Ask any longtime resident of Gainesville what their favorite old restaurants are, and you’ll likely receive a number of answers: Tony and Pat’s, the Original Pizza Palace, the lunch counter at Wise’s Pharmacy, Sonny’s, Joe’s Deli and Phil-Nick’s are just a few. In the fickle restaurant business, trends come and go, and places are hot and then they are not. Although many have been forgotten over the years after they closed, a look at two famous eateries highlights Gainesville’s diverse culinary past.
Louis’ Lunch
Louis Pennisi was an Italian immigrant who came to Gainesville in 1922. He started making “Louis’ Pure Ice Cream” in a building behind the Commercial Hotel and sold it out of a pushcart on the streets. During the winter, ice cream didn’t sell as well, so he tried selling hot dogs. But no one bought them. Fortunately, Louis got an idea after seeing women selling 5-cent hamburgers for a fundraiser. His mother made meatballs, so he bought a few pounds of meat and bread and experimented with her recipe, turning the meatballs into hamburgers. In 1928, he started selling them out of a store across from the Coca-Cola plant on Virginia Street for 10 cents a burger.
He later borrowed $1,500 and built a restaurant at 436 SE 2nd St. The small, white stucco building didn’t look like much on the outside, and at the time most workers brought their own lunches from home, so Louis struggled. But word of his delicious hamburgers started to spread and soon, hamburgers superseded ice cream sales. Before the Civil Rights era, he served both white and black customers and had a separate room in the back with a sign reading “Colored Entrance.”
During World War II, Louis shipped cartons of cigarettes to soldiers overseas and, in return, the grateful soldiers wrote letters and sent him pictures that he posted on the walls. Over the years, the pictures were joined by local memorabilia and framed newspaper articles, a sort of living history display that became part of the restaurant’s appeal.
Louis’ Lunch was the kind of place parents took their children and when they grew up, they took their own children. Customers could watch their burgers made to order on an iron skillet. Then, they could enjoy eating it at a traditional wrap-around counter by the grill, at a few tables along the perimeter of the restaurant or inside their car with curbside service.
Louis sold the business to his son Freddie in 1952, but he continued to work at the restaurant making burgers. Tragedy struck the Pennisi family in 1993, when Freddie was killed inside the diner during a burglary attempt. Tom Pennisi, also one of Louis’ sons, bought the business from Freddie’s widow in 1995. Louis passed away in 2004 at the remarkable age of 106. After serving hamburgers for 82 years, Louis’ Lunch closed in November 2010.
Mama Lo’s
Lorine Alexander founded her restaurant, Lo’s Grill, at 618 NW 6th St. in the 1960s. The plain, whitewashed building almost hid the affordable, delicious Southern soul food that was served inside. When a group of University of Florida students showed up at her restaurant shortly after it opened and pooled together what little money they had to buy something to eat, Lorine took care of them. They came back and soon began calling her “Mama Lo,” and the name stuck.
Mama Lo’s became a popular place for a diverse crowd of all races — students, police officers, office workers and local residents. Mama Lo took a simple approach to her business, one that predated today’s trend of locally sourced food. Each morning, she woke up early and shopped at several markets looking for the best deals. She also had a garden behind the restaurant for growing greens and other vegetables. Using a ballpoint pen and lined notebook paper, she would create a small number of “menus” for the day. More than 200 customers passed the menus around during lunch and dinner, and the notebook paper grew more rumpled and illegible with each order. By 10 or 11 p.m., Mama Lo would finish cleaning and close the restaurant for the day.
Typical offerings included fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, broccoli casserole, stuffed pork chops, stuffed peppers, chitlins, meat loaf and fried fish. The long list of sides included squash, okra-tomato-corn succotash, black-eyed peas, candied yams and eggplant as well as a variety of greens including collard, mustard and turnip. Everything was served with cornbread and sweet tea, followed by dessert of pound cake, coconut cake or peach shortcake.
Customers packed the two wood-paneled rooms. Picnic benches surrounded tables covered with red-checked cloths. It was rumored that celebrities like Sarah Vaughan, Gladys Knight, Tom Petty, Bo Diddley and the band members of Sister Hazel frequented the restaurant. The notoriety wasn’t confined to Gainesville — both GQ magazine and a book called “Road Food, Good Food” featured her and her recipes.
Mama Lo’s eventually closed in 1995. As much as customers missed the soul food, they also missed the loving personality of its owner and namesake.