Coffee Shop On Woodward 1960's-70's?

[Isle_of_fun]

Nice write up Pancakelover!
Qwikiees largest restaurant, donut shop & deli was on State & Griswald. I know because I worked there while I was in High school. They had hot complete meals, from pot roast dinner to meatloaf, chicken etc. It was Cafeteria style and they only served it during the lunch rush. YES ! the donuts were the best! They also had a malts, milkshakes, ice cream [[Limited) area right along side the donuts. Much of the food was made in another building and then carried or drove to certain locations. The Grand River St. one usually had the students from Cass Tech and some other schools hanging out. Since it was past the lunch rush time the owners enjoyed their business . I worked with some of Detroit's finest, two very formal elderly sisters that worked and lived downtown, two gals that were on the women' wrestling circuit,[[never knew that it even existed). Last but not least this great cashier who could add and subtract so fast half the people did not even know if they were paying correctly. There were no bar codes then and you had to add in your head then enter that amount against the amount that was given to you to make change. That got a little crazy during rush hour. She was a pro. My boss was always professional and he was of the opinion that his workers were always right whenever there was a customer dispute. I guess they really liked me as they offered me a management position at another location when I was only 18. I would have made a true living wage if I had taken it. They were very fair employers! Their main offices I think were above the Grand River St. Qwikees. I do not recall where their hot food prep kitchen was. I do know it was fairly close to State & Griswald. Qwikees did feed and service many people in the whole downtown area, I knew of 6 locations . Their business model was unique for that time period! I do think that the combination that they had going could work again in any city.

[preserve]

The closest I've come to that chocolate iced fried cake is Supreme Bakery. Quikee's was the best.

[pancakelover]

Nice write up Pancakelover!
Qwikiees largest restaurant, donut shop & deli was on State & Griswald. I know because I worked there while I was in High school. They had hot complete meals, from pot roast dinner to meatloaf, chicken etc. It was Cafeteria style and they only served it during the lunch rush. YES ! the donuts were the best! They also had a malts, milkshakes, ice cream [[Limited) area right along side the donuts. Much of the food was made in another building and then carried or drove to certain locations. The Grand River St. one usually had the students from Cass Tech and some other schools hanging out. Since it was past the lunch rush time the owners enjoyed their business . I worked with some of Detroit's finest, two very formal elderly sisters that worked and lived downtown, two gals that were on the women' wrestling circuit,[[never knew that it even existed). Last but not least this great cashier who could add and subtract so fast half the people did not even know if they were paying correctly. There were no bar codes then and you had to add in your head then enter that amount against the amount that was given to you to make change. That got a little crazy during rush hour. She was a pro. My boss was always professional and he was of the opinion that his workers were always right whenever there was a customer dispute. I guess they really liked me as they offered me a management position at another location when I was only 18. I would have made a true living wage if I had taken it. They were very fair employers! Their main offices I think were above the Grand River St. Qwikees. I do not recall where their hot food prep kitchen was. I do know it was fairly close to State & Griswald. Qwikees did feed and service many people in the whole downtown area, I knew of 6 locations . Their business model was unique for that time period! I do think that the combination that they had going could work again in any city.

That's interesting. What years did you work there? Another thing I remembered after submitting my write up was the "seating" arrangement for customers at the Grand River Quickee. As you entered the shop, the serving counter was ahead of you at the back, and there were small tables in the center of the shop. Over to the left side was the place where you ordered dozens or half dozens of donuts to be boxed for take home. But over to the right was "stand up" seating. Not real seating at all--you stood at a sort of partition with a counter of the right height and in front of you was a glass panel with a page of today's Detroit newspaper for you to read while you bolted your donut and coffee. There were at least four or five of these "partitions" and three or four people had room to stand next to each other, drink coffee, eat a sandwich or donut and read the paper. I actually used to see people taking advantage of that opportunity to catch a few news stories. There was also a stairway leading down to the basement and there was much more seating space there. When you were finished eating you just left and an employee cleared your table and took away the bowls, mugs etc. that you had used.

There were plenty of good cafeterias downtown, too, including Hudson's cafeteria in their basement, but Greenfield's on Griswold [[also a "downstairs" place) was even nicer. A not-so-nice one was Kartson's on Woodward up closer to Grand Circus Park. My personal favorite was Greenfield's but of course my experience was limited to just those three.

[Maof]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/8879949...kee-donut-shop

this look familar?

