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OYSTER POINTER is a monthly publication about business in the Oyster Pointer area of Newport News, VA. More About the Oyster Pointer Publication Submit Your Ideas and Thoughts “Oyster Pointer Salutes:” Archives Request
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“Oyster Pointer Salutes:” Archives
Betty and Bill Swain decided that it was time to move their restaurant, their “All-American Dream” fulfilled, which has been serving up delicious home-cooked food to Oyster Pointers and “Outer Pointers” for 24 years this February, because as Betty says, “We needed a larger place. And now this location is newer; it’s more modern, and there’s more seating.” As for the new City Center, Betty says, “We think it’s great; it’s exciting to be a part of it.” The new Lunch Bell location has generated “lots of new customers,” Betty says. “Our income has not doubled, but it has increased. And everybody likes the new place,” she adds. “On Thursdays and Fridays we’re now open until 8 p.m.,” say Betty and Bill, a policy initiated in early September. Betty was candid about reasons for the evening hours. “More income,” she says, but the dictates of the neighborhood also play a part. For example, just a short walk away, “There are new apartments; the first 27 of 30 have been rented, and when these people are coming home to dinner, we need to be here to feed them.” “The dinner menu is different from lunch,” she says. There are a-half-dozen taste-tempting appetizers, including a chef salad, and a “soup of the day,” with the house soup being chicken and dumpling. Seven offerings of fresh seafood are available, including two sizes of a fried seafood platter, and in addition to two cuts of Delmonico steak, other dishes include chicken selections, baked ziti, pork chops, and pot roast. All entrées come with two sides which include rice pilaf, green beans, and baked, sweet, or mashed potatoes. Desserts are made fresh daily, and vary nightly. “We’re still serving the same breakfast and lunch with daily lunch specials,” Betty says. Of course, still to be enjoyed are the great salads and all the hot and cold sandwiches, including such “salad” sandwiches as chicken, egg, tuna, and pimento cheese. And with cool weather upon us, customers can enjoy the variety of homemade soups always available for the soup-lover. The long-familiar counter is still there, too, because as they are quoted on the cover of the lunch menu: “We thought about omitting the counter section several times until a salesman said he never felt alone eating at the counter where he could talk with the waitress. Then we knew we would keep it.” There is yet another service retained. You can still telephone The Lunch Bell Restaurant for orders to go Not all customers - new or old - may be aware of it, but The Lunch Bell also serves a Thanksgiving buffet with lots of homemade dishes - including pies in addition to the traditional Thanksgiving items. No doubt Bill and Betty Swain will say their own prayer of gratitude, for they set out “to fulfill the ‘All-American Dream’ for our family - to work for ourselves by establishing a new business...a way to serve this special business community and fulfill our dream at the same time.” |
Oyster
Pointer Salutes: The
Lunch Bell: New location, same quality