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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet >> Miami Area RESTAURANTS, Drive-Ins, Bars, Lounges, Liquor Stores, Clubs, Strip Joints, etc. Gallery - All Years - click to view > 1968 - Ole Hickory Bar B-Q on Bird Road at SW 75 Avenue, Miami
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1968

1968 - Ole Hickory Bar B-Q on Bird Road at SW 75 Avenue, Miami

Bird Road (SW 40th Street) and 75th Avenue, Miami


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Linda 28-Oct-2017 22:50
My brother, Terry Chatlos worked here in the 70s while in High School. We lived on the "Island" north of this restaurant and ate here often. We used to walk to the 7-11 across the street, buy a TON of candy and eat it all the way home. Then suffered through being forced to finish our dinner :-/
Ole Hickory smelled AWESOME all through the neighborhood.
Carolyn Mathews Long 26-Sep-2017 12:07
My father named this bar Old Hickory, probably in the early 1930's, when he owned it. His name was George Mathews. He served in the Old Hickory National Guard unit in WWI. That was the "nick name" of the Guard units from North and South Carolina as well as Tennessee. It was an open air bar at the time. I have a picture of it and when I find it will try to get it to you so it can be uploaded and add to the history of the place. My brother, born in 1933, used to go there. I remember going once as a young girl in the '50s and if I remember correctly, it was still open air at that time, or at least part of it.
Leighton 13-Jun-2017 04:37
This is a second entry for the same building. The current Maribelle Spa is the same building, rehabbed. (City records show the building as constructed in 1959).
South Miami Native 31-Dec-2013 16:13
Back in 1973, I used to work as a rock musician at the Copa Show Bar which was just down the street. We would play till 4:40a and then go over to the Ole Hickory for a big platter of Beef Ribs. I can taste them still after all these years !
Jim White 08-Apr-2013 04:32
I worked here in 1968-1969 with Sergio Fernandez, Buddy Cosgrove, ?Sewell, forgot first name. Walter was still single but had two young kids and his sister Gussie would come in on the weekends. (This was right near the Palmetto Expressway and the other side was Tropical Race Track.) It's hard to remember everyone's name but I have fond memories.
guest 29-Apr-2009 17:33
Wow, my older brother Randy use to work there in the late 60's early 70's.
BOB BILETNIKOFF 22-Jan-2009 21:12
MY WIFE AND I ENJOYED GOING TO OLE HICKORY. WE WENT THERE MANY TIMES IN THE 60'S. WE LIVED ON 48TH STREET SO IT WAS VERY CONVENIENT FOR US.
Deb Coyne 03-Aug-2008 10:42
I remember smelling the smoke from the restaurant, that was my cue that we were almost to my grandmothers house, she too lived on the "island" this side of the canal from the railroad tracks. We used to fish for tarpon at certain times of the year and the manatees were so plentiful it seemed you could almost walk across the canal on their backs. I caught my first bass off the seawall from her backyard back when you could actually eat fish from the lakes and canals and the only thing you had to worry about was if they tasted muddy, what to do if the seaweed tangled up the line on your Zebco or you got hung on the rocks at the edge when you were trying to reel in for another cast.
JC 18-Jul-2008 06:33
This is from the east side of SW 75th Ave, looking west toward the Palmetto expressway, taken from the site of the future 7-11 store. A few blocks north on 75th Ave (to the right of the photograph) was a two lane bridge that crossed a canal and small lake that surrounded the "island" where I grew up from 1972-1989 (my family still lives there) . This brings back memories of grade school at Emerson Elementary, junior high at West Miami, and movies at the Tropicaire drive-in (just beyond the Palmetto expressway, to the left of the photo); a wonderful Miami that still felt like it was in the middle of a pine forest in the Everglades.
AJ13-Jun-2008 18:44
I have lived near the "island" and the location of Ole Hickory for some 37 years. It later became a Sizzler, then a Miami Subs, and most recently a Dunkin Donuts. Across 75th Ave there was a 7-11 that unfortunately became a porn shop.
Dave Covert 06-Feb-2008 04:06
I worked there from 1967-1970. It was a great part of my life that I can look back on.Yes walter did the cutting of the meat and when I started working there the head cooks name was Lou. Later the cook was Dave Selig. When I started I was making 1.25/ hr and when I left I was up to 1.75. I was there when Walter married Colleen, hope I spelled her name correctly. Oh, what about Walters sister, Gussie with the old Cadillac. Which kid wrote the post about Walter, I knew Michael and I think he had a sister but time has blurred my memory.
Guest 19-Jan-2008 00:20
Lourdes Mendez - IfI I'm not mistaking there is now a dunkin Donut shop and next to it a Chevron gas station.
Guest 06-Jan-2008 05:39
my father, Walter Volk opened the restaurant, " Ole Hickory " in 1957, after selling the New Hickory on coral way. i worked there for 15 years from 1965 - 1980. He created a family bar-b-q restaurant that everyone could afford. the pictures capture the times, however, his old fashion BBQ techniques........cooking over hickory wood, still to this day seems to be the best way to bar-b-q !!!!!

i have very many fond memories !!!!!! all the people that worked there, all the familiar faces. i have many pictures going back to the late 50's when Bird Road was undeveloped, nothing but a horse track and all the people that worked there !!!!
Jan Dupree 23-Dec-2007 06:28
Good photo. This scene is engraved in my mind forever.
Bill Parks 14-Sep-2007 04:20
I lived a few blocks from here in the mid seventies. I ate here often. They had a great salad bar with of all things, chopped chicken liver. Very strange for a barbeque. Before it moved to the Bird Road location, Ole Hickory was located on Coral Way just east of 32 avenue. When they moved to Bird Road, someone opened New Hickory in their old building on Coral Way.