Bickfords Magnets

Remembering Bickfords Restaurants in New York City. Bickford's lunchrooms offered modestly priced fare and extended hours. From the 1920s through the 1970s the chain was a mainstay in the New York City area. Members of the Beat Generation could be found at night in the New York Bickfords. Jack Kerouac sometimes wrote while sitting in Bickfords, and he mentioned the restaurant in Lonesome Traveler. As did William S. Burroughs in Junky and Allen Ginsberg in Howl, "sank all night in submarine light of Bickford's."

Starting as a New York mainstay in the 1920's (with limited exposure in Massachusetts), by the early 1980's, Bickford's left the New York market entirely while continued expansion in New England.had been occurring. There were approximately 70 Bickford's in New England, serving up a variety of breakfast & general American lunch fare. Currently, only 4 Bickford's restaurants remain, all located in Massachusetts.