Serving Up Some Jim Dandy Memories

I would have liked to have written this column before Noblesville’s Jim Dandy closed, but the schedule just didn’t allow it.

Nevertheless, the Jim Dandy was such a large part of my life and of the lives of so many other Hamilton County residents, I couldn’t let its passing go unremarked.

When I was growing up, my parents had a deal — Mom cooked dinner six nights a week, but she always got Fridays off.

In the beginning, we ate at a different local restaurant each week — the Backlash in Cicero, Pickett’s Cafeteria in Westfield, Beanie’s in Noblesville, the Blue Beacon on State Road 31 near 236th Street, and maybe one or two others I’ve forgotten.

That came to a halt in 1964 when the Jim Dandy opened. From that time on until I went to college, we were at the Jim Dandy EVERY Friday evening.

Back then, most of the businesses in Noblesville were still concentrated around the courthouse square. The Jim Dandy was on the east edge of town and there wasn’t much out that way besides it, the Rainbo Roller Rink and Noblesville Plaza (Danner’s dime store, Standard grocery, Hook’s drugstore and an American National Bank branch.)

Owned and operated by Harry Reasner, Noblesville’s Jim Dandy was the first restaurant in a chain that grew out of Reasner’s Polar Bear Frozen Custard stand in Tipton and his Riley Park Drive-In in Greenfield.

Eventually, Jim Dandys could be found in nine Indiana cities: Elwood, Frankfort, Wabash, Anderson, Marion, North Vernon, Greenfield and Tipton.

I believe the Jim Dandy was the first chain restaurant in Noblesville with an indoor dining room. (Clancy’s didn’t open until the following year and McDonald’s didn’t deem us worthy of a franchise until 1973.)

I’m not sure about the other Jim Dandys, but the one here began as the “Jim Dandy Drive-In” with curb service being offered in addition to indoor dining.

For curb service, you parked in designated spots behind the building and placed your order by way of a service-phone speaker. Your food was then delivered to your car. 

“Cruising the JD” was a popular pastime for area high school students. I can remember pulling in and ordering French fries, just so we could sit and watch the “parade” go by.

It hurt a little when the curb service was discontinued in the 1980s.

In case you’re wondering, the name, “Jim Dandy,“ came from the Jim Dandy sandwich, a double-decker hamburger Reasner had created at his Riley Park Drive-In in the 1950s.

The Jim Dandy hamburger (“A meal in itself!”) became one of the restaurant chain’s signature offerings, along with Jimbo sandwiches (grilled ham and Swiss cheese on a long roll,) fresh strawberry pie, broasted chicken and that wonderful coleslaw.

Over time, some menu items changed and the building was remodeled, but one thing that stayed the same was the Jim Dandy’s dedication to this community. I don’t have room to list all the ways the restaurant supported the people of Noblesville and  Hamilton County, but here are just a few examples . . . 

They provided meeting space for family gatherings, class reunions, and various local organizations and clubs.

They sponsored amateur sports teams, hired high school students for summer jobs and bought 4-H beef.

They collected money for organizations like Janus, non-perishable food items for the Noblesville Fire Department’s food drive and Christmas gifts for Central State patients.

The only bright spot in all of this is that — at least for now — you can still satisfy a craving for a Jim Dandy at the sole remaining Jim Dandy in Tipton.

For those of us in Noblesville, however, it just won’t be the same. The Jim Dandy was a good neighbor who will be greatly missed.

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at [email protected]