My trip to Goody Goody

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A long lasting indie restaurant is a rare thing in a lot of towns. Tampa has one called Goody Goody that has been in business in the same location since the 20’s which is long enough to make it an institution but not technically the oldest. It’s a bit out of the way from me and I have never been there, but word broke recently that it will be closing at the end of the month. Ever since I have tried to make the pilgrimage and it has been a harrowing experience. For reference, this is a classic American diner type place, their signature dish is a hamburger.

After finding someone to go we made plans for lunch on the next day. I picked him up right around noon and we made our way over there (which is just a few minutes from his place) only to find about 40 people packed into a very small dining room. It was obvious that we were in for a long wait to just get a table so after a few minutes of scoping out we left discouraged but not beaten.

Today was round two and we played this match with a later time and more confidence. Around 1PM we strolled in (this time with another person, maybe for good luck) and found nearly as big a crowd. After about 20 minutes we had a table but found out that it would be, “A hell of a long wait” before getting food. Literally two hours. This explained why we were the youngest people in the place by at least 25 years–you have to be retired to be able to wait for the food.

We haven’t scheduled round three, but we are determined to get to Goody Goody and eat before the end of the month. If people wait hours for a hamburger it must be good. Our gameplan for round three is to go early, beating out the lunch crowd. I’ll probably have to wake up at 5AM to be in the mood for a cheeseburger by 10AM, but that’s what I get for slacking around and not going until now.

(I just calculated that if we are able to eat at Goody Goody on our third trip I will have driven around 100 miles and used ~$11 of gasoline. That’s not to mention the time spent driving and waiting. Quite a voyage!)

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36 Responses to “My trip to Goody Goody”

  1. annette says:

    Perhaps if more people had not waited until the last days to eat at Goody Goody, it would still be around. Unfortunately it was talked about, but not visited. I have gone at least once a week for years and never were all tables taken. It’s a shame that the place had to close down before getting the recognition it truly deserved. I would gladly wait 2 hours to, once again, have one of there hamburgers and a slice of butterscotch pie.

    • Dan Perez says:

      Bob Reid was 5 years old in 1920, it was his parents, Wm. Reid and Jessie who opened a lunch room in Dayton in 1927-28 and named it Goody Goody around 1939.

  2. David Burns says:

    Bob and Mary Reid were the original owners of the Goody Goody restaurants. The first was opened on Third Street in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1920s. In 1923 they constructed a second location on Salem Avenue. And shortly after they opened the Tampa restaurant. They also had a fourth in Santa Monica, California.
    Ironically, a few days after the Tampa restaurant closed, Bob Reid died at age 91 and eight days later his wife of 70 years Mary died.
    The butterscotch pie seems to be a particular delicacy. Not only is it mentioned in every online posting and newspaper article, my sister asked me if I had the recipe this very day (her birthday)!
    I wonder if it was ever published?

    • Tom Murph says:

      I am looking for photos and memerbila from the Salem ave Goody Goody to include on our website. Any ideas?

      • Elizabeth frank says:

        Am wondering if you ever got pictures of Goody’s Restaursnt in Dayton. Trying to recreate it for my
        Husbands 80th badly. Please advise. Would love any pictures, or logo or ideas of what it was like.
        It must have been quite fun. Too bad it is gone but certainly not forgotten

  3. Glenda Stayer Wood says:

    The Goody Goody Restaurant was started by Ralph Stephens in 1925 and purchased by my grandfather William Bechtel Stayer in 1929. Our family owned and ran the restaurant until 1980 when it was sold to Michael Wheeler. Although Mr. Wheeler owns the sauce recipe, we have a copy in the family and have fun trying to recreate the hamburgers that my cousins and I remember from our childhood.

  4. Lou Maggio says:

    Why hasn’t anyone marketed the Tampa GOODY GOODY sauce……can it be bought anywhere???

    • sue koehl says:

      I have the original recipe for the Goody Goody sauce. Mary Reid was my aunt(my mother’s sister) and I recieved the personal contents of their house when they both died in Dec. 2005. It is hand written and starts with 4 cases # 10 tomatoes! I also have items from the Goody Goody. I also have the true history of the Goody Goody and photos of their locations. Perhpas someone out there would be interested! Sue

      • Richard Gonzmart says:

        Hi sue, I am interested in the photos adn recipe. Ic an be reached at 813-248-3000 x23 or via email; r.gonzmart@columbia restaurant.com
        thank you. rg

      • Peter Dolbee says:

        I remember going to Goody Goody in Santa Monica with my mother and sister. I think it was about 1957 or 1958. I can still taste the cream of onion soup. Do you have the recipe for that?

