Bad News in New Haven

By JoCo January 31, 2008

The Yankee Doodle has closed for good. I am terribly sad about it. This was a tiny place with a row of 6 stools and a counter, and they put butter on their hamburgers, and they stuffed their hot dogs with cheese and wrapped them in bacon, and they mixed up vanilla cokes, and you could eat and eat and it would only cost you a dollar. I tried to go there last time I was in New Haven and it was suspiciously closed at lunchtime – my worst fears are now confirmed.

“The place is small, the food is great. It’s worth your while to stand and wait.”

Who will put butter on my hamburgers now?

Comments

Russ W says

Culver's does. Or at least, they say they do. Hm, I think it's time for some deep fried cheese curds. Why does it have to snow so much when I'm craving something? Fie on thee, weather gods!

Super Dave says

Actually, they call them butter burgers because the BUNS are buttered, but this is a frequent point of confusion. Plus, their a chain and I think that's what JC is going to miss the most, his little dive.

Hepcat says

Oh, I am so sorry.

Last time I was in New York City, a friend and I went to our favorite lunch place (a Brazilian restaurant with a cheapo lunch special at the bar), and it had turned into an "Irish" "pub." We yelled "sonofabitch!!" but it is NYC, so nobody took any particular note. (I lived there 20 years, so I'm allowed to say these things about NY.)

Mark Gordon says

http://twitter.com/jonathancoulton/statuses/479281222

Yukaduk says

The passing of a thing we love deserves a commemorative song. The chorus is already written, too: “The place is small, the food is great. It’s worth your while to stand and wait.”

I still miss the Willow Pond Kitchen in Concord, Mass. They were rife with taxidermy and buttered their steaks. Somebody wrote a poem about the place here: http://www.concordma.com/magazine/spring06/willowpond.html

Mazzix says

WHY GOD OH WHY
That food sounds so good ='(
I have never thought about butting butter on a burger but it sounds so terrible good

Patrick M says

It's suspicious that this post comes right after the one asking for a PA.

three08 says

unless the flash shows up to be a PA, it's unlikely they'll send anyone from CA to CT for food during the show.

....butter on a hamburger? really? i am deeply suspicious of this proposal.

andrine says

remind me to not eat your brains when I become a zombie unless I want to die a horrible zombie coronary artery death... oh wait... nevermind.

XDPaul says

Wow. That is one of the most tragic concepts ever forwarded: a zombie who dies of a heart attack.

Oh, I mean the closing of a beloved sandwich shop. I know it took 58 years, but you had to know that the buttered hamburger market bubble had been living on borrowed time.

Demetrius says

“We take eighteen ounces of sizzling ground beef, and soak it in rich,
creamery butter, then we top it off with bacon, ham, and a fried egg.
We call it the Good Morning Burger.” - The Simpsons

shaggyJD says

"Who will put butter on my hamburgers now?"

Try Belgium. I hear they like that kind of thing.

Mark Gordon says

And no one will say hey that’s too much mayonnaise

Mr.Nobody says

Wow. That food sounds unhealthy. But what the hell, it sounds freakin' delicious! :D

selene says

i'm sorry
i can put butter in your hamburgers if you want

Dan ad nauseam says

I recall the time I came home (originally from Guilford) to discover that the original Ashley's on College Street was no more.

patrick says

The thing about the Doodle was it was a counter diner and those places just can't get the cashflow without tremendous mark up.
AS a Elm Citier tuned New Yorker I have to warn you that those places are dissapearing in NYC too. Please patronize B and H deli at 2nd avenue and St. Marks Place and the other counter place across the street (Right next to the Theater where Stomp runs). You'll be sorry when they are replaced by french fries vendors and another starbucks!
I'll get off my high horse now and eat my chicken soup.

Matt Beckman says

I was a contract worker at Yale from 2002-2004. I used to go to the Yankee Doodle for breakfasts and lunches a lot. The thing I really liked about the place was that it was family, it was down-home. You can't replicate that with franchises and chains. I don't recall the couple's name who ran it but I'm sorry for them if they lost the business. That whole are was being gentrified and the shoe store down on that corner was pushed out in 2004 just as I was leaving I thing. Also, York Square Cinema.

The Yankee Doodle was the place I'd get that tasty ham and cheese omelette and they'd serve it with grape jelly--like when I was a kid. It was a real nice place to eat butter burgers, ham and cheese omelettes and chat with folks in New Haven. I kinda miss that place right now.

sad,
matt

Daniel James Lula says

Oh no! The Doodle and the Copper Kitchen were my favorite places to eat at Yale... Please don't tell me Toad's has closed... Or The Palace... Or that Christ Church on Broadway has gone all AffCath on us and has priestesses now... Oh s*%t I forgot, that last part really did happen. :-P

Jason says

You can find a Butter Burger in San Diego, if you like it with a California spin. The Crest Cafe stuffs their burgers with Garlic, Tarragon, Basil, Parsley Butter.

http://www.crestcafe.net/menus/lunch_and_dinner.php

Sean says

I'm from RI mostly, and ate at the Doodle with friends about a year ago. Actually just sat while they ate, as I'm veggie, and didn't find anything I wanted to consume there. I certainly appreciated the atmosphere though.

I assume the lynchpin pizza places are still going strong. It's sad that it's so rare for restaurants to have long histories. I had pizza at Pepe's a for the first time a few years back, and then was told by my parents (from Fairfield and Milford, CT) that they had hung out at "the Spot" as teenagers.

I'm sorry to see one of New haven's icon's gone.

AJR says

oh.... how sad!
But you failed to mention that aside from buttering the burgers, if you order a donut, they will slice it in half, butter it, and fry it on the grill. a DONUT.

But the coolest thing ever about the doodle-
when my parents were helping my move in freshman year, we went to the doodle for a break, and Lou saw my dad, who graduated 25yr earlier, and just asked "the usual?"

rickey anthony says

I put herb butter on my steak....why not a burger? Sounds great!