A Look Back at the Regent Cafe' in Jackson, Michigan: 1926-1966

The long-gone Regent Cafe once stood at 218 E. Cortland Street in Jackson. From 1926 to 1966, the Regent was a popular favorite eatery for many Jacksonians.

Why? For several reasons:
1) The 65-cent Businessman's Lunch: hamburger steak, potato, vegetable, roll, coffee and dessert.
2) Family Sunday dinners for $6.75.
3) Open 24 hours.
4) Up to 200 menu items, including lobster, filet mignon, and the more unusual that included sweetbreads, codfish, spaghetti with chicken livers, veal heart, and beef brains.

What kind of pop did they serve? Delaware Punch, exclusively.

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Owned by Angelo and Ida Johns, they previously owned a restaurant across from the depot, sold it in 1926, and opened the Regent Cafe’ - named after the nearby Regent movie theater. The waitresses - called “Regent Girls” - wearing black skirts and white blouses, made 50 cents an hour.

They expanded the Regent to Cortland Street and Otsego Avenue. It now could service 170 customers, had 90 employees, and served up to 2,000 customers per day. But all good things come to an and.

In 1966, the City of Jackson bought the Regent for a paltry $140,000 and then demolished it. The Regent became a victim of the city’s “urban renewal” program. Why couldn’t it had been included as a part of the city’s “restoration” or “historic” program? Why did it have to fall to the steam shovels, wrecking balls, and bulldozers?

Ida passed away in 1986, followed by Angelo in 1990, both heartbroken at the sad ending of their “baby”, the Regent. Hundreds of former customers felt – and still feel – the same way.