What passes for a family restaurant today just doesn’t quite compare to those of the 1970s. These days there’s a television mounted on every wall blaring sporting events and music videos, loud pop music piped throughout the building, and waiters and waitresses who look as if they’ve pulled an all-nighter studying for tests or indulging in kegers at a friend’s dorm. And don’t get me started on what passes for a uniform.

I recall one of my parents’ favorite places to eat during my childhood was Jack Horner’s Restaurant in Akron, Ohio. Perhaps it was because I was so young, but I remember all the waitresses being adults, not teens or twenty-somethings. They were professionals, and their friendly nature came through as they took orders and served meals.

Tasty cooking and good service appeal to any family, and the Tedescos are no different. After experiencing a special surprise one Christmas, the entire Tedesco clan heads to Jack Horner’s to celebrate with Joe’s best friends, Smiley Roberts and Officer Ted Conley, as well as Father Moretti and Sister Mary Agnes from the church where the Tedescos attend.

The history of Jack Horner’s began in 1942 when Frank Wren opened the restaurant at 395 East Market Street, Akron, Ohio. William P. Owen purchased the restaurant named after a nursery rhyme in 1946 when Wren’s health began to fail. The original twenty nine-seat building was torn down and replaced with a seventy five-seat restaurant in 1960. Three more additions followed, and by 1984 Jack Horner’s seated four hundred.

When William P. Owen bought the restaurant in 1946, he couldn’t afford to replace the sign, so the name stayed the same. Signage had little to do with the success of one of Akron’s most frequently visited restaurants over the next five decades.

Owen made home-cooked meals, affordable prices, and great service synonymous with Jack Horner’s. Delicious pies, fresh-cut hash browns and fries, bread and dinner rolls made from scratch kept customers returning as did light and fluffy pancakes and the Sir Beef (a roast sirloin sandwich). All this and more could be enjoyed seven days a week from six a.m. until one a.m.

According to William James “Bill” Owen, son of the founder, the terrific wait staff had much to do with the restaurant’s success. Eighty five people stayed in the employ of Jack Horner’s for thirty five years because the Owen family invested in their employees with paid uniforms, pregnancy leave, and profit-sharing.

Location also contributed to the success of Jack Horner’s with easy access from the freeway. Employees of Goodyear, Polsky’s, O’Neil’s, Akron City Hospital staff and visitors, and the University of Akron staff and students were regulars at the restaurant.

In 1996, Summa Health System bought the property on which Jack Horner’s stood. Bill Owen and his son, William John Owen, attempted to make a go of it at Fairlawn Town Center, but the profits couldn’t withstand high rent and a percentage of sales to out-of-town landlords. Only three years into the five-year lease, the Owen family closed the doors of Jack Horner’s Restaurant for good. Although the family lamented the end of an era, they should be proud of all the memories they made for anyone who ate there whether real or fictional.