Editor’s note: Part 6 of an occasional series about fast food restaurants.
By Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD
Special to NKyTribune
As a boy growing up in the 1960s and the early 1970s, my family lived on the very edge of Park Hills. In fact, outside our rear fence was Lookout Heights, a small community that later merged with neighboring Ft. Wright in 1968.
Living one block from the Dixie Highway (US 25/42), my friends and I explored our boyhood surroundings with youthful enthusiasm. At that time, the “Gourmet Strip” of fine dining establishments lined the Dixie Highway. The largest included Town and Country (Park Hills), the White Horse Tavern (Park Hills), the Lookout House (Lookout Heights), and Oelsner’s Colonial Tavern (Lookout Heights).
There were very few fast-food restaurants along the Dixie Highway near where I lived. The principal one was Jerry’s Restaurant, the franchisee of a national chain. It was located at 1663 Dixie Highway, across from St. Agnes Church and wedged between the Dixie Drive-In Movie Theater, the Lookout Bowl, and the Stop-n-Go Food Store.
As children, we collected glass soda and beer bottles thrown out by passengers of cars along the Dixie Highway. These glass bottles were redeemable for five cents each. We took our glass bottle treasures to Stop-n-Go to earn our nickels, and then spent our money, usually playing the pinball machines at the Lookout Bowl. Occasionally, we purchased a hamburger or a double-decker J-Boy at Jerry’s Restaurant.
Our middle-class family did not eat out much, so I remember Jerry’s and their J-Boys when we would go on short trips throughout the state of Kentucky. Jerry’s was popular throughout Kentucky, where the chain began.
In 1929, Jerome Mitchell Lederer (1901–1963) — mimicking the popularity of the national hamburger restaurants “White Castle” and “Little Tavern Shops” — founded his own six-seat hamburger stand, combining the two names, “White Tavern.” His first White Tavern was located in Shelbyville, Kentucky. From the price of his hamburgers (five cents) to the architecture of his buildings and even to his slogans “Buy a Bagfull/“Buy Em by the Sack,” Lederer’s White Tavern chain was a facsimile of White Castle (“Jerome Mitchell Lederer,” FindaGrave; “White Tavern Shops,” Diner Hunter, December 10, 2013).
White Tavern grew to thirteen locations, then during World War II experienced supply and staffing issues. Postwar, in 1946, Jerry Lederer opened the first of what would become a national restaurant chain, Jerry’s Restaurant©/Jerry’s Drive-In©. Initially, his first location in Lexington, Kentucky was called “Jerry’s Five and Dime,” in reference to its original specialty, fifteen-cent roast beef sandwiches. “In 1947, realizing that people were not willing to pay that much for a roast beef sandwich, Lederer converted Jerry’s menu to focus on hamburgers” (Jerome Mitchell Lederer,” FindaGrave).
Like other hamburger chains of its day, Jerry’s had a double-decker hamburger of its own, called the “J-Boy.” The restaurants had both carhop service as well as dine-in options. Lederer’s company, called Jerrico, operated from its headquarters in Lexington. Hired by Lederer in 1948, Warren W. Rosenthal became chief operating officer in 1957, the same year that the company began to sell franchises. Upon Lederer’s untimely death in 1963, Rosenthal purchased the company. By then, there were “41 locations, both owned and operated” (Jerome Mitchell Lederer,” FindaGrave).
By the 1970s, Jerry’s Restaurants in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area were advertising their dining rooms as healthy alternatives to fast-food chains, stating that “garden green vegetables are now being served with your dinner at Jerry’s. Every evening you have a choice of vegetables as part of your special dinner feature, all included in one price” (advertisement, Cincinnati Post, October 30, 1974, p. 55).
Another ad in 1974 proclaimed that “Variety is the specialty at Jerry’s. Jerry’s Restaurants are getting better every day. There’s a whole new dinner menu to choose from—choices you don’t get anywhere else—appetizers and soups… vegetables and potatoes… and four different main dishes each evening. Things like roast turkey, liver and onions, collard greens, buttered peas, veal cutlet—and so many more” (advertisement, Cincinnati Post, November 20, 1974, p. 74).
The Jerry’s at 1663 Dixie Highway in Lookout Heights (Ft. Wright) was opened in circa 1962–1963. Its owner was Gene Finn. In 1966, Finn and other Northern Kentucky restaurant owners formed the Northern Kentucky Restaurant Association, a chapter of the Kentucky Restaurant Association of which Finn was president. Finn also served as a director of the Cincinnati Restaurant Association. The Finn family were members of St. Agnes Church and well respected in the community. Jerry’s became a popular place for students from neighboring Covington Catholic High School and Notre Dame Academy to hang out after school.
Nationwide, Jerrico had shifted attention to its new fast-food fish restaurants, Long John Silver’s. Jerry’s Drive-In Restaurants began to eclipse. By the early 1980s, Jerry’s locations were closing throughout the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. By 1982, for instance, Jerry’s Anderson Township unit at Beechmont and Salem Avenues had closed (“Dining Out,” Cincinnati Post, December 30, 1966, p. 24; “Senior Citizens Want New Center,” Cincinnati Post, July 19, 1982, p. 22).
In 1985, Gene and Chris Finn, “the last Jerry’s Franchise left in the area” of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky decided to convert their Jerry’s Restaurant in Alexandria, Kentucky into a new family restaurant. While the Jerry’s icon disappeared from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky scene, Jerry’s survived elsewhere. “In 1990 Jerrico sold its 46 Jerry’s locations to Great American Restaurants, who converted many locations into Denny’s. By 2015 there were only three Jerry’s locations left standing. By 2021 that number had dwindled down to one” (“Dining Out,” Cincinnati Enquirer, November 22, 1985, p. 55; Grant Wheller, “Jerry’s: An American Story,” News-Graphic Georgetown, KY, February 22, 2024.
For traditionalists, however, please take heart. There is one Jerry’s restaurant remaining — 4129 Lexington Road in Paris, Kentucky. Take a field trip there and step back into time.
Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD is editor of the “Our Rich History” weekly series and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He also serves as Director of the ORVILLE Project (Ohio River Valley Innovation Library and Learning Enrichment). For more information see orvillelearning.org