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| - Every Foodie gets born somewhere. Even before they really know they are one. Sigmund Freud once said, "a child leaves the womb because its craving diner food." (ok, something like that) But for this Foodie, I was born into this path at Ott's Drive-In. My earliest Foodie memory was around 8 or 9 years of age, and the fantastic treat of my father taking me or my brother and I there early Saturday mornings and to order what seemed to be taboo, but amazingly so for a breakfast, an "Ott Burger" with a vanilla or chocolate milkshake! The Ott Burger is a half pounder on Texas toast and of course, milkshakes are hand made.Their Biscuits & Gravy are huge favorites too, and as a child encountering the little chunks of peppery sausage, fired my desire to always seek new things. When there as a child, we'd sit at one of the 14 spinning, chrome & cushioned stools at the counter, or switch it up and do one of the original formica booths, but never too far from the grill. I wanted to see all of the action and how it was done! When those diced onions or onion rings hit the flattop and began to sound, I was either destined to become a composer, or a Foodie and you can guess how it turned out. I love music but it just doesn't have much going for the nose. Even though a child of the 1970's, I could tell this place was special and somehow,sensed it history. I have recollections of an old jukebox, pinball machines, chrome candy machine (LOVE THOSE), old bulky cigarette machines (even a strange cigar one), shiny black & white tiles checkered across the floor. Much of those things were removed as I grew up, but everything else original, intact, and less a fire in the 1960's that closed it for a few months, it retains its character of the past. Ott's is one of the long survivors in the cannon of American Diners at 42 years. Perhaps not as long as The Arcade of 1919 in Memphis, TN, but as far as those whom live for something more authentic of that mid-20th century era, Ott's is still keeping old school diner alive. Before "fast food" became the stuff of clone and cancer, the drive up, drive in, or in Ott's case, "drive to, park and go inside," was the standard. The original owner, Othmer Mayer (died in 1978), had designed it to have a drive thru window, but it compromised the parking and never happened. In its heyday, when the town of Rantoul still had its Chanute Air Force Base, it was pretty much open til Midnight every night. Those diner days of "Nighthawks" are long gone sadly, but they do breakast and lunch every day but Sunday & Monday. A shame that they don't open it back up to the youth of the town as it would give them something more wholesome than hanging out in the parking lot of Arby's, but that's just me. At least they're still holding down the classical fort in other ways. Ott's Drive-In resides on the edge of my hometown, near old Rt 45 where it feels like you're leaving small town America and traveling to nothing all at once. So in a way, it sits on the edge of vanquish, but there's something prolific about a great diner being the last landmark before the town vanishes behind (or starts, depending on your view). Which is a statement of the diner journey for the Foodie. Classic diners are like little churches for our mortal appetites, where we dial it back to simple and recenter. Or, like me, with Ott's, if just to get back in touch with my eternal Foodie child self. Foodies are travelers on roads in search of, and we need a good meal in our bellies before we venture on. For me, and others, Ott's Drive-In is an outward post on the Foodie Soul's Eternal Sojourn and may it live forever.
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