Oscar’s Restaurant was a North Syracuse institution located in the center of the village dating back to 1938. As the village grew, so did Oscar’s. The location that has now been home to a few different restaurants has continued to provide a gathering place for village residents to interact with others, as well as village and community leaders. This opportunity provides an unfiltered exchange of information that would otherwise be missed.
Oscar Smith and his wife, Blanche, owned the restaurant until 1980 when their son, Bill, and his wife, Rita, took over until their retirement in 1991. Prior to starting Oscar’s, Smith had previously operated Smith’s Lunch at Clinton and Gifford streets in the city. In 1924, he moved to the village and opened the Coconut Shell on North Main Street.
Oscar’s was always a family operation, as the family lived in the back while the restaurant operated in the front. From the chalkboard menu, to the homemade pies, it was a gathering location for many Village families.
The tables from back in Oscar and Bill Smith’s day are still in use today in the upstairs section of what is presently Just One Bite, down to the black and white numbers painted on the side of them. These tables wouldn’t have survived without the care that the Smiths provided to them; which speaks to the care they took for the restaurant and its customers.
The days of the chalkboard menu and hearing one of the Smiths “call to kitchen” or call that “order up” for the customers is long gone, like the last drive up phone booth or the popcorn stand at the corner of the property. Even the families going to stop in for food prior to or after going to the library to get new books (as the library was just across Palmer Drive) is a thing of the past.
Now “Just One Bite” seems to be returning to family operation, with Jessica and Adam taking operation of the location that has been modified since the days of the Smith family, not only to have the upstairs (old dining space) but the downstairs also as new dining space (old family space).
