Canton, OH: Postcard from Alliance: Dining at Doug's Classic 57 Diner

From CantonRep.com: Postcard from Alliance: Dining at Doug's Classic 57 Diner
ALLIANCE —

Cars and crooners of the 1950s are your companions at Doug’s Classic 57 Diner in Alliance.

Photos of automobiles and singers grace every wall in the eating establishment. No doubt those who grew up a few decades ago will recognize many of the faces and fenders, and those who don’t can become acquainted with them during the time they spend at Doug’s.

Oh, and Doug, you’ll get to know him, too.

“I don’t forget anybody,” said Doug Wright, owner of Doug’s Classic. “I know people from back in the ’80s, who stopped in after watching their sons play football.”

Wright, who lives but a mile from his small restaurant, can be found at the diner during some part of every day — except for winter vacation in Florida.

“I’m supposed to have Wednesdays and Thursdays off, but I stop in,” he said, between conversations with nearby customers and employees. “You can’t run a business unless you’re there.”

Wright has run Doug’s Classic 57 Diner, first with his wife, Norma, and now with his daughter, Tina Marsh, and manager, John Lerario, since he bought it in 1977 from the previous owner, Fred Bolt.

“Well, 1978, I guess, is when it became official,” he corrected. “I spent a year learning from him.

“I’ve been here 35 years — been in the food industry since I was a kid.”

In those days, the diner was a Stewart’s Root Beer franchise called Fred’s Drive-In that had opened in the mid-1950s. There once were several Stewart’s stands in Stark County, said Wright. The owner still serves Stewart’s on tap.

Wright changed the name to Doug’s Classic 57 Diner in 1986. The meaning becomes clear if you look under the number in the sign at the corner of W. State Street and S. Rockhill Avenue. You’ll see the hood ornament for a ’57 Chevy.

“A kid working for me said, ‘You’ve got a lot of old cars,’ and I did. I had a ’57 Chevy, and I was driving it that night. He said, ‘Why don’t you call it Doug’s Classic 57?’ ”

Though the name changed, the decor from Fred’s Drive-in stayed much the same until his landlord provided him with a new building in 1993.

“I told them I really would like it to look like a diner,” he recalled. “We were closed for six months. I was worried we’d lose our customers. We reopened Dec. 20, 1993, and people stood outside waiting. It was snowy, and we still were busy.”

What the customers found inside Doug’s Classic 57 was a diner with its distinctive ’50s motif — decor that serves up nostalgia with food that is not all diner fare.

Oh, Doug’s Classic 57 offers burgers and fries. But meals are on the menu, too.

“We have a double pork chop dinner for $8.29 and a single pork chop dinner for $6.99,” he said. “And now we have a 1-pound porterhouse steak for $8.99.”

Those prices seem quite reasonable. But they’re nothing compared to those found on the antiques that are spread throughout the diner. A Gulf gas pump behind the diner counter prices its product at 339⁄10 cents per gallon and registers a 5.9-gallon sale. “This sale,” it says, “$2.”

Lighted advertising globes hanging from the ceiling advertise Gulf, Mobil, Sinclair, Esso and other gasolines. Auto memorabilia is spread throughout the dining room. Decades-old diner stools and chrome napkin and straw dispensers add to the 1950s look.

Neon signs you can see as you enter say “Time to Eat” and “The Fabulous 50s.”

During the time you spend inside Doug’s Classic 57 Diner, it sure seems the signs are right.