Learning to Love Pea Salad at Wyatt’s Cafeteria

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Not long after we moved to Longview in June 1968, my paternal grandfather took us to dinner at Wyatt’s Cafeteria, which anchored a shopping center on High Street just off downtown, the same center where Tatum Music is today. He was newly widowed (but not for long — the man liked having a wife). We lived with him in his ranch-style house in Greggton until my parents could find a home to buy. (Greggton was initially known as Willow Springs, founded around 1873 as a railway stop. The name was changed in the early 1930s during the oil boom. A few miles west of downtown Longview, it was annexed by that city in the 1950s.)

One Sunday after church, we went to Wyatt’s. I was on the cusp of turning 13. My brothers were 10 and 4. Outside of the meager offerings of Allenstown (N.H.) elementary school, we had never eaten at a cafeteria. I could barely see over the steel pipes on which we slid our tray.

Oh, the selection of food! A bevy of salads rested on a bank of ice, the warm vegetables in metal bins heated by water beneath, a slab of roast beef resting on a carving board under a heat lamp. There were so many different types of desserts that deciding on just one proved difficult. Wyatt’s Cafeteria struck me as a place patronized by moneyed Texans who had made their fortunes in oil and gas.

That wasn’t accurate, of course. Wyatt’s was actually the great equalizer in family dining, offering a huge variety of food at reasonable prices, allowing one to buy as many or as few portions as one wanted.

Wyatt’s was founded in Dallas by Earl Wyatt in 1931. The concept grew rapidly in popularity, especially in Texas, where folks had large appetites. Writer Skip Hollandsworth, now known for his investigative pieces in Texas Monthly, wrote a piece for D Magazine in 1984 about Dallas being “one of the great cafeteria cities of all mankind.” At the time, there were 90 cafeterias in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Longview, two hours east of Big D, once had both a Wyatt’s and a Luby’s. The latter company bought out Wyatt’s, which at its peak had more than 100 locations. Luby’s closed in Longview several years ago, replaced by a Korean joint.

I remember standing in Wyatt’s Cafeteria on that Sunday in 1968, looking at all the salads.

“What’s that one? “ I asked the server. “English pea salad,” she replied. I had never heard of English pea salad. “What’s in it besides peas?” I asked, holding up the line. “Cheese cubes, hard-boiled egg, celery, onion, mayonnaise,” she replied. “I’ll take it,” I declared, while my mother looked at me strangely. What had gotten into me?

Thus was born my love of English pea salad over half a century ago. It is one of my absolute favorite salads. If a cafeteria had it among its salad offerings, that is what I was getting. After my Beautiful Mystery Companion learned of this culinary passion, she began making a big bowl of English pea salad a few times a year. I can aver without hesitation that hers is the absolute best I have ever eaten. I just finished up the latest batch a few days ago.

Despite its name, English pea salad did not originate across the pond in the United Kingdom. The name refers to the type of peas used, plump sweet ones — usually purchased frozen. The salad is a Southern invention popular at potluck suppers and dinners on the ground, especially in the summer, since no cooking is required (except the hard-boiled eggs if used).

Cafeterias have largely fallen out of favor. I have not been inside one in at least a couple of decades. I don’t recall ever seeing English pea salad on a restaurant menu. That’s fine by me, since my BMC makes the best around, adding chopped jalapeños and cayenne pepper to spice up her version. It makes my mouth water just writing about it.

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