[gazhekwe]

MMM, I am having an attack of nostalgia and mouthwatering. I worked across the street at the First National Building 1967-69, and every week I would indulge myself in a frosted fried cake and coffee. Usually got breakfast at Shapiro's on my way to the elevators, but I sure looked forward to that fried cake. They looked so heavenly, laid out on trays with the different color frostings. Thank you, pancakelover!

[pancakelover]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/8879949...kee-donut-shop

this look familar?

YES!!! And I remember that special shape of the handle too! And I now remember the "Get your daily dozen" slogan--it was on the boxes too. I took it seriously too--I never left downtown on a bus without "my daily dozen." Matter of fact when my mother told me "Get a dozen donuts at the Quikee shop, my friends and I secretly bought two dozen and ate the second dozen on the bus!

[Maof]

http://www.historicfilms.com/tapes/16071

i found this, seems to be someone's home movies, but if you go to about 5:15:30, you will see the Quickee's electric sign

[Maof]

....also 15:16:38 shows another.

[pancakelover]

....also 15:16:38 shows another.

Thank you! I watched those clips several times. I notice that in one clip there's a Quikee delivery truck parked with rear doors open and a sign painted on the side of it says "Three Downtown Locations: 25 W. Grand River, Hammond Building, Lincoln Building." Of course the "25 W. Grand River" is the one with the neon sign with the hand dipping the donut. The Hammond Building was a very old brick building about 8 or 9 stories high built in 1889 and described as "Detroit's first sky scraper." It was torn down in 1956--it was just south of the old City Hall and occupied the block on Fort Street between Griswold and Woodward. I have no idea where the "Lincoln Building" was. I tried Googling it but no luck [[except for the Lincoln car factory on Warren and Livernois, which of course is not downtown.) Anyway the movie is dated 1954 so it appears that in that year there were just 3 locations downtown, but in the later 1950s there were many more and some posters have mentioned branches in the Lafayette building, the Park building and others. All this is very interesting to me.

[Maof]

Interesting to me too. I wasn't born yet so obviously didn't know anything about Quickee's. I just like the history of it all.

[douglasm]

What interested me about the clip was just before the Quickie shot, the riverfront shots show one of the D&C boats tied up at the foot of Second Street.

[softailrider]

softrailrider
Nice welcome for a first time poster. :/

How about nice warm apple fritter? I'll leave a bag on your doorstep.

Excellent post pancake. Welcome aboard!

I was a true donut lover, I wish I could eat one or two [[or a half dozen) on occasion but to me they're like drugs, I couldn't really eat them in a recreational manner so I just completely stopped. It was never my intent to disparage Pancakes excellent, descriptive post.

[Isle_of_fun]

gazhekwe,
We have crossed paths as I worked at Qwikees from 67 - 69. I worked later in the day and on some Saturdays, and any day that we had no school. I really liked making money.
I do recall some of our regular customers only because we had one worker [[ always that one worker) who would label people and say sarcastic things about them. She was so annoying, anyway the two elderly gals would change it up to a positive comment and shut her up. It was great! I do have to say that our uniforms were designed to be a tad see thru and v necked , some of the time the customers were coming in just for the view. You knew who they were because they stood there and could not make up their mind about what they wanted. We had a whole routine when we got the stalkers in. You became street smart very fast. There were a couple times where my boss walked me to the bus stop. All in all we had some really great regular customers. My other favorite shops that I had to walk by everyday were the peanuts and popcorn shop and the wig shop. But having access to all those clothing stores was the BEST!

pancakelover
You got the layout of Grand River store right on. I never worked at that one but hung out with a few kids from my neighborhood when I was not working.

[pancakelover]

I was a true donut lover, I wish I could eat one or two [[or a half dozen) on occasion but to me they're like drugs, I couldn't really eat them in a recreational manner so I just completely stopped. It was never my intent to disparage Pancakes excellent, descriptive post.

Relax, relax!!! You are forgiven. But for what? I didn't feel "disparaged" by your post. I feel for you. In your case it's a donut addiction--in my case it's pancakes. I haven't had a donut in years but right here in my kitchen is a dandy griddle and all the ingredients I need to make pancakes at MIDNIGHT and it happens no matter how hard I try to stop! Years ago I quite buying pancake mix--then I learned how to make pancakes from scratch. Then I stopped buying syrup--then I learned to make it from brown sugar and water! I can't stop buying brown sugar because then how would I make my good cookies? So relax and just keep away from the donuts.

