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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 > 1965 - Ole Hickory Bar B-Q on Bird Road and SW 75 Avenue, Miami
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1965 MDB&Z

1965 - Ole Hickory Bar B-Q on Bird Road and SW 75 Avenue, Miami

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


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SZ 16-Oct-2021 15:45
When I was little in the early 1960s, we ate here often. I remember the bottles of warm bar-b-que sauce on the tables, and one time when we were there the upper wall had blown up balloons tacked all around. If you were a child, you could pick a balloon at the end of the meal. They had little slips of paper inside that would get you a free drink, or fries, if I remember correctly. The food and bar-b-que sauce were delicious. I remember the meals we ate as children being served in plastic baskets lined with wax coated paper. I always got baby back ribs!
Robin Andrews 16-May-2020 09:48
My mom Jackie N. worked at Ole Hickory in 1967-1969. I remember the Cole slaw was the "best"! I was 4 yrs old...yikes!
Leighton 13-Jun-2017 04:19
The current Maribelle Day Spa incorporates the original structure, as it is said to have been built in 1959.
Guest 02-Dec-2016 21:04
My name is Mary .Hunt, then Mary Oratowski. I didn't know Colleen was expecting a baby.......her and Ealt r were just married the year I worked there. My guest comment is below. Bless your heart April. You had fine parents as far as I knew them.......back in 1970-1971
Guest 02-Dec-2016 21:01
I worked for Walter and Colleen in 1979-71. What a wonderful couple. Walter was a gentleman. His food was great. I doubt anyone could duplicate his ribs. I had a wonderful time working there for a year before I went to stay home and be with my kids. Wonderful memories. I learned to carry many beer mugs at that restaurant.
Jim Goodrich 23-Feb-2013 15:29
Our family used to eat here often. Ole Hickory and Plantation Pit BBQ on Bird Road were the closest BBQ restaurants for those of us who grew up around Bird Road. My cousins lived right behind Ole Hickory just a walk across the empty field. We would walk up the grassy side of the expressway and sit and watch the movies playing on the screen at Tropicaire Drive Inn Theater.
Guest 16-Aug-2011 12:50
I grew up on the island too, and my parents took us there frequently.
Guest 13-Mar-2011 18:37
Michael Volk- My brother Randy and I were friends with Kenny Leiberman, the son who took over the New Hickory on Coral Way. We lived in the grove on Braganza Ave, and Kenny used to come over quite a bit, or we'd go to his house, an apt. I think, before or as he met his wife. Trying to remember her name. Oh well, Kenny was a good guy. Rodney Clutter
April Volk13-Oct-2010 17:35
Thanks for posting this. I'm Walter and Colleen Volk's daughter April. I too have many memories of the restaurant - not as many as my older siblings, they sold it when I was 9.
Ron Koger 03-Oct-2010 22:05
Yes, I too remember this place well. I also grew up on the island from 1954 - 1966 when I graduated from Coral Park. But, my parents lived there until 2002. I have lots of memories of this place as well as the PAL dance right across Bird Rd back in the 1960's. Also, all the places along Bird Rd like some of the other mentioned. The Kayo & Direct Gas stations. My buddies & I used to go to the Kayo early in the morning after our Miami Herald paper routes and get tons of candy out of the Tom's Peanut machine they had outside. You just put your money in and pulled one handle, then another while releasing the first one...and on and on you went. We would almost empty the machine. My first real job after the paper route was at the Winn-Dixie at Bird & 67th Ave. Does anyone remember there used to be a Green Stamp store next to it and then an Army-Navy store. That Army-Navy was the first place I used to buy my Levi jeans. I remember we would buy a pair and take a swim in the lake then get out to let them dry and shrink to fit you like a glove. Oh well... don't want to bore you any longer. I could go on... great times...great memories! Ron Koger
Guest 03-Jun-2010 22:28
Just seeing that photo I can almost taste and smell that food. Thanks Don.

Tom Orr
LindaChatlos20-Apr-2010 22:19
I used to live north of here on "the island" (body of land surrounded by a canal) between Bird Road and Coral Way. My brother (Terry Chatlos) worked here in high school in the late 70s
Jim 21-Mar-2010 14:22
Great food! We used to frequent the one on the corner of A1A & Johnson St in Hollywood. They closed it around 1973
Guest 19-Mar-2010 21:09
As a kid growing up in the neighborhood behind Ole Hickory, I remember the restaurant very well. My family used to eat there. One of the few restaurants my dad would go to.
Susan 12-Oct-2009 23:57
Hi Michael, Walter was my uncle and I thought that he was partners with Lieberman and that they had some sort of dispute, which they settled by splitting up the restaurants between them. L got Coral Way and Walter got Bird Road, and I think that there was another Ole Hickory in Northside.

