Taken from the Globe Theatre production, Carl Rosa Opera programme c1949 is an advert for Pete’s Café Snack Bar
Image courtesy of Barry Jones
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Taken from the Globe Theatre production, Carl Rosa Opera programme c1949 is an advert for Pete’s Café Snack Bar
Image courtesy of Barry Jones
OH YES Petes dip bun!!! I remember them well.
My recollection was of our football team going into Pete’s Snack Bar on Saturday mornings after playing at Tilery, for a delicious dipbun, until the day that half the team didn’t turn up for school on the following Monday due to a stomach complaint, which at the time we called ‘dipbun fever’!!
One of my strongest memories of visiting Stockton with my mum was going to Pete’s Snack Bar for a bun dipped in the juice of the meat. I can’t recall if they were pork or chicken, but they were really nice. I might be wrong, but I think that we sat at the counter to eat. The whole establishment would probably be condemned today as breaching hygiene regulations.
If we were realy flush and it didn’t happen that often, we would get a plate of chips with loads of salt n vinegar, sitting on those high chairs, the narrow table that ran along the wall hardly ever washed as I remember, and if, if we got a cup of coffee made with milk!!! wow we were set up for the day, didn’t matter about the stains on the cup from last customer, say what you like about Pete’s snack bar the greasy smells would bowl you over, dont think you would have sat on a cold seat in winter times the place was hardly ever empty, good old Pete’s.
PS: in those day we could take bottles back to shops and get a few coppers for our troubles, those few pennies got us into the baths and into the pictures, we would ask a grown up to take us in, we would get in half price, cost an arm and a leg nowadays.
I lived at 4 Bath Place, next door to Meggie Dunn’s shop.
I used to climb over the wall into her back yard and pinch bottles, then take them around the front and cash them in for 2d each. I got away with it for ages until one day she caught me… 🙂 🙂
Seem a common theme that in the sixties, swimming baths then spend our bus fare at Petes then walk home to Hardwick. Never thought anything of it but would kids of today do this…not sure.
As Derek says, Pete’s dip buns after the baths… Fantastic!
My mother used to take me to Pete’s Cafe for a “savoury sandwich” I have no idea what was in them but they were delicious. If I remember rightly they also had a ‘dumb waiter’, as a child that fascinated me. Happy days.
When me and my old Swainby Road mates used to leave old Stockton baths, eyes streaming with the clorine or what ever they used in those days, the joy of going into Pete’s snack bar for a 2p dipbun, nothing on earth came close to those bun dipped in fat, coffee with stains around the cups from previous use was nothing at all, if if!!! we could afford a plate of chips. Wow!
Part of our Sunday night in the High Street, we would walk from one end to the other then if we had any money or not, a chicken and stuffing roll. I think it was a man called Reg who did the cooking. He was a lovely guy.