Wanderlust Wednesday: Balyeat’s Coffee Shop

Balyeat’s Coffee Shop. RL Fifield photo, 2005.

Gas was 99 cents a gallon in the Midwest in May of 2005. Driving east across the Indiana state line, my friend Mrs. G and I entered Van Wert, Ohio.

There, beckoning to us in hot neon:

Balyeat’s Coffee Shop
Young Fried Chicken
Day and Night

 

Balyeat’s counter, with the pie cabinet on the right. RL Fifield photo, 2005.

It was around 10am and we’d had a rather unsatisfying diner breakfast in Fort Worth. But I went in to grab a cup of coffee all the same and check out the interior. Balyeat’s was founded in 1924 to accommodate the swarms of Lincoln Highway travelers that passed its door. Today, it hosts mostly locals. The waitress lists what’s good today;  you can ask for a menu if you like. The 1970s renovations are unfortunate, but after traveling for a few days, Mrs. G and I got savvy to the fact that you have to discern those restaurants cooking from scratch, and those that use pre-prepared food service. This place is the real deal.  Read this article about Balyeat’s and its owner, Dale Davies, from the Toledo Blade. And then try to resist your new-found pie craving.

 

About Becky Fifield

Starting her museum career at age 13, Becky Fifield is a museum collections manager at a New York City organization. She is the Chair for Alliance for Response NYC and Vice Chair for the American Institute for Conservation's Collections Care Network. There's a bit of pun in the title The Still Room, delineating a quiet space brimming with the ingredients of memory, where consideration, analysis, and wordcraft can take place. Ms. Fifield’s interests include museum practice, dress history, historic preservation, transit, social and women’s history, food, current events, geneaology, roadtrips, and considerations on general sense of place. Becky and her husband, Dr. V, live in New York City.