In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Bill and Thelma's Restaurant

    If you were a teenager in the Mid-Cape area in the 1950’s – 1970’s chances were that you spent a good amount of time at Bill and Thelma’s. If you were an adult in the Mid-Cape area in the 1950’s – 1970’s chances were that you spent a good amount of time at Bill and Thelma’s. In fact if you lived in the Mid-Cape area at all during the two decades plus that it was open the chances are that you spent some time at this wildly popular restaurant and hot spot.

    Bill Maud began his restaurant venture after World War II. After returning from California where he worked on airplanes Maud worked at Carl’s Sandwich Shop in West Yarmouth. In 1948 Bill worked at a spot called the West Yarmouth Fish Shanty. The next year he bought the building from its owner Pat Kelly. Bill would incorporate his wife Thelma into the equation and Bill and Thelma’s Restaurant was born.

    With Bill as the chef and Thelma as hostess they would bring in a staff of which many would stay as crew for nearly the entire duration of the restaurant’s existence. Bill and Thelma’s would wow customers with their fish and chips and onion rings in addition to the famed fried clams. They would keep things simple with items like hamburgers, hot dogs and beans, macaroni and cheese, and other fresh comfort foods. The couple also made it a point to position their establishment as a family restaurant where parents and children alike could come for lunch or dinner and find something they enjoyed for a reasonable price. Bill Maud would make their place a hot spot firstly by creating the 99-cent dinner. This deal would include everything from the entrée to the dessert and would become a staple of what made Bill and Thelma’s a destination for many years.

    The establishment’s popularity would grow during its run near Mill Hill. In 1958 it was enlarged to include more booths and a horseshoe-shaped food bar. Eventually in 1961 the entire original building was torn down and replaced with a larger more accommodating edifice. It was pure Cape Cod throughout the walls of Bill and Thelma’s with neutral colors and hardwood being matched by netting hanging from the ceiling filled with seafaring creatures like crabs and starfish. The seemingly cluttered ceiling above contrasted the overall cleanliness of the restaurant; Bill Maud was a stickler for a spotless dining area and kitchen.

Bill and Thelma's 

    Even with the expansion there would routinely be lines out the door of people wanting to get their fill at this spot. If the 99-cent dinner didn’t bring people in perhaps being serenaded on the organ by Mr. Maud himself would do it. Bill regularly played the organ while loyal customers and friends would come in, grab a cocktail, and sing along to some of the standards of the day. Bill loved the organ so much that the local Cape Cod Organ Society would hold its monthly meetings at his place. During one meeting in 1966 Marie Marcus, Cape Cod First Lady of Jazz played piano while John Chapman played the organ. Those meetings were more of a social hour than a serious discussion.

Bill and Thelma’s was the place to be as a teenager in the 1950’s – 1970’s. It would be filled with students from nearby Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School after sporting events and dances commiserating in the booths and at the counter. Things could get tense however if students from rival Barnstable High School showed up, which they sometimes did after defeating Dennis-Yarmouth in a sporting event. However it was nothing that a frappe and some onion rings could not solve.

Adjacent to the main dining room was the Jolly Tar Lounge where the adults who came without kids could congregate. It was here that the cocktails were served and various professional sporting events would be watched on television. For all of the effort to make Bill and Thelma’s a family restaurant there was still a desire to have a spot just for the adults. Bill Maud was a people-pleaser and a beloved figure in the community. He was known to have once created a skating rink on a neighboring cranberry bog for the children using only his Jeep and a plow. Things like that, the 99-cent dinners, and accommodating many high-schoolers in the evenings to keep them out of trouble made Bill and Thelma Maud pillars of the community.

The 99-cent dinners were kept up as long as it was feasibly possible by Bill Maud. Even after that would not work he tried $1.99-dinners for a time. However as time went on it no longer was possible to keep those deals up. By then though it was nearing the end. Business slowed down as the 1970’s were nearing the end.

(Above is the former Bill and Thelma's as it appeared in 2019, Google Maps)

In 1975 Bill Maud sold his restaurant. It became known as The Dunes at first but the name was changed to Casa Mia in 1978. It was the sister restaurant to another Casa Mia located in Dennis Port. Eventually it would become The Dunes again in 1993 before closing in 1995.

Bill and Thelma initially retired down to Florida ending nearly three decades in business. Eventually though the couple returned to Cape Cod. Thelma passed first in 1988 at the age of 75, Bill followed in 2004 at age 90. Even more than forty years after closing there are many who grew up in the Mid-Cape area who fondly reminisce about their times at Bill and Thelma’s.

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My first eBook in 10 years, In Their Footsteps, featuring the interesting stories of Cape Cod's history, is on sale at Amazon.com. 

View my previous blog posts: 

In My Footsteps: 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' Changes Everything

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Bradlees

Photo Prints available here: Smug Mug.com

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

In Their Footsteps - Cape Cod History: Sullivan's Donut Shop, Hyannis

The last of the Irish donut makers.

     Sullivan’s was a staple of downtown Hyannis for two decades in the times before Dunkin’ Donuts resided on nearly every street corner on Cape Cod. After successfully running three other doughnut shops in Brockton in the 1950s and ’60s, John “Sully” Sullivan was making doughnuts at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Stoughton, Massachusetts, in 1971, when he was hired by James Despotopulos to work at his Sugar N’ Spice doughnut shop in South Yarmouth. Despotopulos had opened his shop in 1969 after moving to Cape Cod from Stoughton.

