Goody Goody

In 1930, A. L. Vickery opened a restaurant at 5900 Natural Bridge, just west of Goodfellow. St. Louis lore has it that Vickery opened an A & W Root Beer stand, the first in the city. However, according to the June 27, 1930 Webster News-Times, an A & W stand that had opened in Maplewood that spring was already the eighth in the St. Louis area.

It's not clear what Vickery served at his eatery early on. In 1944, he was selling hot dogs as part of the Foot Long Hot Dog chain. It wasn't until two years later that he was serving root beer as an A & W franchise.

CAR GIRLS – Foot Long Hot Dog Co., 5900 Natural Bridge.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jul 31, 1944

GIRLS – White; serve cars; evenings. A. & W. Root Beer Store. 5900 Natural Bridge. Apply Wednesday a.m.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jun 11, 1946

Cecil Monroe Thompson, Finis Leroy Meadows and Woodrow Wilson Springfield all grew up in Bonham, Texas. Thompson, who was born in 1906, was ten years older than Meadows and Springfield.

By 1937, the three Texans had made their way to Springfield, Illinois, where they were all employed by the Icy Root Beer stand at 1309 South 5th Street. Thompson was the manager.

In 1947, Meadows and Springfield, with Thompson's backing, opened a drive-in restaurant at 1220 East Cook in Springfield. They named their drive-in Goody Goody.

The following year, Thompson, who had married Ollie Parks of Clayton, Missouri in 1934, purchased A. L. Vickery's root beer stand at 5900 Natural Bridge in St Louis. On January 24, 1949, he registered his new business with the state of Missouri as a second Goody Goody Drive-In.
 

Goody Goody Drive-In, 5900 Natural Bridge, circa 1949

Thompson hired William Vogan to manage his St. Louis drive-in. The restaurant had both carhop and dining room service, the dining room seating 48 customers. Goody Goody served breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Goody Goody menu listed the Springfield location on its cover. Steak Hamburgers were their specialty "from U.S. inspected whole steer rounds broiled on greaseless grill served on toasted bun."
 

1949 Goody Goody Drive-In Menu (click image to enlarge)

In 1951, Finis Meadows purchased the Tepee Drive In in Decatur, Illinois. Woodrow Springfield continued to operated the Goody Goody in Springfield. But by 1953, the Goody Goody at 1220 East Cook had been rebranded as another Tepee location.

Also in 1951, Cecil Thompson purchased the Parkway Drive-In restaurant in Wood River, Illinois. He relocated William Vogan from the Goody Goody in St. Louis to manage the newly acquired restaurant.

In 1955, Thompson and Vogan opened the Beacon Drive-In in Wood River. The year before, Thompson had sold the Goody Goody in St. Louis to Herb and Viola Connelly.

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Herbert Allison Connelly was born on December 6, 1907 in New Salem Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Penn State School of Agriculture in 1931 with a degree in dairy husbandry. Connelly married Mary Viola Ritchey in New York City on May 1, 1937.

By 1940, Herb and Viola Connelly were living in St. Louis. In August of 1941, their son Richard was born.

Connelly ran the commissary for Walgreens in St Louis at a time when the stores had lunch counters. In 1954, when Walgreens asked Connelly to transfer to Denver, he decided to go into business for himself instead and bought a drive-in restaurant.

Richard Connelly remembered the day his parents bought the Goody Goody Drive-In.

One Saturday in October 1954 was my introduction to the Goody Goody. I was thirteen and a friend of mine and I were painting Halloween murals on O’Donnell’s Drug Store window for a contest. My father pulled up to the curb and told me that he and mom had bought the Goody Goody. So began the Connelly family’s venture into the restaurant business. By March 1955 I was carhopping and peeling potatoes.

Herb Connelly (left) at Goody Goody Drive-In, 1956

Viola and Richard Connelly, 1956

The Connellys continued offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, both in their dining room and delivered by energetic carhops. They added a front dining room to their building in 1957. The remodeling included a large, flashing Goody Goody neon sign. In 1968, the restaurant was enlarged again to add additional seating.
 