[Kathleen]

Frequented the Qwikee Cafeteria on Washington Blvd. between Grand River and State, when I worked in Book Building from 1979-1982.

Our department really enjoyed their donuts...a no-brainer when it was your turn to "bring the donuts" for the weekly Friday breakfast treat!! And you could count on their wonderful selection of soups...the same scheduled followed each week so you knew what days you had to stop in for soup for lunch. Great service as they handled many lunchtime customers quickly, so allowing us on a 30-minute lunch to stop by and pick up while out running lunchhour errands.

[Isle_of_fun]

Kathleen,
Was that the one attached to a parking garage? I did work there when they needed an extra hand. Sometimes while training they would float me to different locations.
___________________________________________
One of the nicer parts of my job was the female customers who were always dressed super cool. I would do most of my shopping for my cloths based on what I liked from customers who were always willing to tell me where they bought their cloths. Sometimes they would even tell me the amount they paid , or that the store they bought it at was having a sale and I could get it for even less. The nice part of those times was the greatly dressed customers. Very very very rarely did you see someone's butt,
t shirt , tank top, cut jeans or full body tats.
There were some after hours clothing shows and sales as well , they would pass out invites to various workers at some of the smaller shops. They new that most of the clothing shops were closed when we got out of work so they created another market. They also discounted many items for us.

[CassTechGrad]

The first pic shows Awrey Bakery and Greenfields Cafeteria in the lower part to the right in the block next to the circled #4 but no Quickie.

The second pic shows The Mayflower Shop along the right just above the center on Woodward next to the U in avenue.

[Isle_of_fun]

What year are these maps from? Qwikees was on the corner across from Awery's in the 60's.

[pancakelover]

What year are these maps from? Qwikees was on the corner across from Awery's in the 60's.

The maps should have copyright dates printed on them somewhere, but even if they don't, the maps clearly date from BEFORE 1948 for the following reasons: the numbers that are in circles refer to streetcar stopping points and the numbers in squares and rectangles refer to bus stopping points. Number 2 was the Woodward streetcar line, number 16 was the Hamilton streetcar, number 38 was the Grand River streetcar, number 14 was the Fourteenth streetcar. Although the Woodward streetcar [[number 2) operated until 1956, the Grand River and Hamilton streetcar lines were converted to buses in 1947 and the 14th streetcar line was converted to buses in 1948. Therefore these maps were printed no later than in 1947. [[I'm a sort of expert in the history of Detroit streetcars and buses.) Awery Bakery was an old company so it's no surprise that there was an Awery Bakery at State and Griswold back then, but Quikee probably didn't begin to do business till 1950 or even later. Actually I suspect that the maps were printed during World War II because one of the "businesses" named is "U.S. Treasury Department Victory Center Retailers Division," [[on Woodward next to Grinnell's) and the word "victory" suggests to me some kind of organization related to the War--possibly the retailers made donations for "victory." Like "Victory War Bonds," "Victory Gardens," etc.

[Stinger4me]

9606 Prest; I enjoyed several cups of coffee in the showp at Park & Adams and the store on Washington Blvd. I seem to recall there were Mounted Police in the place on a regular basis. Must be something to the "cops & Donuts" theory. Their coffee was good, donuts were good and the place was always clean.

Stinger

[Kathleen]

Kathleen,
Was that the one attached to a parking garage? I did work there when they needed an extra hand. Sometimes while training they would float me to different locations.

The Washington Blvd store was street-level retail in the 2-story building just south of the Book Building & Tower. I don't recall a parking garage per se, but maybe there was a parking garage behind the building on the west side of the block off Times Square.

[Qwikee_Donuts]

That is an excellent story, Pancakelover. Thank you for sharing it with the board.

Would you happen to have any old photos from any of these trips to Qwikee donuts on Grand River? I'm doing some historical research and I would love to have an image of "the neon hand dipping a donut in and out of a cup of coffee--complete with similated steam rising from the cup". I have not heard or seen this anywhere else except in your post. If not, no big deal. Thanks and have a good day!

[Zacha341]

^^^ Love your handle QD!

[Dino]

This is one of my favorite youtube videos of '50s Detroit. The link takes you to a spot about a minute in, which shows a location of Quickee's with the donut in full, glorious motion. But after watching that for a bit, go start the video from the very beginning again. Nice street scene stuff.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Gwvq6zdSw#t=56s

[kathy2trips]

Thank you, pancakelover and Isle_of_fun! Stories like this are more precious than gold to a Detroit history buff like me!