It was big news in Salina when a new restaurant, the Swedish Diner, opened one mile south of town on May 8, 1955. It wasn’t really a diner (what with the white tablecloths and all), but it was Swedish, from the mural of a Swedish scene on one wall by Signe Larson, a well-known painter from nearby Lindsborg, and the smörgåsbord laid out every Sunday. (Lindsborg, which bills itself “Little Sweden USA,” has long been famous for its resident artists and art galleries and studios.)
The Swedish Diner was designed by the local architectural firm of Anderson–Srack–Johnson and built of brick and Haydite, a lightweight aggregate invented in Kansas City in the early 1900s by Stephen Hayde. The restaurant adjoined the Howard Johnson Motel, which had opened in 1953 on U.S. Highway 81. (The motel, which took the name of its local owners, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Johnson, wasn’t affiliated with the famous national chain.)
After a little more than four years in business, however, the Swedish Diner’s days were apparently numbered. In June 1959 came a new manager and a rechristening of the restaurant as “The New Swedish Diner.” In August came a remodeling of the restaurant and the arrival of yet another manager, this one a veteran of the vaunted Fred Harvey organization.
The Swedish Diner made it to January 31, 1960, when it served its last meal, a day-long, all-you-could-eat extravaganza that it billed as “A King’s Treat.” For just $2.25 you could get the smörgåsbord and all its Swedish standbys, from risgrynsgröt (rice porridge) and rag brod (rye bread) to köttbullar (meatballs) and lingonberry-topped ostkaka (cheesecake), as well as “many other choice foods.”
The next day there was a Keck’s Steak House where the Swedish Diner had been. Lou Keck had opened his first steakhouse in Manhattan, Kansas, in 1940, and then a second, in Topeka, in 1958. His third, in Salina, lasted just a few years.
Today a Verizon Wireless retail store occupies the site where the Swedish Diner once stood.
Here is the recipe for Swedish Baked Beans as they were prepared at the Swedish Diner in the 1950s.
Swedish Baked Beans
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Loading...Ingredients
- 1 apple
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup onion
- Small piece of ham
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
- 1/4 cup sweet relish
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 cups (1 quart) prepared baked beans
Instructions
Heat oven to 225 degrees.
Using a food grinder or food processor, grind together the apple, raisins, onion, and ham.
Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the ketchup, mustard, relish, and brown sugar.
Blend into the prepared beans and bake in a bean pot or covered casserole dish for 1 1/2 hours.
Serves eight.
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