Goody Goody Drive-In, 1968

Goody Goody had many notable neighbors during the '50s and '60s. Sam "the Watermelon Man" Zvibleman's stand had been at 5820 Natural Bridge since the early 1930s. Ed's White Front Bar-B-Q had been at 5803 Natural Bridge since 1933. And Amedeo Fiore moved his Melrose Pizzeria next door at 5910 Natural Bridge in 1951.
 

Melrose Pizzeria, 5910 Natural Bridge

In 1968, Richard Connelly purchased Goody Goody from his parents. Four years later, he discontinued carhop service, and in 1977, he stopped serving dinner at the drive-in, offering only breakfast and lunch.

Those hours were ruining my first marriage, and eventually did; plus, the commerce that was here — the four major car dealerships, GM’s night shift — was all disappearing. Dinner didn’t make sense anymore.

In the mid 1970s, "Goody Goody Drive-In" became "Goody Goody Restaurant," with an 18 foot tall "Big Chef" figure welcoming customers.
 

Goody Goody Restaurant, 1977

Goody Goody Restaurant Interior, late 1970s

Goody Goody Restaurant, 1978

In 1981, as nearby businesses moved away, Connelly made a renewed commitment to his restaurant and the neighborhood. He began operating Goody Goody under the Connelly family name.
 

Connelly's Goody Goody Restaurant, 1980s

In 1990, Connelly enlarged Goody Goody. He built a two-story addition, along with a lobby and a dining room at the west end of the building. The restaurant now seated 110 people.

But a few years later, Goody Goody started to flounder. Connelly made a strategic move that put his restaurant back on track.

We got hurt when the ASCOM plant, which was a big part of our business, cut back and eventually shut down. What turned things around, though, is when we began to offer breakfast after 11 a.m., up until we closed at 3. We became a breakfast diner — rather than strictly a burger-and-fries, meatloaf-and-mash-style diner — that had a crossover menu.

"Goody Goody Restaurant" became "Goody Goody Diner." By the turn of the century, business was booming. Nearly 3,000 people ate at Goody Goody each week. The diner's big red neon sign flashing "Goody Goody" was visible for three blocks. Cars packed the lot and spilled out onto the street.
 

Goody Goody Diner, 2002

Goody Goody had all the markings of a diner — tile floors, splashes of red, a counter with swiveling chairs, booths and tables lining the walls. The diner drew military personnel, downtown business people, police officers, day laborers, cross-country travelers and neighborhood residents.
 

Goody Goody Counter

Goody Goody Dining Room

Connelly offered unique and distinctive meals on his menu. No longer did Goody Goody provide drive-in fare; it made its mark as a first-class breakfast diner. To refine Goody Goody's culinary quality, Connelly hired a chef. The upgrades and additions expanded an already-hefty menu and helped return old customers and attract new ones.
 

Goody Goody's signature omelet was The Wilbur — an omelet filled with hash brown potatoes, green pepper, onion and tomato, and topped with chili and Cheddar cheese. Another favorite was the fried chicken and waffles, which Connelly said had its origin in Harlem.

We think it began at the Harlem Supper Club in 1938. A St. Louisan living in LA — where that item is also popular — gave me the idea. No one was doing it here. Now it’s a signature item.

The sweetness of a malted waffle with syrup and the salty savoriness of our fried chicken has the same effect as mixing salted Spanish peanuts with jelly beans. Really good, but hard to describe.

The Wilbur

Chicken and Waffles

On April 30, 2014, Richard Connelly sold the Goody Goody Diner to Ryan and Joe Safi, brothers who owned and operated convenience stores in the area. Connelly said he had not been looking to sell the restaurant — and that business had never been better — but the duo had approached him in January of 2013.

The more we talked, the better it sounded — it was a good fit. They say you should go out on top and leave at the top of your game. I could do that — it was time for me to do that.

Richard Connelly, 2010

On the night of April 22, 2019, an electrical fire in the Goody Goody kitchen caused extensive damage to the diner. Goody Goody's Facebook page stated that the restaurant would be closed "until further notice."

The Goody Goody Diner never reopened. The historic building was demolished in 2020.
 

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