Wrapped In A Hot Bun ...

 

“…I fell in love with you and then you went away

But now you’re coming home to stay

Hot dog, soon everything will be all right

Hot dog, we’re gonna have a ball tonight

I’ve got a pocketful of dimes

It’s gonna be just like old times, hot dog …”

        ~ “Hot Dog”

    ~written by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller

   ~ recorded by the great Elvis Presley

   ~on the 1957 album “Loving You”

Hot Dog! A hot bun, warm autumn sun and the American Flag wrap around a hot dog treating himself to ketchup and mustard atop Yocco’s West at 2128 Hamilton St., Allentown, Pennsylvania on an early November afternoon.

Yocco’s ~ the self-described “Hot Dog King” ~ has been a Lehigh Valley tradition since Italian immigrant Theodore Iacocca founded the original downtown Allentown location in 1922. Area residents, predominantly of Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsylvania German) descent, had difficulty pronouncing I-a-co-ca and instead pronounced it Ya-co-ca, and the name Yocco’s subsequently stuck. Yocco’s has six locations across the Lehigh Valley.

The Iacocca’s are relatives of the late Lee Iacocca, the American automobile executive and Allentown native who passed in 2019 at age 94. Lee Iacocca graduated with honors from Allentown High School (now William Allen High School, my alma mater), in 1942. He attended Lehigh University in neighboring Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in industrial engineering.

For more information on Yocco’s visit http://www.yoccos.com/.

 

Retro Rail ...

“I love the nostalgic myself. I hope we never lose some of the things of the past.”

                ~ Walt Disney

                  ~ 1901 ~ 1966

The Brass Rail sign beckons people to stop in for a cocktail at the Lehigh Street location of the iconic restaurant that has been a longtime staple of the culinary landscape in Allentown, Pennsylvania on a June evening in 2013.

Sadly, The Brass Rail, which opened on Lehigh Street in 1961, shut its doors in June 2022. An Allentown tradition for 91 years, the eatery’s original location on Hamilton Street in downtown Allentown opened in 1931 and closed in 2001.

Founded by Phil Sorrentino, The Brass Rail, known especially for its cheesesteaks, was run by generations of the Sorrentino family and will be missed.

 

Rainy Day At The Ritz ...

“I can’t imagine there has ever been a more gratifying time or place to be alive than America in the 1950s. No country had ever known such prosperity.”

         ~ Bill Bryson

         ~ American-British author

          ~ born 1951

In the mood for a steak sandwich & fries, barbecue or maybe a burger, all topped off with ice cream? Then look no further than the iconic Ritz Barbecue, a tasty staple on the grounds of the Allentown Fairgrounds since 1928 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Dine inside or step right up to the window to order as 1950s era music wafts outside and enjoy a slice of nostalgia served up by the eatery.

The Ritz serves up a pop of color in the painterly HDR image I shot in a rainy mist on a drizzly late December afternoon as the tree to the left is still festooned with Christmas lights.