Merritt Canteen

The Merritt Canteen was established in 1942. It started out as a little hut serving the best dogs, burgers and seafood around. In 1958 Lorraine Kohn, the original owner, decided to level the building and build a state of the art drive in restaurant. It had an ice cream parlor, overhead doors as entrances and an outdoor patio. It was the first of its kind in the area. In the mid '60s, Lorraine met Jehu "Yawho" Rodriguez, Sr. who was working at Town & Country Diner (now known as the Galaxy) and invited him to come and work for her as a short order cook. Over the years his responsibilities turned into helping Lorraine manage the restaurant. As the North end area started to grow in the late 50 & 60’s so did the business and a number of other restaurants came to town.