      • Peter Dolbee says:

        Sue,

        I would also be interested in photos of the Santa Monica restaurant. You should also contact Vintage Roadside a website dedicated to memorializing long forgotton roadside restaurants. http://www.vintageroadside.com There was an interesting article about them in today’s Los Angeles Times. They might be interested in Goody Goody.

        Pete

      • I moved from Dayton to Florida in 1973. I have told lots of people here about the great sauce you made for your burgers, and the butterscotch pie. I have eaten at many restaurants in Florida that advertise butterscotch pie, and, or, peanut butter pie, and none of them can compare with the ones I remember at the Goody Goody on Salem Av., I believe. I would give nearly anything to get some of that sauce and that pie. Please let me know if this is possible, please. I was with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at the time. Thank you, Ken Umpenhour, srgtump@tampabay.rr.com

      • Tom Murph says:

        Yes Sue, I am looking for items to include on our class website. All of Fairview spent manny happy hours at the Goody. Please contact me at our website http://www.fairview58.org ,, Thanks, Tom

      • leslie ward says:

        Hi Sue,
        I realize I am trying to contact you about 4 years after the other readers posted, and I don’t know if you’ll ever see this; however, I belong to a group on Facebook, who post photos and reminiscences of growing up in Los Angeles in the 50’s & 60’s. One of my favorite places to eat as a kid was Goody Goody, in Santa Monica. I love everything about that place! I even remember what the “waiters” looked like, and we always seemed to get the same guy. I loved the uniforms; the starched shirts and trousers, the caps, etc.
        Anyway, I have been trying to locate a photo of the Santa Monica Goody Goody but all I can find on the web are photos of the other locations.
        Would you happen to have any photos you would be willing to share with me?
        I would love to post one or two on Facebook. I am certain it would bring back great memories for many of us!

        Thank you,
        Leslie

      • Gene baker says:

        Sue, my grandparents used take us to goody goody restaurant on salemmy brother and I always were excited to go .besids the hamburgers we remember the fries coming in a paper cone ,very cool when your young .we are in our 60s now and would love to get the hamburger sauce recipe to taste them again thanks gene baker. Bk474747@msn.com

      • James Barber says:

        Sue, I saw your posting indicating you have the recipe for Goody Goody hamburger sauce. Is it available? I grew up in Dayton and always loved the food at Goody Goody, especially the hamburger sauce, but also the onion soup, and Boston cream oie.

        Jim Barber,
        jpbarber01@gmail.com
        407-366-3550.

      • Robin says:

        sue Koehl: I just came upon your post.

        Sue, I grew up in Santa Monica, where (as I understand) they built their last Goody-Goody Drive In. Any information about the restaurant’s history would be much appreciated. But of particular interest would be their “Cream of Onion Soup” recipe,
        and any pictures you might have of the various locations. Especially of the Santa Monica Goody-Goody. I have no commercial interest in any of these items, just to let you know.
        Just a nostalgic love for the old place in my youth. Thank You

  5. Pat Wagner says:

    To Sue Koehl…
    If the Goody Goody you mentioned in your Feb 27 posting is the Santa Monica site on Berkley & Wilshire, I would be very interested in any photos and info you may have. Would you consider emailing photos, or are you offering them only for sale?
    I lived within very easy walking distance from the Santa monica site and ate there quite frequently in the late ’50’s and early ’60’s.
    Please contact me at 1501atw@charter.net
    Thanks….

    Pat.

  6. Betsy Schiazza says:

    I used to go to Goody Goody’s with my grandparents and brother back in the late 30’s and early 40’s. It was such a treat to get our food served on the trays attached to the windows. We had their hamburgers, hotdogs and always butterscotch pie. Such great memories. Later when I was living in Chicago and we came to Florida on vacation with my two children we always stopped by to buy the pie. Sometimes when I was only with my husband we would bring back the famous butterscotch pies on the plane. We have tried to make the pie with a recipe that is supposed to be the original one but somehow it isn’t the same. Tampa has changed so much.

