Lindell Chocolate Shoppe

Lindell's in the 1920s.

This elaborate sweet shop has survived pretty much intact from 1922, in the glory days of that restaurant genre. The marble counter on the soda fountain has given way to Formica, but the back booths and paneling are perfectly preserved. The interior is all aglow with stained glass and golden oak, accented with little lamps. Quick lunch counters and soda fountains like this thrived in newly industrialized areas, where workers had cash for inexpensive treats.

Italian and especially Greek immigrants latched onto the sweet shop as a business opportunity which could employ the whole family, making hand-dipped chocolates and ice cream, and it didn't matter if their English was rudimentary. Here the simplified Greek owners' names, Grammas and Pallas (for Louis Grammatakasis and Jim Pamatopallis), are proudly spelled out in tiles on the entryway. The Lindell's name comes from a combination of Lake LINDen and HubbEL, where their two original lunch counters had been.

Many Michigan restaurants once had interiors on the order of Lindell's, but most succumbed to the shifting winds of fashion or changes in ownership. Lindell's survived because of two preservation-minded owners, the Gekes family (1937 to 1977) and, from Clawson outside Detroit, the Grunows. They bought it in 1977 and restored the 1920s neon sign a few years later. After being closed for two years, the Batzel family bought Lindell's, and it reopened in 2009. (See Lake Linden Restaurants) —9/2010
(—July, 2009)

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