Kippy’s Restaurant

T’aint what we have its what we give

T’aint what we are its how we live

T’aint what we do its how we do it

That makes Kippy worth coming to it.

Kippy’s was a popular restaurant for more than 40 years in downtown Akron. It was opened 24hrs/7days a week and always packed with customers. Kippy’s opened up first on 103 S. Main Street in 1938 by Mr. Bob Heath (at the age of 19) and his mother Gail. After turning Kippy’s into a chain, the Cuyahoga Falls location opened in 1941 along with locations in Norton and Barberton. The name Kippy came from a 1930’s comic strip Skippy…the Heaths simply dropped the S. The original building was built below street level at the southeast corner of Main & Mill Streets. 

Click to Enlarge Menu Pages

“I originally started Cuyahoga Falls History by wanting to share the history of Kippy’s and The Doodlebug back in the year 2002 (I know, two very similar subjects!). I became interested in Kippy’s because literally every side of my family worked in one location or another.  In 1938 my grandfather Carey Holland worked as a dishwasher at 13 years old and then preceded to become a cook and grilled Kippy Burgers on the stove by the window on South Main Street. 

In 1941 my Aunts Betty and Belle worked in Cuyahoga Falls as domestics and one of the people they worked for needed a babysitter and recruited my grandmother, Bonnie Potts, to made $5 a week babysitting. They all had Thursday afternoons off and would meet in downtown Akron.  They would either go to The Strand to listen to the swing bands like Tommy Dorsey and Glen Miller or head to the Loews Theater to see a movie for 10 cents. Afterward they always went to Kippy’s. This is how my grandmother met her future husband.”

Bonnie Potts 1941   

Carey Holland & Bonnie Potts standing outside Kippy’s in 1943

“Delores Holland, daughter of Carey and Bonnie Holland,  started working at the Cuyahoga Falls location in 1971, 30 years after her father first started working at the Akron location. Dee worked at the Cuyahoga Falls location during 1971-1975 and worked at the Akron Kippy’s for one day due to a cook shortage.  My paternal grandparents, Dick and Nellie (Stinard Wilcox) Fritz, also worked at the Falls Kippy’s for many years during the 1970s.” ~ Jeri Holland

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History

Bob Heath remembers that the original menu consisted of Hamburgers, Coffee, Pie, Chili, Bottled Pop, and Milk. Mr. Heath worked 16 hour shifts and had only 3 employees to operate the 104 South Main Street Kippy’s. There was seating for only 25 at the first location and the building rent was $4.50 a month.
In 1947 Heath moved Kippy’s to 45 South Main Street where the seating enlarged to 100 and they started serving Kippy Burgers, Biggie Burgers (w/special sauce), Finger Lickin’ Chicken and milkshakes with the logo of ‘Freeze your teeth and give your tongue a sleigh ride.’
Soon Kippy’s turned into a chain opening in 1940 the 2100 Front Street restaurant and in 1946 it too moved across the street to a larger location where it stayed for the next 38 years.
In 1966 Arlington opened and in 1972 the Kippy’s in Norton Center opened up. All the stores ran on a 24 hour schedule. 130 workers were used to operate all four Kippy’s.
The Akron Kippy’s closed in 1979 with the Arlington and Norton following shortly thereafter in 1980. The Cuyahoga Falls restaurant closed in 1984.

The menu was used in at both the Main St. and Front St. locations at one point in time, but the first menu was typed out in 1941 and looked like this:

Friday -17 – 1941 Specials
Vegetable Soup – 10ç
Fish Sandwich – 20ç
French Fried Potatoes – 10ç
1. Fish and Chips
Cold Slaw
Coffee, Tea or Milk 35ç
2. Grilled Beef Tenderloin
Butter Fries or French Fries
Choice of Salad
Coffee, Tea or Milk 50ç
3.A Golden Brown Waffle
Maple Syrup and Butter
Coffee, Tea or Milk 25ç
Waffle with Ham 35ç
Waffle with Bacon 35ç
4 Hamburg Sandwich
Vegetable Soup and French Fries
Coffee, Tea or Milk 30ç
New: Kippy Blizzard Milkshake
with your sandwich or lunch 15ç
‘It’s thick enough to eat with a spoon”

 

Memories

Jan 17, 2000 9:24 AM
From: Byron Hummel ’53
I sure remember the “real birth” of R&R in our area especially “Request Review”. Some Fri.&/ or Sat. nites in the early 50’s we would be in Akron at a teen center or hanging out at Kippy’s we would stop at the Mayflower Hotel to see Alan Freed in the recording booth. Sometimes he would mention on the air we were there, ask us to request a song, and once even let us say hello on the air. My name was mentioned in the 1953 “Cigam” as aspiring to be a “Moondog”. I don’t recall that happening but life has been and still is fun and especially fun is this site; to revisit old friends, old times and old haunts. Have a great life!

Dee Holland “I remember a cook (Wesley) would moo over the microphone. Kippy’s atmosphere was a party all the time. We would always have the regulars’ coffee ready and waiting at their respective ‘spots’.”
Pam Modzel “Our uniforms consisted of black skirts, white blouses and white nursing shoes.”
Dee Holland “Pam’s skirt was always waaay too short, it only came mid thigh. On Friday and Sat nights a falls cop would come in and ‘baby-sit’ the bar crowd.” And on nights before a holiday [it] was busier than normal, we did triple then what would we do on a normal night.”
Dee Holland “1/2 price to cops in uniform. A bowl of chili was 60 cents. Kippy’s had two huge grills, 14 booths and two tables up front and two tables in back. The one booth in the back was for the employees except during bar rushes.”

Dee Holland and Pam Modzel remembers some customers and co-workers:
Co-Workers
Pam Modzel: Waitress
Dee Holland: Cook/Waitress
Vi: Waitress
Sissy: Manager
Carol: Manager (Hiram was her husbands name)
Joanie Billings: 
Aunt Rube: worked Fridays and Saturdays only
Bill: Cook, lived on Myrtle Avenue in the Falls and had long hair in a pony tail
Joyce: She had black hair but it should have been blond. She lived on Patterson in Akron and walked all the way to work. After leaving Kippy’s she went to Green Cross Hospital in the billing department.
Nellie Fritz: bussed tables (passed away on Sept 6th, 1995)
Dick Fritz: bussed tables
Donny Wright:
Deeder:
Marline Wells: waitress
Russ Poling: dishwasher had a bunch of brothers and his mother came in to get his paycheck every Friday
Customers
Kelly: the Mailman, always came in at 6am
Grumpy: lived in 1580 front street and used a walker
Bud: a Cop
Lawson drivers – Nasty, Legs, Jim, Bob Ohrms the bread driver, Tom Quine the mechanic.
The bread drivers came in at 11pm Then the Milk drivers would come in.
 

Cuyahoga Falls back parking lot….2003