  7. Bob Leland says:

    Back in the late forties and early fifties, I was in Fairview HS which was a few blocks from the Goody’s in Dayton, Ohio. It was a regular “hangout” in those years. My first date with my present wife, Anita Shannon Leland, was at Goody’s. Somebody sent me a recipe for the hanburger sauce recently which caused me to Google the Goody’s name. I’m not sure how accurate the recipe is and I haven’t tried it yet. Anyway, thanks for the information about an old Dayton icon.

    • James Barber says:

      Bob, I grew up in Dayton and have wonderful memories of the food at Goody Goody. Would you be willing to share the recipe for hamburger sauce? It would be an awesome thing to be able to enjoy it again! Regards J.Barber — jpbarber01@gmail.com

  8. Dr. Roger Harris says:

    Goody Goody Hamburger sauce
    1 stick butter
    3 15 oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes(cut up the tomatoes)
    1 tblsp. celery seed
    1 clove of garlic, minced
    1 tblsp. pepper
    1 tblsp salt
    2 small onions, chopped fine
    Optional: add a little sugar and cut the salt in half.

    Add all of the ingredients together in a sauce pan and cook on low heat for about 3-4 hours. If you double the recipe, cook for 5-6 hours.
    Fry hamburgers (thin) and toast or broil buns with butter on them.
    Top hamburgers with sauce, sliced hamburger, dills and mayo(optional)
    ======================================================================
    Goody’s Onion Soup
    1 Bermuda Onion, chopped finely
    3 Tablespoons of Butter, divided
    2 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
    1 Cup whole milk
    1 13 3/4 oz can chicken broth

    Croutons and Grated Parmesan Cheese

    Saute onion in 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Butter until transparent. Set aside. In another pan make a white sauce by melting remaining butter. Stir in cornstarch with a wire whisk and add milk. Continue stirring and cooking until sauce thickens. Add chicken broth and onions. Serve plain or with homemade croutons and parmesan cheese.
    =================================================================================================
    MORE MEMORIES:

    The late 50s and 60s were a wonderful time to be growing up in Dayton View. An age of pure innocence. THE place to go for us Colonel White HS (YEA! City football championships 1960) and Fairview (BOO!) students on any given weekend after a football or basketball game or with your date after a movie (Da-Vue theater, later displaced by Good Samaritan staff doctors’ offices, was the preferred ESCAPE for “youts” equipped with butts capable of and minds eager to watch coming attractions, newsreels, cartoons & wonderful DOUBLE-FEATURES, thus effectively giving our poor parents a PAROLE lasting the better part of a Saturday), was Goody Goody’s. There was ALWAYS a line to get in – it wasn’t a large place – 20 or 25 tables, MAX. If you didn’t want carry-out, (WHO DID…you were there to eat AND BE SEEN,)you waited by the fish-tank to be seated, looking to see which friends were already there, and guarded by Howard, the stern manager and teen-WRANGLER who manned the gateway to heaven on earth and made sure decorum was maintained. My standing order was a cheeseburger, with special sauce, shoe-strings (french-fries)with gravy and a root beer freeze. An E-Z way for dessert. For those uninitiated, the latter was a slice of chocolate pan cake or brownie, with vanilla ice cream and soaked in chocolate sauce- instant tooth decay and, with a calorie count immeasurable except with a slide-rule (remember this was BEFORE calculators!), an instant increase of waist-line. OH, THE CALORIES…OH, THE CHOLESTEROL… OH, THE TASTE & THRILL! PURE NIRVANA! That meal was so delicious, the kids from Jullienne and Chaminade had long-ago declared them a VENIAL SIN. A “rent-a-cop” played the role of “outside Howard” for those who stayed in their cars, waiting for the “car-hop” to deliver your order on a tray which would hook onto your car window.
    Special family occasions were spent at ANTICOLI’s which had a salad dressing of pure garlic ecstasy and a pasta sauce par excellence of even more garlic. The only defense for the family is that ALL OF US REEKED an equal amount for days after. For my dad’s 65th birthday, I brought a TEN POUND lobster back to Dayton, from where I was living in Mystic, CT. “Clyde” the lobster was hidden in the basement refrigerator, until the celebration, with assorted cousins in attendance. Once Clyde was introduced to his fate, the next problem was HOW to cook the poor victim. A quick call to Gloria, owner of Anticoli’s, provided the solution – they had the only pot LARGE ENOUGH to accommodate Clyde, whose length approached 24 inches! Clyde gave his ALL for almost 20 family members.

