LAWRENCE — Braving cold temperatures and icy wind, dozens of devotees of Lawton's Famous Frankfurters queued up out the door for yesterday's grand reopening of the popular Canal Street eatery.
"I knew it was going to be busy, but it's been really busy," said Lawton's owner Joanne Curley, as she rushed to fill orders for a hungry lunch crowd, with help from employees Lisa Masuk and Jillian Cicoria.
Everyone, it seemed, was happy to see that the historic hotdog stand had opened back up after an extended hiatus that started in May and lingered until yesterday at 11 a.m.
"It's too bad they had to close for that amount of time," said Bob Staid of Danville, N.H., who was picking up a huge order for himself and his co-workers at the Swimming Pool Center on Route 28 in Lawrence.
The closing wasn't by choice. A utility company doing work under a nearby sidewalk somehow disturbed the canal embankment that Lawton's sits on, leading to concerns that the whole building could slide into the water. After months of negotiations and about six weeks of construction, the site looks better than ever.
Staid said he had been buying hotdogs, and other offerings, at the take-out stand for 25 years, at least once a week.
"It's an institution," he said. "I get two hotdogs with the works and fries. But their chicken barbecue is outstanding too."
Others had their own favorites.
"I've been coming here since 1949," said Mary Anne Talmisano of Methuen. "I used to work on Chandler Street, and there were five us who would come over here three times a week."
Retired now, she still comes at least once a month for a couple of hotdogs and onion rings.
Sheri and Eudy Villaman, of Lawrence, said the long wait standing in line in the narrow building was "worth it."
"You can't get onion rings and hotdogs like this anywhere else," Sheri said.
Her husband agreed.
"The food here is great," said Eudy, although his wife pointed out that at one time, her husband refused to set foot inside.
"He used to drive by and say, 'I'm not going in there,'" she laughed. Once they got married, Sheri, who first came to Lawton's with her parents as a child, dragged her new husband into the bland, almost seedy-looking building.
"I've been hooked ever since," Eudy said.
As the lunch hour intensified, the line crept out the door and spilled onto the sidewalk, forcing some hopeful diners to huddle together in the cold wind.
"I missed the chicken barbecue," said Dane Copley of Methuen. "It's the best around."
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