Is it harder to imagine that it had been closed for 5 years by this time, or that it lasted until 2006?

Red Apple Rest opened in May of 1931 as a rest area on Route 17, with a market of people traveling from New York City to the Catskills. So its survival long past the opening of the New York State Thruway was actually somewhat miraculous. In the book "Stop at the Red Apple" by original owner Reuben Freed's daughter Elaine Freed Lindenblatt, she writes that in its early days they would make “frankfeuters” and peel four tons of potatoes a week by hand, but that the reduced crowds later gave them an opportunity to more easily keep up with the flow of the customers. The cafeteria and adjacent Red Apple Motel found a niche with entertainers, including George Carlin, as well as appearing in three Woody Allen movies. This sort of following became its customer base, and a family member of mine talked about once going to summer camp on a bus in the 1950s, and the children immediately complained to their parents that the bus driver would not stop there.

A year after closing, the building was condemned, but appeared to be sort of frozen in place, and it was largely left alone. Only much later was a fence placed around the structure, which was mostly demolished within the past year.

Red Apple Rest
974 Route 17
Southfields, New York
November 26, 2011