History Of The Yorkshire Pudding

HIDDEN HISTORY: Memorable area restaurants, Part II

This elegant Route 5 restaurant sounded like it might be headquarters of a notorious secret society, but it actually had a traditional Scottish theme.

This Ellicott Street establishment was famous for its Sunday smorgasbord which was served from 1 to 9 p.m.

This South Swan Street eatery was renowned for its Italian cuisine and for its musical groups who performed late on Friday and Saturday nights in the 1950s.

The answers, in order, are The Clansman, Villa Capri and Luigi's.

Earlier this summer, I wrote a ''Hidden History'' column about memorable area restaurants. I quickly discovered that I had only scratched the surface of great local eating establishments from the past.

So here's a ''second course'' of fine restaurants, most of them no longer with us — culled from advertising published in The Daily News from 1953, 1964, 1968 and 1973. Bon Appetit!

Bob's Bar & Restaurant — Located on Oak Orchard Road in Elba, Bob's opened in the mid-1960s and served popular fish fries on Friday nights. A 1968 advertisement offered Saturday night ballroom dancing to the music of ''The Mellotones,'' a well-known Batavia dance band.

The Clansman — This restaurant offered a ''private, intimate atmosphere, elegant surroundings, a real log fire and truly Scottish hospitality,'' according to a 1973 ad. The Clansman was on East Main Street opposite the old Twin Fair store.

Dairy Queen — The nationally known ice cream franchise once had a location on Route 5, one mile west of Batavia. A 1973 ad offered a ''scrumpdillyishus'' Brownie Delight sundae for 39 cents on Mother's Day. (Memo to the Dairy Queen people: How about opening another location in Batavia?)

El Rancho Drive-in — Located on Route 63 just south of Batavia, the El Rancho was a popular 1960s hangout. Its grand opening under new management on Sunday, July 19, 1964, offered some awesome specials between 1 and 3 p.m. -- Five hot dogs for $1, five hamburgers for $1.25, cold drinks and ice cream cones for a nickel apiece and french fries and milk shakes for 15 cents each. The drive-in also offered clams, spaghetti and meatballs, fish fries and pizza.

Yorkshire Pudding: Yorkshire

When we who belong to the proud Yorkshire nation rejoice at our good fortune. There's lively clog dancing in the streets, exciting whippet racing on the moors, athletic pie-throwing in the parks, darts and domino tournaments in the pubs and in the privacy of their own homes, Yorkshire families sit down for hearty meals of tripe and onions or steamed steak and kidney puddings or battered Whitby cod, preceded naturally by golden Yorkshire puddings hosting little lakes of beef and onion gravy. We have much to be grateful for in these broad acres - God's own county - the history, the rivers, the undulations of the hills, inventiveness and forthrightness, the beauty of the womenfolk, the pies, the rural/urban balance and oh... I feel an acrostic poem coming on... SHOOTING IAN Only culinary idiots put custard on Yorkshire pudding. Here on the nicer side of the Pennines we do indeed put our high quality dairy custard on rhubarb desserts but also on other well-known desserts originally devised by Yorkshire chefs and housewives - apple crumble, Eve's pudding, apple pie, spotted dick, treacle tart etc. etc.

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