    VERY special occasions, such as parents’ anniversaries or Mother’s Day, called for higher goals: KING COLE’s downtown. THAT is beyond my mere mortal capabilities to describe. Georgie Rudin’s “Tropics,” south of Delaware & Main St. was very high on our family’s list of cullinary rewards. RUMAKI, anyone? Scandalously named drinks such as the “Vicious Virgin” and “Suffering Bastard” seemed to make everything taste even better.

    Miami Hardware, where I worked for the Gerson family through a few years of high school, was across the street from Goody’s, as was Frank’s Poultry, a block North, where the aroma of rotisserie chickens made the thoughts of illicit drug use seem like a poor second choice. You could get a CONTACT HIGH just inhaling deeply in Frank’s! Capons (the Michael Jackson of chickendom) a deep dark brown, dripping juices & meant only for residents of Mount Olympus, was the meal along with cole slaw. There was always a line at Frank’s also. A few doors North of Goody’s was the Vernor’s plant, run by Nate Barbash, which also produced SQUIRT, a lemony soft drink I periodically indulge in even to this day. Another fond memory was the drugstore on the corner of Delaware and Richmond, with their old-fashioned soda fountain, where you could get a NECTAR PHOSPHATE, a not-too-sweet pink, bubbly cure for the hypoglycemic non-drivers who rode their bikes there. Mid-way between home (Harvard Blvd) and the above Upper Dayton View mecca, was HUSSMAN’s, on the corner of Salem & Catalpa. Hussman’s was THE FIRST to offer a 15 cent hamburger before McDonalds has sold their 1st million nationally. Wash down those burgerS (YES…PLURAL! After all, we were in high school and had the appetites of very large Jurassic carnivores) with a root beer served up in thick mugs stored in an ice cream freezer, so the drink froze to the sides. Risk was rife when going to Hussman’s during the week, as it required “cutting out” from the oh-so-mundane fare (eternal sloppy-Joes) served in the school cafeteria. Only inmates from Alcatraz had stricter regulations! At least it seemed that way. RIGHT?!?!?

    Now THOSE WERE the “Goody” old days. Thomas Wolf was WRONG…You CAN go home…if only in your mind!

    • Is that really the sauce recipe? I am going to try it and see.

    • mary ann keyes (walker) says:

      OMG—Roger,is this you? The reference to Harvard is what did it!! Howd just sent me the same recipe which prompted me to go on line to see if any of the other recipes were available.

      Your piece sure brought back memories but you forgot a few: Cassano’s Pizza, for one. I still have them shipped every year at Christmas for my son! And, what about Frisches—their fish sandwiches were the best —after Goody’s, of course. And, don’t forget the Rike’s dining room; to this day, I make their open faced chicken sandwiches.

      Hope all is well; this has been fun. ma

    • Tom Murph says:

      Roger, Take a look at our class website http://www.fairview58.org for old memories, I want to put a page on about Goody’s and the other places you mention and am looking for memoribelia. Can you help me? Thanks, Tom

  9. Dan Perez says:

    David Burns and Glenda Stayer Wood,
    I’m very much interested in the early history of the Tampa Goody Goody. I was around when the GG closed, and was friends with the Wheeler bros Dick & Mike. I have a web page dedicated to the GG with pics that I’ve taken, at http://www.tampapix.com/goodygoody.htm. See page 2 for my historical account so far.

    I’ve come across a 1930 photo of the Tampa Goody Goody when it was on Grand Central Ave. (now Kennedy Blvd). The photo is at:
    http://digital.hcplc.org/burgert/archive06/5487.jpg
    I understand that the GG moved to it’s Florida Ave location around 1930, so I’m assuming this 1930 photo on Grand Central is the original Tampa location. What puzzles me is that this is “Goody Goody No. 2” as indicated on the building and the caption, which reads: “Goody-Goody Sandwich Shop, (No. 2), 1629 Grand Central Avenue with parked cars under awnings awaiting food service : (Hyde Park)” Was this “No.2” due to the original Dayton Ohio location and is this the location opened by Ralph Stephens?

