# What was the name of Alice's Restaurant? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701 "2005-09-15T01:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/21 "2005-09-15T12:30:27Z")
A typical case of American blind justice, and there isn’t anything Officer Obie can do about it. Except take away your wallet, so you don’t have any money to spend in the cell. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/22 "2005-09-15T12:41:37Z")
In the movie they definitely mention the name of the restaurant as Arlo has written a Jingle for it. The local radio station announces that “Alice Brock is opening her restaurant tonight.” The Jingle was literally, "you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant. … It just a 1/4 mile from the railroad track. " I wish I could cite but I cannot not. So at least in the jingle, it is indeed Alice’s Restaurant. I know Arlo a little through Clearwater (the Pete Seeger founded, Hudson River Environmental group) and I have seen the movie a dozen times. Remember also, it was discovered years later by Arlo that Richard Nixon owned a copy of Alice’s Restaurant and that the missing time on the Nixon tape is exactly the same time as Alice’s Restaurant. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/23 "2005-09-15T12:48:15Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Remember also, it was discovered years later by Arlo that Richard Nixon owned a copy of Alice’s Restaurant and that the missing time on the Nixon tape is exactly the same time as Alice’s Restaurant. 😉 Richard Nixon wa a fan of Linda Lavin? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/24 "2005-09-15T12:52:01Z")
> [@Sean Factotum](#): > > Richard Nixon wa a fan of Linda Lavin? You know this mean’s war. 😃 Of course I always like Linda Lavin as Wentworth. Bonus points if you can Identify this reference. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/25 "2005-09-15T12:56:36Z")
'Scuse me while I shuffle off to the mensroom… ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/26 "2005-09-15T13:01:43Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > 'Scuse me while I shuffle off to the mensroom… Abe is that you? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/27 "2005-09-15T13:37:20Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Abe is that you? Feels that way sometimes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/28 "2005-09-15T14:20:53Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > You know this mean’s war. 😃 > Of course I always like Linda Lavin as Wentworth. Bonus points if you can Identify this reference. Barney Miller. How many points do I get? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/29 "2005-09-15T14:26:33Z")
Kids, this-thread’s-got-47-words-27-posts-58-words-it-talks-about-details-of-the-song-time-of-the-song-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-song-someone-wants-to-know-Linda-Lavin’s-arresting-officer’s-name-on-Barney-Miller-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say, and we’ve gone on for forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that’s been said. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/30 "2005-09-15T14:28:45Z")
Curse you all. I’ll be singing this _all day_. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/31 "2005-09-15T14:35:06Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > Barney Miller. > > How many points do I get? I’ll give you 10 but **Lute Skywatcher** had already cryptically answered it and got the full 100 bonus. 😉 . You know, I now need to play the song and watch Barney Miller tonight. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/32 "2005-09-15T16:18:20Z")
> [@xash](#): > > Moved to CS. > > - **xash** > General Questions Moderator This one I’ll contest. I’m asking a strictly factual question about a real place that _happened to be mentioned and popularized_ in a song. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/33 "2005-09-15T16:21:11Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Alice and her husband Ray also owned an old church, which is where they were gonna have Thanksgiving dinner, and Arlo and a friend hauled away a ton of garbage, but the dump was closed, so they ditched it down a hill, and they got arrested for littering, and…after a year, Alice ditched Ray and went to Puerto Rico. > > These days it’s known as Theresa’s Stockbridge Cafe. > > This from any of a number of newspapers using Lexis-Nexis. And can you give a link for those of us wh _don’t_ have access to LN? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/34 "2005-09-15T16:59:52Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > This one I’ll contest. I’m asking a strictly factual question about a real place that _happened to be mentioned and popularized_ in a song. Well, if you want to question a mod’s decision on that, you should ask **Dex** or **Ike** to move this to the Pit. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/35 "2005-09-15T18:55:50Z")
> [@From the CD notes](#): > > Then, on Thanksgiving, 1965, Arlo made his ill-fated trip to Stockbridge, Mass, (where he had gone to school), and it was there-the scene of Alice’s Restaurant- that another sordid chapter in the annals of injustice took place. It may not yet be on a monumental par with the cases of Sacco and Vanzetti or Dreyfus, but it is well on its way to leaving its mark an another kind of history, for as soon as Arlo began to proclaim the story and reveal the true, suppressed facts of The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, multitudes listened, and even if they didn’t immediately form protest delegations, they did begin wearing “Alice’s Restaurant buttons and laugh and join in singing the hymn that binds the movement together.” The name of the song(?) story(?) is not _Alice’s Restaurant_, but _Alice’s Restaurant Massacree_ you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restuarant (‘sept Alice.) …IIII don’ want a pickle, just wanta ride my motorcyckle … Sorry, it doesn’t have any other name for the walk right in…its around the back… restaurant. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/36 "2005-09-15T20:16:37Z")
And they alllll moved away from me on the bench there. ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/37 "2005-09-15T21:09:34Z")
…and IIII don’t wanna die…I just wanna ride on my motorcy…cle ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/38 "2005-09-15T22:34:30Z")
I wanna see blood ‘n’ guts ‘n’ veins in m’teeth! ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/39 "2005-09-15T23:05:08Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > I wanna see blood ‘n’ guts ‘n’ veins in m’teeth! _claps **Dr. Rieux** on the back_ You’re our boy! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701/40 "2005-09-16T01:31:07Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > And can you give a link for those of us wh _don’t_ have access to LN? [Will this do](http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050508/LIFE02/505080301/1006/LIFE)? > [@](#): > > **How the legend started** > > Not everyone remembers the story that became a song that became an album that inspired a hit movie: Arlo Guthrie, 18, and his buddy Rick Robbins, 19, tried to help Alice and Ray Brock clean the church for Thanksgiving dinner in 1965 by taking the garbage to the dump in their Volkswagen bus. Only the dump was closed, so they threw everything down Prospect Hill. > > When Police Officer William Obanhein (forever after called Officer Obie) inspected the mess, he found a scrap of paper with a Great Barrington address. The teens were arrested for “illegally disposing of rubbish,” and jailed, until Alice bailed them out. They were fined $25 each and ordered to pick up the garbage. > > Officer Obie had wanted to send a message. He didn’t know the series of events would morph into a legendary '60s icon. > > **Fame for Alice** > > Alice’s Church is still the center of things. The annual Garbage Trail Walk to Massacree, a walk-a-thon to raise money for Huntington’s Chorea Disease research, starts here on May 22. It covers such touchstones as the Stockbridge Police Department, where you can see the cell door Guthrie faced from the inside and Theresa’s Stockbridge Cafe (aka Alice’s Restaurant) for sandwiches and cookies. > > Guthrie’s song said Alice’s Restaurant was near the church, but it’s more like a couple of miles and a different town. Its name wasn’t really Alice’s Restaurant but the Back Room Rest because it was the back of a grocery store and in an alley. > > When Alice Brock bought it, it was Maluphy’s Restaurant (kind of like how Alice’s Church started as St. James Chapel in 1829, became Old Trinity Church in 1866, then had to be deconsecrated for the Brocks in 1964). > > In Stockbridge, Alice Brock’s cooking was so acclaimed that, celebrities came from across the street where they were performing at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, making her famous. Most people don’t know that Alice’s only lasted a year, that she gave away food, broke up with Ray, took the money and went to Puerto Rico. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-alices-restaurant/321701.md?page=3)