The well-known Crossroads paper placemat
Saucon Source asked readers to share their favorite memories of eating at or working at Crossroads Hotel, which closes Saturday, and they responded in a big way.
Below are some of the memories shared by customers and former employees on Facebook.
Saucon Source wishes the Matey family all the best in their retirement, after more than 60 years of operating a business that has served generations of Hellertonians.
YOUR MEMORIES OF MATEY’S CROSSROADS HOTEL…THROUGH THE YEARS
“Every friday night, Crossroads pizza and cheesesteaks is/was a family tradition for as long as I can remember.” -Nick Ferrani
“Living down the street from Crossroads was the best. We had the privilege of smelling the food all the time. No place like it. It was the first place I went to eat when I came home to visit from Florida… Glad I got my cheesesteak last month.” -Nina Connell-Bysiewicz
“The sprint from the Junior High to Crossroads to get a table before a line formed and (you) had to wait…. Today there would be no sprinting. I would just have to settle for waiting!” -David Achey
“Going there to eat pizza with my best friend Kara De Jesus after middle school dances.” -Lynn Sarko
“(I) bussed tables there in high school (1991)… I also went there with my parents all the time… So many good memories. So sad to see it go.” -Michelle Ealey
“Been going there more than 50 years. Too many (memories) to list.” -Glenn Hoffert
“Walking up the street to pick up pizza as a kid, after junior high dances, and closing the bar at 2 a.m.!” -Mary Pastir
“My first job in high school bussing tables (1991).” -Courtney Ahern
“Definitely going there after the Junior High dances, waiting in line to get a table.” -Marcie LaBar
“Walking to Crossroads for pizza with friends after middle school dances (1995-1997), and numerous family gatherings with the Lechner family!” -Emily Shirk
“When I was a kid both sets of my grandparents lived very close to Crossroads. Whenever we would go visit them we would order a pizza to go. My job was to secure the pizza for the ride home. It was great in the winter because it kept your legs nice and warm, but in summer I don’t know how many times I burnt my legs holding that pizza. Didn’t matter, it was SO worth it when we got home and had our feast. Getting takeout back in the ’80s was not something that we did all the time. It was a treat. When I was a teen I remember my first time being allowed to go with all the other kids and run like heck up to Crossroads after our junior high dance. It was a rite of passage to be able to cross Main Street after the dance and walk up there. Now as an adult I own my grandparents’ home and have lived there for 15 years. What I will miss most now is the smell of steak meat cooking as I cut the grass in the morning. It was also my ‘go to’ place when I had a bad day, a good day, or I just didn’t feel like cooking. It was the definition of comfort food for me literally ALL of my life. I will miss this place SO much.” -Megan Galle
“I remember going to Crossroads after the Junior High dances. One time that makes me laugh, Bruce Schoenenberger was trying to play a trick on me and unscrewed the seasonings on the table. I didn’t use them, but poor Jodi Davis did and it poured all over her pizza. LOL. We were seated by the fish that night too.” -Charlene Riegger
“As a kid, every Christmas Eve to kick off the evening of visiting family we had dinner at Crossroads with my dad, my mom Wanda Warren Gad, my brother Timothy Joseph Gad, godparents Cecelia Seifert and their kids… We always had to sit by the giant fish. Then Binky Nicina, Lisa Seifert Raco and I would play ‘Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer’ over and over and over on the jukebox. LOL.” -Jen Fisher
“Deciding our metal apartment stairs were just tooooooo icy to go to work one day way back in 1987, but then deciding they weren’t too icy to walk/slide down to walk up to Crossroads for lunch with my bestie, Janet Lipsky Knauss!” -Linda Thatcher
“After a junior high school dance, Joey Sofka and I chugged two cans of Colt 45. Then we went to the Crossroads and chased Dee Dorn and Sheila O’Grady around the dining room!” -John Millington
“Having my brothers come home from Mansfield and always ordering 16 to 20 cheesesteaks and taking them home. I always had to run for them.” -Susan Horn-Reiss
“My favorite bartender CHRIS.” -Leslie Repyneck
“This the first restaurant I remember going to as a child. It’s also the place we told my dad he was going to be a grandfather.” -Ian Frey
Customers stand in line to get a table at Crossroads. Since news broke that the restaurant would close May 7 long lines outside the front door have become a relatively common sight.
The front porch of Matey’s Crossroads Hotel
Over the years the building at E. High and Main streets in Hellertown has remained much the same, although a photo hanging inside the restaurant shows a much different-looking Crossroads Hotel around the turn of the 20th century.
