In 1941, taxicab driver Lewis “Skippy” Harris stumbled into the restaurant business or, rather, restaurateur Dick Skurdy stumbled out of it. Harris was sitting in Skurdy’s Lunch, a small cafe on East 55th Street when the proprietor, seized by an episode of “St. Vitus’ Dance,” offered to sell the business to him. Harris jumped on the offer despite having no experience running a restaurant. Scurvy’s Lunch gave way to Skippy’s Lunch, a business that Harris would operate for the next 45 years.
Lewis Harris was born in 1910 on a cotton farm in Lowndes County, Alabama (between Selma and Montgomery), where he lived with his grandmother and older sisters. In 1923, he migrated to Cleveland with one of his sisters. After leaving school, he worked in the Empire Rolling Mill before becoming a taxi driver and a billiard room manager at a pool hall near Williams Barbecue on Central Avenue.
After taking over the lunchroom on East 55th, he opened a second enterprise, Pastime Recreation Parlor, in the space. The pool hall became a popular hangout and even hosted the 1956 Ohio State Open Pocket Billiard Championship. Meanwhile, Skippy’s faced a challenge later that year when six servers walked off the job and picketed (incidentally, they were not unionized workers) against Harris’s expectation that they also scrub the floor and wash dishes. The issue’s resolution failed to make the newspaper, but Harris may have reached an agreement with his employees.
Early morning risers who can’t resist grits and hot biscuits know Skippy’s Restaurant in the 2200 block of East 55th Street is the place to go. Sausage patties, scrambled eggs, eggs over light…the specialty is early breakfast. Biscuits are served with syrup and jams that are usually homemade.
Located immediately north of the famous Log Cabin bar and across from the Majestic Hotel, Skippy’s was part of a vibrant scene in the heart of what was regularly referred to as Cleveland’s Harlem, and it attracted locals from all walks of life as well as celebrities from Satchel Paige to Martin Luther King Jr. The restaurant was a Cleveland favorite for soul food for decades, thanks in part to another Alabamian, Priscilla Phillips, who had migrated to the city in 1942 and came to work for Harris after a stint as the cook at Sadie’s inside the Majestic Hotel. It also enjoyed a reputation as a breakfast spot. As Anita Lewis Polk of the Call & Post observed, “Early morning risers who can’t resist grits and hot biscuits know Skippy’s Restaurant in the 2200 block of East 55th Street is the place to go. Sausage patties, scrambled eggs, eggs over light… the specialty is early breakfast. Biscuits are served with syrup and jams that are usually homemade.”
Harris continued to operate Skippy’s until 1986. When he was not working at the restaurant, he enjoyed working with his hunting dogs and show horses on his Geauga County farm. Around the time he opened Skippy’s he entered of his dogs in a “coon chase” held at Benny Mason’s Cedar Country Club in Solon, and forty years later he was honored as the Buckeye Walking Horse Association’s Sports Person of the Year. He died in 1987.
Resources
- 1940 and 1951 Cleveland City Directories. Cleveland Public Library.
- “‘Dishpan Hands’ Strike Issue.” Call & Post. July 14, 1956.
- Display Ad 7 — No Title. Call & Post. August 3, 1940.
- Display Ad 15 — No Title. Call & Post. December 10, 1955.
- Display Ad 27 — No Title. Call & Post. May 31, 1941.
- Harris, Lewis. 1910 U.S. Census. Precinct 17, Lowndes County, Alabama.
- Kidd, Frank, Jr. Interview. February 25, 2013. Cleveland Voices.
- Photo Standalone 17 — No Title. Call & Post. February 18, 1956.
- Pieters, Lurlena. “Homemade Dishes Keep Clientele Returning to Skippy’s Restaurant.” Call & Post. August 3, 1974.
- Polk, Anita Lewis. “Cleveland Dining With a Soulful Spoon.” Call & Post. January 15, 1966
- “Skippy Harris Skips Mann Act Charges.” Call & Post. January 30, 1943.
- Williams, Margaret. “‘Skippy’ Lewis Harris Dies, Was Former Restauranteur.” Call & Post. December 3, 1987.