Hostess Frozen Food Saw

Are you hosting a dinner party on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? Setting the table for guests and decorating is part of the fun, while another part is the behind the scenes kitchen work with all of the crazy gadgets and gizmos that are available today. (Really, the variety is nothing short of mind boggling.) But there is probably one that you haven’t thought of… ever hear of a frozen food saw? Me neither, at least until recently when I was sorting through my grandparents’ belongings. Apparently my grandfather actually used this. Take a look!

Hostess Frozen Food Saw.

The back of the box.

The saw still looking new and shiny.

Whatever gadgets you use for food preparation, I hope they are as entertaining to you as this saw is to me. I don’t know that I’ll ever use this myself, but I like having it for my vintage kitchen and as a family conversation piece. Happy New Years party planning & dining!

Advertisement

A&P Coffee Can

Coffee fuels my preservation thoughts. I love coffee. And yet, hopefully I’m not the only one who did not know that coffee used to come in a can that required a key to open said can. Am I (aside from my youngest sister)? Hmm. What kind of self respecting coffee addict aficionado am I? I must study. When my mother sent me the image below, I wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about. Behold, the unopened coffee can with a key.

Drip Grind A&P Coffee.

The top of the coffee can. It

The bottom of the coffee can. That key comes with the can and it fits in the metal tab on the side.

The side of the coffee can. The key fits into the black spot. Once opened, you have a reusable lid.

Aside from the fun retro factor, my mom is wondering a few things about this coffee can.

(1) When did companies stop making such cans?

(2) How much would something like this be worth?

(3) Does anyone have any information about such cans?

(4) Do you think the coffee is still good?

Ha! Just kidding on that last one; Mom will keep this for fun in her kitchen. She remembers them in the 1950s and 1960s, but not after that. If you could help us out – if you happen to a true coffee aficionado, please fill us in. (These photos are from a cell phone, but if you’d like better quality images, let me know.)

We like to know the stories of our belongings. Who has a good theory as to why this was never opened?

Enjoy! And thanks!

Preservation Photos #29

A house in Walnut, Iowa as seen in summer 2006 that I really wanted to buy (it was for sale). Sadly, I do not remember the address, but I encountered it while browsing the Walnut Antique Show.

Right Place at the Right Time

If we had tried to find them, we wouldn’t have. On a trip out to Calverton, NY my family and I stopped to eat lunch at J&R’s Steakhouse (a Long Island restaurant). Previously there had been a little village of shops behind the restaurant, mostly antique shops and boutiques. Now, the small dollhouse looking buildings remain empty and overgrown with weeds. However, one antique shop & art gallery is still open, so we went to wander in there. When I walked in my dad showed me that he found a set of six bowls from The Lido Club Hotel in Long Beach, NY.

The Lido Hotel in 1942.

The Lido Club Hotel opened in 1929, attracting stars of the day and their guests.   Its history includes serving as Naval Receiving Station, closing during WWII, and suffering under poor management. According to “Toasting an Icon of Lido Beach’s Golden Era” by Marcelle S. Fischler (October 3, 2004, The New York Times), the hotel officially closed in 1981 (after many struggles and ups and downs) and was converted to condominiums. The Lido Club Hotel is now the Lido Beach Towers. The grand days of Lido-Long Beach had faded and its former pink stucco is now gray, though the building retains its Moorish style.

The Lido Club Hotel

To most people these restaurant ware bowls wouldn’t mean much, but to my family they are significant. The Lido-Long Beach-Point Lookout area is where my grandmother lives and where my father and my uncle grew up during the summers. My father worked at the Lido Hotel one summer as a valet parker and driving a shuttle bus between the resort and the golf course. He remembers driving some fancy cars. Plus, we love all things related to Point Lookout and the history of that small piece of Long Island.  The price tag on the plates read that they were from the Lido Hotel in Long Beach, NY and were $9.95 each.  Now, if just the price tag said Lido Hotel, I might not have believed it, but the bottom of the bowls read “Lido” and one said “Lido Club Hotel.” We loved them. As we were mulling over a purchase, the owner came down from the gallery to tell us that he was closing in about one month and would make anything a very desirable price for us. Bingo! He sold us the bowls for 50% off the asking price.

A bowl from the Lido Club Hotel.

Close up view of the pattern.

Another close up view of the pattern.

We are thrilled to have these pieces, but the next step and the hard part is trying to find information about the pattern and looking for additions to our new collections.  There are five bowls with the red writing on the back and one with the green writing.

The back of the bowls. Lamberton China - Lido - Nathan Straus & Sons - New York.

The back of one of the bowls. "Royal Schwarzburg - Germany - Made expressly for Club Lido Hotel - Long Beach, L.I. - By Nathan Straus & Sons - New York."

An internet search isn’t much help and Nathan Straus & Sons only appears on Replacements, Ltd. but not with the Lido pattern. I would like to find out more about the pattern and if any pieces exist anywhere else. I would assume that everything was auctioned off when the hotel was closed, so the restaurant ware could be anywhere.  Can anyone help with finding more information, determining the age, learning about the company, or any other relative information?