The Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop, located west of Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois, will mark reputedly its 100th year on July 27 with classic cars and special pricing during the lunchtime hour.
The celebration will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day. The Springfield tourism bureau promised “more details to come” on the event.
The restaurant is at 118 N. Pasfield St. (map here), less than a mile west of the original North Ninth Street alignment of Route 66.
The Springfield tourism bureau touted the event on Instagram with Honest Abe Lincoln getting one of the restaurant’s loose-meat sandwiches and its homemade root beer.
The Maid-Rite in Springfield is not affiliated with the Maid-Rite restaurant chain based in Iowa.
Whether the Springfield eatery indeed is 100 years old this year is in dispute. A local history blog states:
Opened in the 1920s, the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop at 118 N. Pasfield St. is thought to be the oldest sandwich shop in continuous operation in Springfield. It also claims to have the first drive-up window in the U.S. (The window originally was walk-up; customers would eat their sandwiches while standing.) […]
Maid-Rite’s owners have claimed for years that the restaurant opened in 1924, but contemporary evidence strongly suggests the founding year was 1928. City directories for 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927 show no restaurant in the 100 block of North Pasfield. Maid-Rite finally appears in the 1928 directory.
More significantly, an Illinois State Journal advertisement published June 14, 1928, announces the opening of “the Maid-Rite Hamburg … something new at Jefferson and Pasfield.”
It’s possible that ownership claimed the earlier date to avoid a trade name dispute with the national Maid-Rite chain, based in Iowa, which also offers “loose meat ground beef” sandwiches. The chain was founded in 1926. However, the Springfield restaurant has never been part of the chain, and the local owners even fended off a 1990s attempt by the Iowa chain to open a franchise here.
Then again, a plaque on the restaurant from the National Register of Historic Places states it was built in 1924.
So the debate continues.
Whether the Springfield Maid-Rite had the first drive-up window also is debated. Red’s Giant Hamburg along Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri, long claimed it from 1947.
Red’s is long gone, but a restaurateur built another in tribute a few years ago.
If you’re on Route 66 and want a taste of the Maid-Rite chain, there’s one in Rolla, Missouri.
(Image of the Maid-Rite in Springfield, Illinois, via Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau)
