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We don’t mean to CROW but We Know Our Chicken

I found mention of Cliff Chicken Shack as early as August 1936, which means it may have pre-dated the more well-known Leslie’s Chicken Shack by several years. It may have been the first drive-in fried chicken joint in Oak Cliff. In 1942 the proprietor was listed as J.B. Cohen (or J.R. Cohen). By 1951, the Shack was out of business, and the building at 519 W. Davis (at the northeast corner at Llewellyn) had become Laden’s Food Market. The location was by turns a wholesale sandwich company, hardware store, carpet company, and an auto paint & body shop. The unlucky site is now home to Honduras Tire Shop.

I’m getting a picture of old Davis Street between Westmoreland and Cockrell Hill Road; that it was a stretch of motels and restaurants back in the fifties, as well as housing the Chalk Hill Drive-In across the road from this motel.Wonder how many tourists passed along Highway 80 back in those days.

Today there’s a white brick building at 3842 W. Davis that looks like it could have been a motel once upon a time, but if it’s the same building it’s devolved quite a bit.

Don’t let the rustic facade fool ya! Cain’s Hitchin’ Post opened in 1947 as a restaurant at 2504 W. Davis, just west of Hampton Road, but in 1951 owner Claude Cain, Jr. added the 2500 square foot “Saga Room” for drinking and dancing. The club featured “colored combos” and dancing until 1 a.m. It was apparently a lively joint until the beer election of December 1956 prohibited the selling of alcohol in such places. After that, Cain’s seems to have rode off into the sunset. No obvious evidence of the building remains today.

Aug 1: Thanks to Steve Bonner for corrections and additions to this blurb. He tells me after Cain’s closed the same building was Nayler’s Country Kitchen for several years. The last business at the location was Amvet’s Bingo.

Dry Cold Melons and Ice Cold Arkansas Cider – perfect for those sizzling summer afternoons (although I can’t say I’ve personally ever tasted Arkansas Cider.) H.C. Albin and A.C. Albin may have been a fruit stand located at 641 W. Davis, and would have been between Van Buren and Llewellyn Streets. I’m guessing this is from the early 1940s.

The Dallas Motel was located at 3224 W. Davis, which would put it just about where Davis crosses Westmoreland. This photo is circa 1962.