AN EDINBURGH local has found a restaurant menu from 1983 in his grandfather’s belongings – and is calling on social media to help figure out its origins.
The menu gives details of an American eatery, where diners could get a BLT burger for just £1.90 and coffee for only 50p.
The “Hollywood Boulevard” themed restaurant seemed to bring American cuisine to Scotland, serving up courses such as the “Disneyland Special” and the “Californian Split”.
Familiar locals appear to have helped to find the location of the old diner though, matching it to the Drummore Motor Inn on the A1.
The unnamed Scot posted an image of the black and white menu to social media on Saturday, asking: “Does anyone know where this restaurant was?
“Found this while clearing out my grandpa’s house and am curious as to its origin.
“There’s a drinks page that said ‘A Full Selection of Beers, Wines and Spirits available from the Brown Derby’, which I believe was on Princes Street above Fraser Hart where Costa is.”
The menu includes an image of a clapperboard which says “The Eating House – Food” as well as “Hollywood Boulevard Prod. 1983”.
The post received a slew of likes and comments, with one user apparently identifying the restaurant, reasoning: “It’s from ‘Holywood Boulevard’ at the Drummore Motor Inn on the A1, between Musselburgh and Wallyford.”
They also shared an advert from an old copy of The Scotsman, dated “Saturday, November 5, 1983”.
The headline reads “Low-cost eating with Californian flavour” and goes on to quote the general manager of the establishment Neil Stanton, who was 29 at the time.
Neil said: “The Drummore is many an American’s idea of the ideal motor hotel.
“Today’s American tourist is not always interested in the traditional restaurants with their highly-priced a la carte and table d’hôte menus.”
It is revealed that the inn was part of a UK-based film and television group, which had an American office just off Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.
This is said to be the reason for Neil’s diner, as it was formed in collaboration with representatives from LA.
Pictures from the newspaper also show parasols and outdoor seating, bringing American style eating to Scotland’s cold and windy roads.
The inn was hoping to profit not from the weather but, as The Scotsman suggests, from the “10,000-plus tourists who stay at the Drummore Motor Inn each year” who are “Americans visiting Edinburgh”.
Other locals tried to pinpoint the exact location of the restaurant, with one saying: “I’m trying to place where that would have been?
“It says second roundabout east of Musselburgh, wonder if that’s Strawberry Corner.
“Google is coming up blank.”
Another suggested: “I was trying to figure it out too but was looking at the Musselburgh bypass, which of course wouldn’t have been there at the time, as what was the A1 then is now the A199.
“Can’t link to it because it’s on Facebook but if you search ‘Motor Inn Wallyford 1980s’ there’s a not very helpful photo.”
A third offered: “Think that place is now the auction house”, where Google Maps shows distinctively American palm trees lining the road.
