Old Clock Restaurant chain

[GPCharles]

Old story - went into the Clock on Mack Avenue [[either in GP or Detroit, not quite sure) after a big black-tie party at GPYC. One of the guys I was with ordered the right hand side of the menu. The waitress looked at him like he was crazy [[which he may have been). He ate about 1/2 and had the rest boxed to take with. Turns out he left it in the [[borrowed) car overnight and 1/2 the next day in 90 degree heat. The car had to be fumigated.

[Richard]

This was a nice read and like they say,you learn something new every day,I was not aware of Thier country wide existence.

In Fla they are still around in the very small towns but Cracker Barrel has replaced them in the large populated ereas,quadruple the size but with the same home style cooking menu with an attached old time style store,and they stay packed with a line waiting all day.

Before many shut it was as described,very dated,but still good food.

[kathy2trips]

I worked at the 12 & Groesbeck Clock too, mid 70s. The National Coney Island sign is the old Clock sign, without the actual clock on top. They called the upper level overflow area the "set".
If I ever hear Philadelphia Freedom or Moonshadow, I'm right there again.

I loved that one; I went there the most when I lived in Warren. I can't tell you how many term papers I wrote [[in longhand on legal pads) there.

[kathy2trips]

Joseph R. Everson [[1915-1988) opened the first Clock Restaurant in 1959 in Redford, and at one time owned 50 locations in Michigan and Ohio. He retired from a successful grocery operation at 44 years old. So, he started the Clock Restaurants. His son said he started the first restaurant because he was bored with retirement and they blossomed from there.

If anyone knows where the original Redford location was, I'd be interested to know.

[248lurker]

And, I want to think it was a Nugget on 11 Mile in Royal Oak... ate there a few times too, but for the life of me I can't be sure. It was the early-to-mid 1970s and we were after starchy food after the bars closed.

You're right that it was the Nugget on 11 & Main - across Main Street from the Ace Hardware. I believe the Nugget is now a Mediterranean restaurant and Ace is now a Leo's Coney Island.

Larger Clocks, from 70's:
-Southfield rd, S of 10 Mile Rd was called Olympia Flame last time I was in the area.

The Clock at 10 & Southfield eventually became Starlite Coney Island until it became the Olympia Flame within the past couple of years.

[Dumpling]

Hilzinger's Ace Hardware

[Bigb23]

Was a Clock restaurant located at the Paint Creek location before Denny's or was it there before the South Hill location ? So many Coney's - chain restaurants closings, Rams Horns, Et Al, makes me doubt my drug fueled youth.

Copper Penny - Ha, got one.

[Michael Hojnacki]

The original Clock in Hamtramck closed years ago. It became a Coney but that shuttered as well. That is where mayor Albert J Zak had his last meal before collapsing nearby. I remember seeing the owners there when I was a kid. At that time they both had the same first names, Dave or Pat? Don't recall though.

[Dan Wesson]

The Hamtramck Clock back in the day, mid 70's had a great breakfast. Us Sears service guys would hit the place in the am. I would do the same on my days off. Then one day everything came with a red dusting on it. ????
Apparently the Clock had a new Albanian owner. We found another greasy spoon nearby to eat, not as good as it was before The Clock was sold.

[Michael Hojnacki]

I remember when the old clock had small jukeboxes at each table and the blue mechanical cash register. In the 90s it did have Albanian owners, they kept it a Clock but later it was changed to another name with red all over it in the mid-2000's. I believe it closed up now.

[Bigb23]

Really bad video - but I want one. Table juke mp3 player. Also on my wish list, a drive in speaker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbviIb5JalY

[ChiroKirk]

after bar crowd?

"Oh yea... and BEFORE bar [[and concert crowd)... and DURING bar [[and concert crowd). LOL"

[Jim Orlando]

I dated a waitress from the Clock on Gratiot [[at Young St.). E. Warren & Cadieux [[Harvard) was another Clock I went to. It was about a block west [[or south, depending how you look at the map). I remember Monte's on Gratiot, also. Wasn't that a tiny place on the corner of Gratiot and Seymour? I used to live on Oldtown, just behind Finney High.

[Henry Whalley]

...I...had to be fumigated.

Ditto, but I used a same day fumigation service. Also, I dated a Clock hostess who had to be fumigated. But seriously, there used to be an around-the-clock diner near downtown on Cass or Second Ave., and one on Woodward across from Palmer Park IIRC. Detroit was a town that never slept in those days.

food-drink-greasy_spoon-cafe-customer_service-hygienic-restaurant_inspector-tcrn1289_low.jpg [[500×463)

[jcole]

My dad loved The Clock on 8 near Gratiot; had my first Swanky Franky there. Saw one on a menu yesterday in W Bloomfield for $11.90....

[13606Cedargrove]

Yes, Monte's was on the Northeast corner of Gratiot and Seymour. Regarding directions: In that neighborhood we referred to Gratiot as a North/South street. It was a bit confusing because Gratiot runs in a Southwest/Northeast diagonal, so it intersects with many North/South roads.