No 377 Louis Botha Avenue, Erf 23 Hawkins Estate ext 1.
On a sunny afternoon in July I decided to take a step down memory lane with my oldest son and go and eat at the landmark where my dad worked in 1972. At the time it was open 24/7. Some would consider the exterior as having a spooky appearance but with the neon lighting at night it’s anything but that.
Rewind a couple of decades and the parking lot was so full, people struggled to find parking. With the “ jols” taking place in the cosmopolitan Hillbrow and Rocky street this was the meet up spot before dragging a sluggish, beaten body back home.
The rather dilapidated building with the “w” missing from the waffles sign still made the good old greasy and tasty fast food one would expect. It was delivered on the original metal trays that clipped onto our windows. The signature “blondie” which was patty, steak, bacon and eggs stacked between toasties and double thick milkshakes where still available.
A handwritten receipt was still proof of a bygone era, but then out popped the credit card machine to make payments.
Inside the kitchen hangs a black and white picture in its hey day, the owner , Tony Leca told me the older picture he had went missing when he sent it off to the printers. This image is the one that is printed on the menu’s. The cars were parked in a dusty parking lot, one can only imagine how many relationships where saved over a banana milkshake.
No one seems to know the real age but with photos dating back to the early 1940’s it definitely has a lot of memories. Known as the oldest roadhouse in Johannesburg it seems to have finally got too tired to continue. Notice was given in July 2017 by the Gauteng Provincial Heritage Resource Authority announcing the proposed demolition of the property.
On a final visit back at the beginning of August 2017 the doors are already shut.
