Thoughts about the Wimpy Bar in Waterford.

From Louis:

Looking in the window at the guy cooking the onions. He had this metal spatchelor thingy and kept shovelling the onions into one corner of the hot plate. I can always remember the smell of those onions and always reckoned that they were a large part of the Wimpy cheeseburger flavour. We were always delighted when Mum forgot to make the school lunches, because we would then get a few bob to go to the Wimpy Bar.

As far as I remember it was owned by one of the Reid brothers from Waterford, Eamonn, I think. I remember his brother Tom Reid, because he installed the cold room in the Candlelight in 1968.

From Ringo:

Yes, the old Wimpy Bar outshone McDonalds or any other modern day FF outlet. I can also remember going to the Wimpy for such treats. Sitting inside with a wimpy, chips, and coke, and the burgers were the best I have ever tasted. I saw Simon there one day scoffing a double wimpy with chips and two cokes, so I was immediately converted into a likewise extended portion.

I always missed the Wimpy, and when in Ireland in 1998 while coming from Kerry I saw one in Fermoy. I screeched to a halt and went in for tea. It was excellent, and much like the Wimpy of old in Waterford.
I would also visit Tony De La Cata during my school years at John Street.
'The Venetian Cafe'. Tony was not all that flash, but his stuff was pretty good. I would buy two battered sausages with some chips. It was really tasty, and if you sat at a table Tony always served his food on plain white plates. He would also dole out a free plate of grub to any of the old Men of the city who were homeless.

I cannot understand how come Dunmore just cannot get it right with regard to chip shops. Frozen chips and the like will never entice people into such establishments. I do believe there's a huge opening in Dunmore for a good chip shop, where dripping is used instead of oil, and potato chips are freshly cut. Lettuce and other such horse food should be banned from burgers forever, and its not all that hard to get a nice chicken recipe as long as the pieces are steamed like KFC, and not just dropped into hot fat and cremated prior to selling.

From Louis, 23-08-07

As an addendum to this story, I was in Ireland last week (where it pissed rain all the time) and was driving from Kinsale to Dublin. I stopped at a town in Kilkenny on the main Cork-Dublin road, Graignamanagh I think it was, and there I saw a Wimpy bar before me.

There were two main differences to the Wimpy bars I remember of old, it was a take-away service only and the three lads working there were all Polish.