Bethel Dipper

No music, movie, or TV Show today on this post. Let’s do Americana…not the music but the places. I love older buildings that represent the style of the era they were built. What’s more Americana than a milkshake, cheeseburger, and fries?

When I grew up we had a place named Strattons that was the dairy dip downtown in our small two red light town. It was the kind of place where you walked up to the window, ordered, waited, got your food, and then either sat on a picnic table or ate in your car. I remember doing that in the mid to late 70s with my sister. It was a very 70s-looking building but in the 1980s it was torn down and rebuilt. It became a 1950s-themed restaurant which was cool…but I missed the original dairy dip. Anyway, here is a picture of it before it right before it was torn down to make room for a Walgreens. Oh, how great progress is…NOT.

Below was the 1950s-themed Strattons before Walgreens in 2010.

Strattons

I was in Russellville Kentucky yesterday and I went to this establishment called The Bethel Dipper. I have been there a few times in the past and it looks really good at night with the carnival-type fluorescent lights.  I like Russellville and want to move there one day. This place is kinda off the beaten path but not too much. It’s like walking into the past and I just wanted to share this.

I have tried to find the history of it but my guess is it started in the 60s. When you see the picture below take your best guess. Not only is the building really cool looking, I love the roof jetting out, but you will not believe the prices. I have the menu below the building.  I asked them how they were able to keep it so cheap and they told me that they only take cash. The debit card companies wanted so much for each card swiped. They also don’t have an expensive POS system to pay monthly on. They also keep their menu simple and very good.

Bethel Dipper 1

Bethel Menu

Strattons right before it was torn down.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

53 thoughts on “Bethel Dipper”

    1. Yea I get tired of the franchises…this took me back to my childhood…it’s good to see things like this still up.
      I’m sad that the Chelsea Drugstore is now a McDonalds over there…sometimes progress isn’t good.

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    1. Oh Strattons was thriving…but Walgreens offered him 2 million for the land for 20 years…and then they have to pay him again…so he took it…it was torn down and it sucked….but I can’t blame him.

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      3. Allow me to divulge. The small town Mama and papa stores took a big hit during the Pandemic as I’m sure you’re well aware of. I used to frequent this great old rustic cinema that showed just art-house movies. It was fab, but was closed down. Big Multicorporates are getting too much of a stranglehold on property and commerce. One song in my youth that I couldn’t be more atuned to with was Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’. I get the Socialist implications of it, but consider how property now is being bought up by grand Chinese and International consortium is a MAJOR concern.

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      4. I agree man…yes we have a small town near here called Springfield….they also had a movie theater like you described that was closed forever when Covid hit and yes the property was bought…it is a concern I agree. We are losing our identity in this as well.

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  7. Cool! Your Strattons looked cool, I always wanted to see a real, ’50s style diner but haven’t, at least since I was a little kid too young to appreciate. And the Dipper looks like a good greasy spoon, affordable like you say. While I don’t mind national chains (I like predictability and knowing what I’ll get no matter which location), there is something special about independent little one-offs like those that have history and give the place some local character. We have a few around here still, I should document one or two

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      1. I took a lot of photos of old, vintage, mostly neon signs around the city when I first got here. I’m glad I did, a good percentage of them have disappeared already in the last 5 or so years

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      2. That is why I blogged this…who knows…it could last another 20 years or it could be gone tomorrow. I hope to find more in my travels.

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  8. Ours was a place officially called “Monona Root Beer Stand”, but everyone called it “hungry hungry”. They had a neon sign that lit up saying “Hungry?” that sequentially got bigger (3 sizes, but we only said it twice). Their claim to fame was their French fries, which were cut on a lathe so they were in the shape of a helix (unless you got the end, which was a slightly domed disk). It was right across from the beach, so a handy stop when you got hungry while swimming. They had car hops (no roller skates that I recall).

    The first bike club in town was called the “A&W Two-Tyred Wheelmen”. They met at an A&W and rode to other A&Ws in surrounding towns.

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    1. That place sounds great…whichever name you use. It’s nice to see some are still standing and in business. I am so tired of chains…I love these hidden away places that haven’t changed much. This place still has an older cash register. The food lived up to the place as well.

      Those fries sound great.

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    2. That is the business I’m in (but more on the corporate side)…partly…and some cost quite a bit. They use an old cash register. You can get by with that in a small place….you would lose your shirt in a chain though.

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    1. Mel’s Drive In! I remember that well. I love that building they used. Yea I love places like this and will always stop when I see one…over a chain any day.

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  11. Yep, we had a 50/60s cafe with those wall booths and the Wurlitzer flashing away, but t was an actual hangover from the past, before retro was cool. It faded away or was bought up and lwound up lost in transition/renovation into some same ‘ol same street frontage block of businesses. It was quite a while ago now, I’d say before the century turned. I can’t quite recall the name- Reno’s or Reon’s, or Rory’s? Racy’s?- dunno, it’ll come to me as soon as I post this response- of course.🙂

    Good post Max. Nothing stays around forever, that’s how the world churns.

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    1. Yea I know obbverse but I hope we can hold on to a few…but I get it. I try to treasure the ones I find. I guess what is aggravating is finding a Walgreens in place of our place…but I wouldn’t like anything!

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  14. I love little diners like that. They are always a hub of activity and the food is always good. We still have them around here but like the guy in the video said, they are fewer and far between. Dog N Suds used to be everywhere around here but they all got shut down a few years ago and sit vacant. 3 by the same owner are currently for sale but the dude wants $7million for the trio. Good luck with that! I really think historic buildings need some protections. Developers seem to have carte blanche (sp?) on snagging, demolishing, and building chains on the property 😦 I cannot believe how cheap the food is at that diner but after seeing how the corporate overlords squeeze them, I think they picked a good way to go. A lot of joints are going over to fees on top of the total to offset those costs. I carry some cash with me just in case they do these days. Works for me and for them.

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    1. They do have the right idea…progress can be good and downright evil. They have what they had in the 70s…they write tickets, an old cash register, and takeout window.
      Now if you have a chain…you can’t do that as well…but with this…yea if you know your employees well you can… and I suspect they are family.

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    2. Hiya Lisa. It is called ‘progress.’ First we get you to do your banking online, then we take away all the neighbourhood banks, the handy ones with tellers who are actual people who can tell you what you need to know. (Actual human beings- or to the Banks ‘a financial drag.’) Here we use cards a lot, but I too hold onto a cash back-up. When we had our earthquakes all the stores went old school as the power was out. If you didn’t have cash your cards didn’t come up trumps, no matter how many gold ,master or Express ones you were counting on.

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