Castle Blog

“If you’re going to sell Red-hots and frankfurts sell the ‘As You Like It’ kind. They’re good and will make you money.” - The Saginaw Evening News , August 13, 1907.   The story of the development of the hot dog and their companion bun is complex and shrouded in myth and legend. For an outline of the history of the hot dog, we defer to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council website .   The hot dog’s first appearance in Saginaw is encumbered in tall tales. However, we know t

September 2, 1984. “After Almost four decades of serving authentic Greek cuisine in Saginaw, Zorba’s Lounge on the city’s West Side is closing.   ‘I want to thank everybody. I appreciate all these years,’ said a sometime tearful Tom Veremix. ‘And I know it hurts you guys, but it hurts me more.’   Veremis immigrated from Greece 70 years ago and has operated Zorba’s for almost 40 years.” - The Saginaw News , March 30, 2021.   It has been nearly five years since Zorba’s Lounge a

“Restaurants come and go but when goes after more than a half a century on the Saginaw scene its passing deserves more than causal chronicle.   Such a one was Vlassis Restaurant at 411 Court in the shadow of the Saginaw Courthouse. It was a perennial favored eating place of county employes[sic], supervisors and uncounted numbers of visitors from throughout the county when they had business at the Courthouse.   It was started in 1913 by Theodore A. Ted Vlassis and his brother,

“Meals That Are Different in An Atmosphere of Contentment”    -The Saginaw News , December 6, 1941.    One of the great pleasures of exploring a city - and a city’s history – is the discovery of the unexpected. Tucked into an apartment building at 625 Owen, the Colonial Dining Room -- sometimes the title includes “Hostess Room”-- is one of those little discoveries.     The Colonial Dining Room was located in an apartment building at 625 Owen, a few blocks from the edge of the