Anyway, that's my two cents.
Cindy 23-Jul-2009 00:40
Does anyone remember the empty lot where the strip mall is now with "El Cristo" restaurant.. My dad, Alfonso Robles coached little league there with Murray Uslan, Juan Cambo and others...prior to moving to Tamiami Park..which was then an empty field with the old airport landing strip..
I have memories of pony rides where there is a park now called Bird Drive Park...
there was a green and yellow drive-in restaurant on Bird Rd called Pizza Palace where they came out to the car...
And Felber's ice cream in the little mall on 84th and Bird. next door to felbers was a pet shop that had a caged chimpanzee that grabbed my hair for dear life and would not let go!!! My mom, whacked her purse at the monkey, all the while the owner protesting.."My monkey, My Monkey"..while I clung to the cage to keep my hair from getting plucked out...
It took a quick thinking customer to entice the monkey with food to drop me!
My mom and I got home soon after..and I remember my dad yelling out.."Your back,,
how'd it go...and my mother replying.."You wouldn't believe it if I told you.." LOL
Don Boyd06-Jul-2009 20:36
Michael, thank you for posting. It's always good to hear from someone in the family who owned the establishment depicted in the photo(s).

Don
Michael Volk 06-Jul-2009 19:38
it's amazing what memories people have and how people assume many tales. fact is, my father Walter Volk, owned the new hickory on coral way which he later sold to the lieberman's, then opened the ole hickory on bird road. he had several ole hickory's ( hollywood, fl / homestead, fl ) until he retired. several of the messages posted have the facts messed up. i remember several of the people who posted messages. Walter is long gone, but not forgotten. his creativity and reasonable prices kept people coming back and filled up their hearts with many memories and plenty of good food !!!!!! i am glad the memories are still alive. i have pictures of me as an infant in 1957 of my father holding me in front of the restaurant. just to recall all the old cars in the parking lot, was a trip. later B B Q fans !!!!!!!
cathy 02-Mar-2009 23:00
Yes, I really remember the Kayo gas station on Bird and 73rd -- it was in my back yard! As a kid, me and my best friend would play in the parking lot, talk to the gas attendant and sometimes I would buy cigaraettes for my mother, I remember a pack of Salems being about 60 cents! We used the public restroom rather than to stop playing and going home, it was practically like having a 2nd bathroom!!
Dale Reed 02-Feb-2009 23:25
Ole Hickory was started by the Lieberman Family. It was sold and they opened the New Hickory on Coral Way east of Ponce De Leon Blvd. I knew them well and ate there often in the 70’s when I worked at Thomson' s Photo Lab not far away.
Dave C 19-Aug-2008 14:11
I worked at ole hickory from 67-70 while in high school, went from 1.25 to 1.75/hr.Worked for Walter Volk, and a cast of charactors. Tropical Park was still opened then and the restaurant always had horse people there,There was a guy named Rudy that was there all the time and sat at the end of the bar. Any ex employees out there?
JC 18-Jul-2008 06:11
I lived on the "island" just north of this diner from 1972 til 1989; my family still lives there. To the right of this photograph is SW 75th Ave; just a few blocks north, was a small bridge that crossed a canal that completely surrounded our neighborhood. I remember swimming in that canal with the neighborhood kids until we watched a 12 foot alligator break the surface, like the Loch Ness monster, 25 feet from where we we swimming!!! On the east side of 75th Ave, across the diner (in the empty patch in the extreme right of the photo) they built a 7-11 that became the center of everything for everyone who lived on the island in the 1970s. Unfortunately, it's a porn shop now.
Robert Smith 21-Mar-2008 00:08
Does anyone remember the "isldand" behind the Old hickory? and what about Central Stadium? and the Big Woods by the railroad tracks? and KO gas and Direct Gas during the Summer Gas wars 16-17cents a gallon per gas. And Lory's transmission - what about the little lake - central lake were everyone skied and fished for bass, blue gill, snook and tarpon - these were the good old days!
Steve 19-Mar-2008 01:51
If we weren't at Shorty's, we'd be here. My dad liked this place.
Jan 11-Jan-2008 02:31
I remember right after hurricane Cleo (?) passed thru we still did not have electricity, but Ole Hickory did!
Don Boyd15-Sep-2007 05:23
It could have been owned by the guy trying to appeal a zoning hearing so he could put a gas station at Bird on the east side of the Palmetto. He took a series of photos of other establishments along Bird to help his zoning appeals case, which was still rejected if I remember correctly. Don
Guest 14-Sep-2007 23:20
Interestingly, it seems like this light green '63 or '64 Chrysler has appeared in many of the other photos. Is there any significance to this car? I drove one once and they were great cars then.