In between Hungry House and Willie's, it was an Italian restaurant called La Lanterna. Hungry House was owned by a family from Greenbrae, and there were other locations at the Corte Madera Town Center (next to the grocery store) and at Northgate (next to Sears).
Anyone else remember the other, long-gone shops at the Woodlands shopping center? Tweeds and Weeds, Woodlands Pharmacy, Bud's Ice Cream, Crocker Bank.....
Dinner at the Woodlands Restaurant was a special occasion for my family. My last memory of the restaurant was Thanksgiving, circa 1960. Two aunts were visiting us, and it was decided that to cook for a total of 8 was more than my mother was willing to do. So, we all dressed-up and drove from our Bolinas Avenue home in San Anselmo, to the Woodlands. The food was great, but part way through the main course, I began to develope a severe pain in a front tooth. I got through the dinner, but Dr. Boero told me that night the tooth had died. At the age of 12 I had my first root canal. Still, it was a fine restaurant in the 50's tradition.
I don't remember, but I love the pictures. After that, I believe it was Zim's Charbroiled Hamburgers and then Hungry House. But that leaves a gap of about 15-20 yrs. What was it before Willie's Cafe ? There must have been several tenants. What are we missing ?
Just noticed that the new image on the home page is the Woodlands Restaurant where I frequently had lunch with my grandmother in the 60s. I don't think I would have remembered the name since I was pretty young, but the photo jogged my memory of Sunday lunches there several times a month. My fare would have been limited to grilled cheese sandwiches but I do recall escaping the talk of the adults to go outside on the small lawn just off College Ave. to play under what I think might have been a large oak tree that was in a sunken retaining pit that as a 5 or 6 year old I found interesting.
Does anybody recall all the hullabaloo that occurred in the early 70s (i think) when they cut down the huge redwood trees that marked the entrance to Woodland Rd. so that they could widen it? I remember it on the front page of the IJ. A woman had chained herself to one of the trees to try and prevent their removal.