     Sully was seen as the unofficial mayor of Brockton, rubbing elbows with the likes of Cesar Romero and his close friend Rocky Marciano. Never the less he moved his wife, Rosemarie, and their five children to the mid-Cape area. There he hoped to settle into a quieter routine, escaping the busier and sometimes dangerous streets of Brockton in the early 1970s.

     Not too long after Sullivan left Sugar N’ Spice, he worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts on the corner of Forest Road and Route 28 in South Yarmouth that still stands as of 2019. Doughnut making was a passion of Sully’s; it also ran in the family. Sullivan’s father, also named John Sullivan, had run a doughnut shop in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, before World War II. It was not long before Sullivan’s Donut Shop lived again, this time on the corner of Bearse’s Way and Route 28 in Hyannis. After purchasing equipment from a closing Jack In the Box fast food restaurant the new shop opened in late 1975 and gained popularity from the get-go.

     These doughnuts were made the old-fashioned way in large vats of oil, with bakers using sticks to flip the sweet lumps of dough and make sure they were properly cooked on each side. These doughnuts were heavier and more filling and satisfying. They came in all sorts of delicious shapes and sizes. There were classic honey-dipped, chocolate frosted and jelly-filled; there were crullers, coffee rolls and doughnut holes. There were also delectable muffins and coffee, of course.

     Though it opened very early for people on their way to work, some could not wait until sunrise for a fresh and hot doughnut. Sully would open his back door before officially opening for the day and sell doughnuts to customers. This practice has been made well-known thanks to Back Door Donuts, located in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard. This is part of the Martha’s Vineyard Gourmet Café & Bakery, which opened in 2001.

The counter inside Sullivan’s Donut Shop

     However, there was much more than just the run of the mill doughnut shop lying in those four walls. Sullivan’s was a meeting place before there was Starbucks, and it was every bit a family-run business. Sully’s wife, sons and daughters all worked hard to make each and every customer feel welcome. In return, the customers made Sullivan’s a destination. There were also times that the customers were the staff. A handful of regulars knew how to open the shop, and once the doors were unlocked, they would happily help with the setup, pulling down stools and starting the coffee.

     There were several unique touches to Sullivan’s that made it more than just coffee and doughnuts. For starters, there was a piano located in the corner of the shop; no other Cape Cod doughnut shop could lay claim to that. Said piano would be played daily by the house piano player, Barnstable High School English teacher Ed Milk. It was also played by legendary jazz pianist Dave McKenna. Considered to be one of the finest pianists in the world during his career,    McKenna, also a neighbor of Sully’s, would often play music to the delight of customers and to pay for his doughnuts.

     After moving to Cape Cod in 1966, McKenna played many shows at local bars and nightclubs. Sully remarked that he would often go into work at the doughnut shop at 1:00 a.m. This was around the time that most of the local bars would close, and the musicians, including McKenna, who had been playing would come knocking on the door looking for something to eat. Legend has it that McKenna once ate eighteen hot honey-dipped doughnuts in one sitting but stopped there; telling Sully he “didn’t want to seem like a pig.”

     Also unique to Sullivan’s was the meticulous, hand-painted mural of the mid-Cape area on the wall of the shop. It was common for customers to walk over to the mural, coffee or doughnut in hand, and stare in wonder at the painstaking detail put into this piece of art. 

     Sullivan’s popularity stretched beyond the average joes who stopped in before work. Legendary Boston Bruins announcer Fred Cusick enjoyed popping in for a visit when he was around during the 1970s and ’80s.

     Longtime Kennedy chauffeur Tommy Roderick also frequented the donut shop, picking up a box because “Jackie loved blueberry muffins.” So popular was Sullivan’s that Barnstable Police remarked to Sully that if they were ever looking for a suspect in Hyannis they would simply stake out Sullivan’s and neighboring Christy’s, because whomever they were looking for would end up there eventually.

     Sullivan’s thrived into the 1990s, when construction at the plaza where it resided caused the shop to be closed for a while. It had been featured on the corner of the plaza with glass windows facing the traffic; now it had been pushed inside to a smaller location. Unfortunately, business suffered, and Sullivan’s closed early in 1993.

Where Sullivan's Donuts once stood in Hyannis.

     Much of the equipment used to make the doughnuts at Sullivan’s was bought by the Hole In One Donut Shop. This company, run by four sisters, continues to make doughnuts the old-fashioned way to this day, even in a world filled with Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme. They are still going strong as of 2019, with locations in Eastham and Orleans.

     

     As of this writing, a convenience store sits where Sullivan’s once resided.

Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod

Thank you to everyone who came out to the launch party for my 4th book, Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod.  Held June 19, 2017 at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in South Yarmouth and cohosted by Books by the Sea it was a tremendous night.  Here is a video of the night.



Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod is available through Amazon: Here

List of Summer Book Events:

Titcomb’s Book Shop – Saturday July 8th @3pm
Cotuit Library – Wednesday July 12th @6:30pm
Dennis Public Library – Thursday July 27th @6:30pm
Centerville Library – Monday August 7th @7pm
Sturgis Library – Tuesday August 8th @6:30pm
Brewster Book Store – Tuesday August 15th @10am
Osterville Free Library – Saturday August 19th @1pm
Wareham Public Library - Thursday August 31st @6:30pm
Bridgewater Public Library – Wednesday September 13th @6:30pm