    Please email me at dano@tampapix.com, I would like to have an accurate early history of the GG in Tampa. Thanks so much. Dan Perez

  10. The Goody Goody on Salem Ave. had the finest butterscotch pie I have ever eaten. Restaurants abound here, Florida, have their version of it, but none compares with the one at the old Goody Goody. Is there any way to get some here in Florida, or the recipe?? That would be great.. Ken Umpenhour

  11. Dan Perez says:

    I’ve been researching the various Goody Goody location histories, from those who knew it, Internet sources, interviews with family members of owners, and from public records. Here’s what I’ve found, and still working on it.

    In the early 1920s, a 27-year-old hotel proprietor named Ralph Stephens decided to go into the restaurant business in Oklahoma City. After two unsuccessful attempts at restaurants, the then 30-year-old Ohio Native moved his family to Dallas in 1923 where he saw the success of a drive-in ?pig stand?. He took a job with a popular local chain, and before opening a company stand in Little Rock, a trip to his father-in-law?s in Hannibal, MO, gave him time to reconsider. He decided to go into business for himself with his own barbecue stand.

    He opened his own stand in Hannibal, Missouri, in June of 1925, and named Goody Goody. But before the end of the year, the business failed. He headed for Tampa with his wife Amanda, teenage sons Robert & Vincent and 8-year-old daughter Dolores.

    In Tampa in late 1925, Stephens partnered with 35-year-old Ohio native and former Dayton, Ohio bookkeeper Wm. L. Reid to open Goody Goody Barbecue at 1603 Grand Central Ave. in Tampa. Goody Goody’s first listing was in the 1926 Tampa city directory, with Stephens and Reid as owners–the only year that Reid mentioned.

    Reid, who apparently had been in Tampa less than 2 years, ended his partnership with Stephens by 1927 and returned to Ohio with his wife Jessie and 12-yr-old son Robert. In 1927 in Dayton, Reid opened a lunch room at 3521 W. 3rd St., with his wife Jessie operating the restaurant. After Wm. Reid’s death around 1936, his wife Jessie became owner and operator. In 1939, the Reid’s lunch room was named Goody Goody Sandwiches and Jessie opened another location at 2841 Salem Ave. in Dayton. 1939 is the first year any mention of the name Goody Goody is found in any of the Dayton directories. Before that, the Reid’s restaurant is just referred to as “Lunch Room.” The new Salem location was a large, Tudor-style building with a large dining room that served about 140, with drive-in service and car hops. Both locations were open in 1940, but the W. 3rd St. location was soon closed. William and Jessie’s son, Bob Reid, who previously was a business machines salesman, joined the family business in the mid-to-late 1930s. Along with his wife, Mary, they managed and later owned the Goody Goody into the 1970s. 1959 is the last year the directories list Jessie Reid as being affiliated with the Goody Goody in Dayton. It is said that the GG in Dayton closed, or burned, in the 1970s and that Bob Reid opened a GG in Santa Monica, CA.

    Back to Ralph Stephens in Tampa:
    In 1927, Stephens moved Goody Goody in Tampa from 1603 to 1629 Grand Central, the corner at Rome Ave., and took advantage of more area for parking and curb service. In 1928, Stephens opened Goody Goody Sandwich Shop at 5201 N. Florida Avenue, the Seminole Heights area of Tampa. The shop was located a block north of the Seminole Theater.

    The economic collapse of 1929 and the decline of the Florida land boom caused Stephens to look for a way out. He saw a classified ad placed by Wm. Bechtel Stayer, which read ?Have $10,000 to invest, would like to buy a small business.?

    Stayer was a 45-year-old former insurance salesman from Pittsburgh who wintered in Winter Haven, Florida where he owned a grove, and had moved to Lakeland, Florida after his 2nd marriage ended. He often travelled to Tampa to frequent the Spanish restaurants and bars. Wanting to get back into business, he bought the Goody Goody from Stephens, even though he had vowed earlier never to by a barbecue stand.

    After selling to Stayer in 1929, the Stephens family returned to Oklahoma City with Ralph determined to settle his debts and prove he could be a successful restaurant operator. He achieved success with the restaurant named for his daughter, Dolores, in more than one location.

