Museum Blog - July 2017
Until the late 1960’s, the west side of Brookdale Avenue between the Mall and Town Line Bowling had not been developed for retail purposes, as is the case in 2017. The photo below was taken prior to the construction of the Brookdale Mall.
1969 saw the Red Barn open at 1110 Brookdale Avenue (photo below – above the train tracks) and remain until 1973.
In 1973, the Ponderosa Steak House opened next door at 1106 Brookdale Avenue (Photo Below)
The managers at this location seemed to change frequently. John Belcarz was there in 1973; Rex Liddle in 1978; and Cathy Pitts in 1982. Vance Vandermark was the final manager, from 1984 until its closure in 1985. Boston Pizza looked into purchasing the property after Ponderosa’s closure, however it was bought out by East Side Mario’s, which remains at 1106 Brookdale to this day.
After the Red Barn closed, Dansk Factory Outlet opened there for a time. The Red Barn building was moved to 3015 Vincent Massey Drive, and became the home of Midway Motors.
Dansk was followed by Frank Vetere’s Pizzeria, which was open from 1980 until 1985.
Moviola Cafe replaced Vetere’s in 1986. It remained open until 1995 when it lost its liquor licence for not paying $180,000 in outstanding sales taxes.
Moviola’s building burned down several months after its closure, and a new facility was built to house Nickel’s restaurant. Nickels was owned by Steve Kamburis, Jim Polidor and Marco Debres, pictured below in 1996:
Nickel’s was closed in March 2004 due to poor sales and was demolished in the winter of 2005. The property was rebuilt and inhabited by Shoeless Shoes.
