Yes, Rax ruled! Great roast beef and milkshakes. Before that, there was a movie theater there. They always had lots of rock flicks, Easy Rider, Gimme Shelter, Quadrophenia. The first time I tripped, winter '82, we walked there from the dorms to see Kentucky Fried Movie. My face hurt from laughing, then we stopped at the old McDonald's for what seemed like YEARS of waiting and wandering in circles, then walking back down 17th I stopped to watch snowflakes falling in the streetlight. Mesmerizing.
Craig Regala (Mr.Datapanik) and my roommate Rory used to work at the Roxy. Lotsa freebies. Got to go up in the projection room, that was interesting. Those reels of film are pretty big. Hot as hell up there too. But hey, I'm glad they made it into a fitness salon or tanning joint or whatever. Somebody really had their finger on the pulse of the times, huh?

I wish I could access these youtube videos at work (grr), but is Simply Wonderful (I know, terrible name...or was it the equally terrible name Simply Delicious?) among the sights? It was a vegetarian restaurant run by the Krishnas somewhere around 19th and High. It was the first place I discovered that vegetarian fare could taste really good. On Sundays, they had a free feast meal (donations accepted); the only price you had to pay was put up with the Krishna videos playing in the background, and some of the followers would come by your table and say hi, but they were never pushy. Every poor musician I know showed up there on Sundays. The restaurant may have closed by 1985, though...

About University Flick:
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/7308/

About Roxy/World:
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6924/

Someone in the comments on that site mentioned the theater at University City - man, I miss that dump! I'd totally forgotten about it...

i agree with zach. these stories are great. keep 'em coming.

The last time I was in that BK, there was one employee working the cash register, three (visible - maybe more elsewhere) employees smoking cigarettes in the hallway to the bathrooms, and one employee doing all the 'cooking.' The line was 2:30-on-a-Friday-night huge. The cashier was uninterested. The lone woman in the kitchen was running around, getting angrier and angrier. The beeper on the fryer was going off, ignored, for quite some time. Then a second beeper started going. Finally the only worker working went over, turned the beepers off, looked around, and shouted, "Why I always gotta be getting the motherfucking fries?!"

Hilarious. Disturbing. The nail in that BK's coffin, for me at least.
Also, a catchphrase for my friends and me for a long time. Why DO I always gotta be getting the motherfucking fries? Why indeed...

as a highschooler, that BK was the before and after meetup place for our weekend rocky horror excursions at the graceland theater . . .

Wow. I pretty much grew up on south campus, my mom and dad owned a few buildings on 11th & High. I spent years in Sandros, the Silver Ball, Magnolia's, Waterbongs and Snuff, Vegas arcade, the Underground, etc, etc. These videos are hilarious. I love all the old cars and the old campus vibe. I remember being sad when they tore down the south campus slum, DeSantis really really let it go to shit. Now it just looks like any other homoginized street corner in America. I don't know whether or not it's for good or bad, I guess shit just changes, especially in one of the biggest college towns in America. Bla, Bla, Bla, nostalgia rules in a heartless and bland era.

i dj'ed and bartended at sandros's speakeasy, and delivered for sandro's pizza.

i wonder whatever became of rick . . .

Oh and you guys are right about Zantigo's, Rax, Souvlaki Palace, Touchdown, Flamingo, Silver Ball, Sandro's, etc. etc.

I think BS and I have had this Sandro's conversation online and in person like 16 times. But that's okay cause it was awesome!

Yea, rick was always cool when I was a little kid. He'd give me quarters to play (I think) Joust.

Remeber the punk ghetto where the South Campus Taco Bell is now? Or Staten's carry out on 11th that had the old dude, Ralph, always hangin out smokin cigars? Or Fat Jimmy's Fried Chicken? Or the Bw-3's that was downstairs and small? Or that weird triangle mural on the south side of larry's facing Wendys? Just kidding, that's still there.

Wow, this is fun. I'm surprised no one has mentioned that holy-of-holies, Crazy Mama's. I was always fascinated by the curious dichotomy between Crazy Mama's and Papa Joe's: opposite sides of the street, opposite clientele. As a young dumbfuck, my friends and I were scared to go in Mama's, we didn't feel cool enough I guess, so we'd cop quarts of beer and sit on the fire escape steps outside and listen to the music and smell the stale beer and bread baking courtesy of Big Bear Bakery next door and watch the drunks down on the sidewalk. Most of the time, the bouncers would leave us alone. One thing that always sticks with me is how they would always play "Under Pressure" by Bowie at closing time. Any time I hear that song, it takes me back to a Saturday night in the early-'80's. Then we'd go in Phil-E Steak for shrimp eggrolls with hot mustard, another cool little part of the scene. Somewhere along the line, Mama's seemed to get heavier and more serious and less fun somehow. The Gun Club played there, and the bouncers pissed everybody off. But for a while that place was the last refuge of the cool non-jocko crowd, that or Larry's.

Another memory from those times, on Saturday mornings all the punk/new wave kids would dress up and go record shopping, I remember seeing groups of them on south campus with their long dark coats on. This really meant something at the time, it was all just starting, otherwise you had the football crowd, student masses, and a few leftover hippies begging for change on 11th and High. The new music scene hadn't yet been MTV-ized. You actually had to go to record stores to find out about new stuff coming out.

Great Mama's story! BTW the pink-haired girl at the Roxy was probably Ellen, who was Craig Regala's gf at the time. I know she had pink hair once. Stache's will have to wait til tomorrow, I could write a fuckin' book on that place. I definitely spent more time there than any other joint on High St.