    Married by then to a former nurse in Lakeland, Stayer moved to Tampa with his wife Sarah, teenage children Elizabeth “Betty” and Robert, and 10-year old son John, and became a restaurant operator. His oldest son, Carl, an insurance adjuster, lived in Pittsburgh with his wife Margaret. His next oldest son, William Vincent Stayer, a crane director for the PA Railroad Co, also lived in Pittsburgh, along with his wife Stella and children Darlene and Vernon. Wm. B. Stayer’s next oldest son, Glenn E. Stayer was earning his medical doctorate degree at the time, and joined the family with his M.D. degree in Tampa by 1935 at age 25. Glenn later lived in Birmingham, AL with his wife Marian and 2nd wife Jean, where he maintained his practice in the mid 1940s to the early 1960s.

    By 1930, Stayer closed the short-lived Goody Goody sandwich shop at 5201 N. Florida Avenue and in 1930 opened a new location in the northern fringe area of downtown–1119 N. Florida Avenue. In the early 1930s, he also opened one in Jacksonville, but by 1933 he closed it, along with the original Tampa location on Grand Central, and consolidated all his operations at the new downtown shop. The new downtown shop provided a small area for those who wished to eat inside, with seating for around 10 to 12 patrons in desk-chairs. But the curb service is what continued to make it a popular lunch spot.

    Around the mid-1930s, sons Bill and Bob became involved with the business. By 1941, business was doing so well that Stayer expanded the front of the building to create a larger dine-in area that sat around 52 customers.

    I have more about the Stayer years, but still working on putting it together on my website. Stayer sold to Mike Wheeler who leased to Yvonne Freeman who ran the GG up until Nov. 2005 when it closed, and was demolished in early 2006.

    My thoughts about the famous Good Goody hamburger sauce and pie recipes from the evidence found:
    With Ralph Stephens’ background in restaurants, and Wm. Reid’s background in accounting/bookkeeping, (from the 1920census and directories from 1921 through 1925, he was an accountant at a rake company, a bookkeeper, a clerk, and a payroll clerk) I’m convinced that the famous sauce recipe came with Stephens from Oklahoma to Tampa. In fact, one source says that when Stephens sold GG in Tampa and went back to Oklahoma… “he was coming with a secret weapon. While in Hannibal, Amanda Stephens obtained a recipe for ?comeback? sauce from a barbeque stand in nearby Quincy, Ill.” I believe it’s highly probable that that recipe came with Stephens when they left Hannibal for Tampa, used it in Tampa, and used it again (or some variant) when they got back to OK City and eventually at Dolores Restaurant.

    As for Reid, he was in Tampa at GG with Stephens at most for 2 years, and probably more like just 1 year, and I believe that when he split from Tampa and went back to Dayton, he took with him Stephens’ recipe for the sauce. I also believe the same goes for the pie recipes. Stephens had the restaurant background, Reid was the numbers man or money man in Tampa. Notice that when Wm. Reid got back to Dayton, he opened as lunch room which by the mid to late 1930s, was named Goody Goody. His son, Bob Reid and wife Mary, didn’t enter the restaurant business until shortly before that time they opened on Salem Ave. in 1939. As for the Santa Monica GG, I’ve found a Mrs. Jessie Bischoff as the owner in 1947, then Ed Thrasher in 1952.

    Much of the info above I’ve concluded from census records, public records and city directories, along with comments made by relatives and those who knew the owners families.

  12. Jennie Druger says:

    Butterscotch Pie
    1 8? pie shell baked
    1 ? cup brown Sugar
    3 tablespoons flour
    2 tablespoons white sugar
    3 tablespoons cornstarch
    1 ? cups water
    2 egg yolks
    3 tablespoons butter
    1/8 teaspoon vanilla

    Mix flour, cornstarch brown and white sugar
    Add water and cook until very thick, stirring constantly
    Add slightly beaten egg yolks cook 1 minute, stirring constantly
    Remove from heat; add butter, salt and vanilla then allow to cool
    Pour into crust
    Top with meringue and bake 12 minutes in oven at 350

    Meringue (We like lots of meringue, so I double the recipe add a couple minutes baking time)
    2 egg whites
    1/8 teaspoon salt
    4 tablespoons sugar
    ? teaspoon vanilla
    Beat egg whites, and gradually add sugar a teaspoon at a time, beat until stiff peaks add the salt and vanilla at the last.
    Some recipes add cream of tartar to stabilize the egg whites, and of course, be sure your bowl and beaters have no oil residue.

