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Monday, May 11, 2009
Stopping in: Middletown’s Jug
There are old-fashioned places, and there are old-fashioned places.
Then there’s The Jug in Middletown.
I like The Jug, have for a long time. We Leadbellies visited a few years ago when we were doing a summary of local burger joints, and everybody who ever spent more than a day and a half in Middletown said we HAD to visit The Jug.
If there’s anyplace like it in the area, I haven’t found it. Established in 1932, it moved to its current location in 1939 — 3610 Central Ave., in a nice residential neighborhood on the city’s north side.
You can get car-hop service (though the car-hop the day I stopped by was a pleasant fellow my age, rather than the 17-year-old on roller skates you might be thinking of), or sit under an awning at a couple of big wooden picnic tables, or belly right up to the steel-topped counters right off the kitchen, where you can watch the pair of short-order cooks make your lunch, while the lady at the register yells, “Order!”
Folks like frosty-mug root beer here. The burgers are rough-edged and cooked hard (I like ‘em that way), and the fries are cut in a bizarre cross-cut fashion unlike anything else around, and exceptionally yummy. I got my Double Cheeseburger, Fries, Large Drink combo for $4.99 and read the paper while it arrived, with a bunch of serious regulars sharing the rest of the counter space beside me. They’re regulars when the waitress knows names, I think.
Anyway, the building is simple, glass-fronted, cinder-block, painted tan with a neon Jug sign out front… It feels retro because it never left retro. Nothin’ wrong with that.
And if you want, they’ll sell you a Jug T-shirt! Just $10.95.
Check out www.thejug.com or call 513-424-1677 for more. Tell ‘em a Leadbelly from Dayton sent ya.
