Features: Allen's Historical Cafe

In 1958, Carl Allen opened up Allen's Bait and Tackle shop at 1382 Magnolia Avenue (U. S. Highway 92) just west of Auburndale in Central Florida. Frustrated that no restaurants in the area served catfish, in 1964 Carl started offering catfish dinners there in the store. In an interview with a local writer, Allen stated, "I had to take my wife all the way to Okeechobee to get a mess of catfish. Then one day I got me an idea: I'm goin' down there and bring me back a load, and I'm gonna cook 'em in here. And that's how I got started. I put catfish on the map."

In the beginning the cafe's big draw was that famous Lake Okeechobee catfish sizzling in the deep fryer but the hand written menus would soon grow to feature more unusual Florida delicacies like alligator, turtle, rattlesnake, armadillo, shark, frog legs and swamp cabbage. "You won't find anything on the menu that wasn't caught, netted, raised, grown or hatched in this state," Allen would say.

But, on any Thursday night, a trip to Carl Allen's Historical Cafe was an experience for the eyes, ears and taste buds, that may never be experienced again, anywhere else on earth. It began outside. A small sign on the front porch read, "We have an agreement with the bank: They sell no fish; we loan no money." Another one on the door warned, "This is not Burger King. You don't get it your way. You take it my way or you don't get a damn thing." Inside, hanging from the ceiling, nailed to the wall, stuffed in display cases, and crammed in every available corner, was a wild collection of antiques, hand tools, kitchen implements, arrowheads, old photographs, vintage appliances, patent medicine bottles, and assorted junk. Allen's wry sense of humor was evident everywhere. The plaque on a set of mounted steer horns is engraved "My Wife's First Deer." An old hacksaw, with a length of chain where the blade should be, was labeled "Chain Saw." The restaurant housed over 20,000 items-- a collection Allen started when he was 12 or 13 years old. Even the tables were unique. Each table top was decorated with a theme— gunslingers, Indians, Gone With The Wind, antique cars, trains, etc.-- and the bases were old treadle sewing machines.

Open the door and the sound of bluegrass would grab you. Waitress Anna Rose would make her way through the crowd loaded with plates of fried catfish and hush puppies, sauce pans of grits, and Mason jars filled with iced tea. Stepping around and over instrument cases, she'd have to stop and wait for a banjo picker to finish a tune so he could tilt up the neck of his banjo like a tollgate and let her pass. Each of the front three rooms would have a jam session smokin', where the wannabe's tried vainly to hang in there with the veteran pickers like James Rogers, Sam Tidwell, and Jim Grove. In the main dining room, lanky Gilbert Hancock would have the audience roaring with laughter between songs while he'd deadpan his routine about the poor baby snakes "who don't have a pit to hiss in."

It was about 1980 when Carl added the large dining room complete with a large stage and complete sound system to accommodate regular bluegrass and gospel performances in addition to the customary Thursday night jam session. According to Allen, "There got to be so many pickers sittin' on my tables that I couldn't serve food. They just kept all these tables full all night. They'd come in and sit down at five o'clock and didn't leave until eleven. I don't blame 'em. They'll tell you 'If you don't jam at Allen's, you can't come to Florida.'"

And come they did. Especially in the winter when instrument-toting snowbirds from all over the United States and Canada migrated south and flocked in to roost at Allen's Cafe on Thursday nights. Over the years many visiting bluegrass artists like Don Reno, Chubby Anthony, "Uncle" Josh Graves and David Crow performed there. Freddy Clark and the Clark Family started appearing at the restaurant several times each winter and became the show stoppers at the March festivals. Bluegrass songbird, Rhonda Vincent sang and played with her parents in their Sally Mountain Show. Mandolin wizard Mike Marshall, who grew up in nearby Lakeland, was a regular at Allen's as a member of the Sunshine Bluegrass Boys. Many other local pickers got their starts on Allen's stage and went on to have successful careers in the music business.

Since the cafe's closing in 1998, several have tried to pick-up where the Allen's left off. But, while some may have limited success, there will never be another Allen's Historical Cafe -- because -- there will never be another Carl Allen.