I got the guest room cleaned out today in preparation for company this weekend. It was kind of a cluttered mess since we sold our camp trailer and had to empty everything out of it and put it in that room. It's looking pretty good now, most of it fit in the closet with just two bins against the wall.
I had received an email from Sean's cousin about a year ago about his Grandpa Smith's store. I wanted to get it on a scrapbook page so after further research, I was able to get an oil painting picture of the store from the same cousin and a picture just a couple of weeks ago from Sean's mom of him in the store. I put it all together to make this page for Sean and for my boys books.
Here is how the article reads:
The Unique Charm of Frank
As I walked into Frank’s Food Town in Draper, sometime in the early 1980’s, I asked for a pound of hamburger. I was told by Frank Smith, the owner:
“Get out! Go somewhere else. We don’t sell hamburger here. Go down the street to one of our competitors. All we have is ‘ground steak.’ Just look at this certificate from the Utah Department of Health. It says we consistently have the ‘lowest percentage of fat in our ground steak of any institution in the country.’ Hamburger, humph!”
I started walking out of the door, dazed and confused. Frank’s son Lynn felt my pain and explained his dad did that for effect (just to newcomers) and invited me to return soon. I never dared ask for hamburger again. And I did return time and time again to shop at Frank’s Food Town.
My memories of the store invoke images of wood floors, fresh fruit and vegetables and the roasted chickens at the meat counter, especially prepared by Frank himself. You could order a steak as thick as you would like. The roasts were fresh and tasty. There was a wonderful aroma in the store.
The store was a unique haven of personality and service with the image of Hometown, USA stamped all it. One day, I was writing a check to purchase my ‘ground steak,’ and I produced my driver’s license for identification. Lynn’s wife said: “What’s that for? We believe you are who you say you are.” I was hooked, cooked, stick a fork in me done! They had my business forever after that.
The building was located on 9th East and 12300 South, and was a unique design that wrapped around the northwest corner. The downstairs was once the headquarters for a boxing club. Frank’s remained in business as long as possible, until the big box grocery stores came into town and undercut the lower volume prices of the Food Town. So much was lost in the hallowed name of competition. Businesses, like people, have different seasons of their existence. The story of this business, and especially the people who ran it, are an important part of Draper’s history, not to be forgotten. (Article submitted by: Rob Perry)
