great fun.
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | March 19, 2020 6:09 AM |
When I was a student in NYC in the 80's we always called it Chock-Full-O'-Shit.
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | March 19, 2020 7:39 AM |
r63
There were like us only not good
| by Anonymous | reply 66 | March 19, 2020 8:11 AM |
Wacky Packages- CHOCK FULL O NUTS AND BOLTS
| by Anonymous | reply 67 | March 19, 2020 2:22 PM |