    • Jennie Druger says:

      Dear moderator, The cut an paste messed up the amounts…argh! Sorry! Should be:

      1 8 inch pie crust

      Filling
      1 1/2 cups brown sugar
      1 1/2 cups water

      In meringue:
      1/2 teaspoon vanilla

      Hope you can fix for me!!
      Thanks for a great place to remember such goody goody times!

  13. Dan Perez says:

    When Ralph Stephens first went into the restaurant business in Oklahoma City in 1921, he set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the creation of restaurants in Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and California, for the Stephens and Reid families and those who followed them. These famous restaurants, Goody Goody and Dolores, were independent operations that shared some common roots, traditions, and menu items. To those who patronized them, these names still evoke memories of delicious food–a delicious hamburger with secret sauce, and homemade pies–and happy times.

    All of these restaurants shared a common thread. Even today, former Goody-Goody and Dolores patrons in several cities share their memories of the good times there, the unique hamburger sauce, and the delicious homemade pies (in particular, Yvonne Freeman’s butterscotch pie of Tampa’s Goody Goody and the “Black Bottom” pie of Dolores Restaurant.) According to Yvonne Freeman and Mike Wheeler(the last of the Goody Goody proprietors/owners in Tampa), the recipes have not been changed since the time they were passed to them by the Stayers, who got them from the Stephenses.

    There are numerous postings on the Internet that claim they have the Goody-Goody secret sauce recipe. Some recipes have been shared by relatives or friends of the Reid family, others are attempts to reproduce the sauce recipe from taste. Only two people currently really know the composition of the original Stephens recipe, and the cooking instructions: Mike Wheeler and Yvonne Freeman, and they’re not telling! Like Coca-Cola and other businesses that depend on the secrecy of their recipes, the owners of Goody-Goody in Tampa have continued to maintain the secrecy of their proprietary recipes, on the possibility that the restaurant might at some point be reopened at a new location. Any recipes found on the Internet, claiming to be the secret sauce recipe used at Tampa’s Goody-Goody are dubious at best.

  14. betsy hopkins smith says:

    thank you all so much for sharing all of your memories–which are my memories, too. what a wonderful time and place to grow up in dayton view in the 50s & 60s.

  15. Lynne Williams says:

    My sister and I went to Fairview High School in the late 50’s. When we could scrape up enough money, we would head to Goody’s for lunch to get the hamburger with the special sauce, french fries (none better) and a piece of pecan pie… if we could afford it. If we did not have enough money, we ate at the Hasty Tasty on the other side of the street. The Reid’s were relatives of my father’s high school chum. My sister has always attended her high school reunions and several years ago they got someone to try to duplicate the sauce so they could remember the great hamburgers.

  16. Lisa Herres says:

    My recipes for Goody Goody matches the doctor’s for the Onion Soup and the Tom Sauce. I have a different recipe for the Butterscotch Pie. I got these from my mom who said they were printed in a Dayton Newspaper a long time ago. I have never made the crust. I use my own go to pie crust recipe.

    Butterscotch Pie:

    Crust:
    4 c Flour
    1 3/4 c Lard (cold)
    3 T sugar
    2 t salt.
    That is all I have for the crust ingredients. Bake crust with weights and cool before filling.

    1 c Dark brown sugar
    3 T of cornstarch (Original had Flour for the thickening agent)
    2 T butter
    1 c whole milk
    1/2 t salt
    3 egg yolks
    1 T vanilla
    2 T white sugar

    *little t denotes teaspoon and capital T denotes Tablespoon

    Put milk and butter in saucepan over medium low heat. Once butter is melted add brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt and stir constantly until thick. Add lightly beaten egg yolks and mix and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla and white sugar. Cool with wax paper on top. Add to baked pie shell and put in the refrigerator until well chilled.

    Meringue:

    3 egg whites
    1/8 t cream of tarter
    6 T sugar
    1/2 t vanilla.

    In clean bowl with whisk attachment. Whip whites, tarter, sugar until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla. Smooth on Pie. Put pie in over under broiler for a couple of minutes until golden peaks.

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