Acme Lunch Room
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
The Acme Lunch Room was a restaurant located at 216 19th Street North in downtown Bessemer. It was owned by Jimmy Vines and was a popular hangout for Industrial League baseball players.
Vines' love of baseball led him to not only sponsor a Birmingham Amateur Baseball Federation team, but also to recruit players into informal barnstorming clubs who would pack into his 9-passenger car and advertise for the restaurant all over the area. According to an interview cited in a 2006 essay, when his team was stuck in a 9th-inning tie in Blocton, he asked the team to throw them game, predicting that, "They'll then come to the cafe all week just to rag me and I'll sell a ton of burgers and pie."
References
- Brasher, Jusin (2006) "The New South and the Sandlot: Company-Sponsored Baseball in Birmingham, AL." The Vulcan Historical Review, Vol. 10, pp. 20–32