Not long after the White Grill opened at 218 E. Main St. in Festus in 1938, Herb Jackson, a bright, hard-working 19 year-old, donned a white apron and cap and started flipping burgers there.
The restaurant, which still serves burgers on Main Street, is now in its 76th year in business. When it opened, “it was the first restaurant of its kind in Festus,” Jackson said.
Jackson, now 94, said his old boss, former White Grill owner Leo Cavagnaro, made an exception when he hired the teen in 1939.
“He didn’t hire kids. I was the only single (employee) there," Jackson said. "There were three others who worked there, all married men with children.”
Cavagnaro, a single man himself, was focused on making the White Grill a great eating experience, he said.
“He ran the restaurant like it was one of his children. It was his whole life,” Jackson said.
“He wanted everything done right. He didn’t put up with any nonsense. He served good food and supervised the crew closely. It was the most popular place in town.”
Although the restaurant served a variety of sandwiches, back then, like now, burgers, were the biggest sellers. Only then, they cost just a nickel each.
“It was not unusual for someone to come in and say, ‘Give me 20 or 40 hamburgers,’” Jackson said. “Say, they were having company or something. You could feed a lot of people for a dollar.”
Other items also were quite inexpensive compared to today’s prices. Coney Islands – wieners smothered with chili and onions – were also five cents. To get a ham or steak sandwich, though, it was going to cost you a dime, and pie was 15 cents a slice.
Although Cavagnaro hired married men to make sure he had responsible employees, the men had a little trouble with the casinos set up in the basements of some Main Street businesses, Jackson said.
“They couldn’t stay out of them,” he said.
And in the wee hours of the morning when the bars and casinos closed, party-goers poured out onto Main Street and into the White Grill, which was open 24 hours.
“We had trouble with the drunks coming in after the taverns closed at 1 a.m.,” Jackson said. “It wasn’t pleasant for me. I never drank. I wasn’t in favor of them making my life miserable.”
The White Grill staff did, however, have a secret weapon that could clear the restaurant pretty efficiently. In a back window in the kitchen was a big exhaust fan that blew the heat and cooking smells from the kitchen. There also was an electric machine used to shred onions.
“It sprayed onion juice everywhere,” Jackson said. “We had the bright idea to start chopping onions and then turn the fan on in reverse. In about two minutes the drunks would be gone.”
Despite a few troublemakers late at night, Jackson said he enjoyed most of the people who visited the White Grill.
In fact, he said, the customers were the best part of working at the restaurant.
“It’s different now than it used to be,” Jackson said. “I used to know everybody in town. I worked on Main Street long enough to know the names and occupations of everyone.”
Jackson only worked a couple of years at the White Grill. Although pay at the restaurant at $35 a week was an improvement from the drug store he worked at previously, he needed a better job because his romance with Gertrude “George” Lichty was heating up.
“She was quite a number. I had a 1924 Model T Ford, and I wooed her with that fast automobile,” Jackson said.
The two were married Nov. 19, 1941, and had four children. Jackson worked for a while during the war for Curtis Wright Aircraft (later McDonnell-Douglas, then Boeing). He was rejected twice for a heart-valve problem when he was called to serve in WWII. Then, later, he became a pharmaceutical representative for St. Louis Wholesale Drug Co. where he stayed for 32 years. His wife, a librarian at the Festus Library for 30 years, died at the age of 69 in 1992.
Jackson, the son of a glass factory worker, has lived his whole life in the Twin City area, he said.
“Every day,” he said.
He currently resides at the Crystal Oaks Assisted Living Center in Crystal City and said he hasn’t been to the White Grill in a while.
The White Grill, now owned by Tara Link of Festus, still serves burgers and breakfast every day until 2 p.m., Link said.
“That’s a lot of hamburgers,” Jackson said.
Send submissions to LOOKING BACK to nvrweakly@aol.com or bring or mail them to the Leader office, 503 N. Second St., Festus (P.O. Box 159, 63028). Please include your name, phone number, a brief description of what’s in the photo and tell us how you came by it. Please also include when it was taken, where and by whom (if known). A new LOOKING BACK photo will be posted each week.
