Butlers and joe's .

When Sheffield was a rough and ready mucky old old working Town.

There was two establishments that fed them proper dinners on proper dinner plates with proper Yorkshires and proper pies.

One of these working man diners was Joe's on Portobelo and the other was Butlers at Brookhill.

Every day of the week from Dawn til Dusk these two establishments would dish out Dinners to the lads with mucky hands and hob nailed boots .

"How many Yorkshires" the lasses would shout as you waited to be served the mountain of a dinner that would keep you going until you got home at 6 or 7 pm where you would tuck into the second big meal of the day dished up by the Mrs.

Those days have gone now with the advent of the plastic sandwich and bottle of coke .

The days of the pint pot tea mug , the thick gravy covered meat and tater served up by lasses who could make you think of your mam.

Ah yes - memories of steaming mugs of tea, meat & potato pie with lashings of Henderson's, giant Yorkshires etc. etc. Here is an an old thread about Butler's - sadly long gone.

I remember Joe and Ivy Brooke's Cafe, I used to fetch the morning hot sandwiches from there in the very early sixties, I always liked a hot sandwich and Joe served a hat beef sandwich where he dipped the beef in gravy,one day I asked him to put some mushy peas on my dinner time snack, it was perfect and I had one every working day for around two years, I'm not sure but I think it became a favourite of other customers too. Joe and Ivy also had a Cafe down near the bottom of Staniforth Rd.

Doesnt Joe have the Dore Grill or am i wrong?

Surely Joe will have pasted away now, he seemed old in the sixties.

steve at butlers was a proper gent. a top bloke with a heart of gold

I never visited the cafes mentioned in this thread but in the '50s my dad took me to a very similar place at the top of Cambridge Street across the road from where he worked.... John Needham & Sons (Tyres & Batteries). After my dad's employers' place was demolished in 1963 Cole Bros ( John Lewis Partnership) built their new store there.

For the life of me I can't remember the name of that cafe but I recall that the food was delicious.

echo.

Butlers served proper meals, I am not sure how I ate so much in those days.

I worked on the buses for many years and the canteen on Castlegate also served great food in good portions, I would have three big meals a day. The food we ate then would now be considered unhealthy but it is still my kind of food and most eating places now serve next to nowt at inflated prices.

Butlers served proper meals, I am not sure how I ate so much in those days.

I worked on the buses for many years and the canteen on Castlegate also served great food in good portions, I would have three big meals a day. The food we ate then would now be considered unhealthy but it is still my kind of food and most eating places now serve next to nowt at inflated prices.

That is spot on boginspro.

It was big breakfast with all the trimmings [but no mushrooms:hihi:]

Then a proper dinner at Joes, Butlers, Firth Browns, Transport or Twist Drill canteens,[we simply walked in to these works canteens no one ever even asked if we worked there or not.

So three meals a day lots of graft a pint on the way home and still as thin as a rail

That is spot on boginspro.

It was big breakfast with all the trimmings [but no mushrooms:hihi:]

Then a proper dinner at Joes, Butlers, Firth Browns, Transport or Twist Drill canteens,[we simply walked in to these works canteens no one ever even asked if we worked there or not.

So three meals a day lots of graft a pint on the way home and still as thin as a rail

Yes I think you hit it on the nail when you said "lots of graft" Nobody is allowed to work hard for long hours to get good money any more. Productive industry is a shadow of what it was and transport is a total farce with workers earning poor wages and not allowed the overtime we had.

If you eat a lot and don't graft you get fat and unhealthy which is probably why the modern generation is happy with junk food.

Used to go in Joe's when he was on Portobello Street, and then when he moved to William Street in the eighties. Always a good breakfast, set you up for the day.

But like Boginspro said if you didn't work it off your waistline would begin to expand.

I used to see Joe and Ivy having a drink in the Hare and Hounds in Dore village, they bought a property there.

Echo beach it may have been the Cambridge Coffee House me and my wife went in there when they were building Coles.I remember Needhams very well also Globe and Simpsons had their infant business on the site around where Coles is now.