Tag: Vintage Style

A Memorable Thanksgiving With Vintage Flair

Thanksgiving is a time-honored American tradition. The holiday is often celebrated eating a great home-cooked meal, surrounded by family and friends. It includes gathering in the kitchen in the morning to make that pumpkin pie or prepare the turkey while creating memorable moments.

When you’re congregated in the kitchen making all the side dishes and trimmings, have you ever stopped to think about how Thanksgiving dinner was made in your grandma’s kitchen? While some things never go out of style, kitchen appliances have come a long way… which is something we should all be thankful for.

In grandma’s kitchen, you had the feeling of being home. There was love and warmth around every corner. You also knew you were going to get a hearty home-cooked meal; not taking seconds was a serious offense. During after-dinner clean up, dishes had to be washed and dried by hand, which was no fun at all.

The day after the big feast probably involved some Black Friday shopping and then maybe cleaning the oven; after all, the oven just had its biggest day of the year. Back then, ovens were cleaned manually (or “womanually”). This involved spraying the oven with toxic cleaners, letting it soak, putting on rubber gloves, then mopping dirty toxic sludge out with rags. (Don’t forget to open the windows to let the toxic fumes out.)

Speaking of the cleaning your Grandma had to do, we would be remiss not to mention the nasty task of defrosting the refrigerator. This task included emptying the fridge and freezer, storing everything in coolers, letting the fridge warm up, and then chipping the ice out of the freezer with a steel spatula. Once the cleaning was completed, you could finally put the food back.

Today’s kitchen is not your Grandma’s – now, you can fit your unique personality into Thanksgiving without giving up the modern conveniences. Much like their original 1950s counterparts, retro fridges today offer customized shades and a range of styles to choose from. The outside may look foreign to those of the millennial generation, but its features are not.

Here are just a few bells and whistles to expect:

  • Self-cleaning ovens
  • Convection ovens for faster, even, precise baking and broiling
  • Programmable ovens for baking and self-clean
  • Warmer drawers
  • Frost-free fridges
  • Ice makers
  • Large functional freezers
  • Filtered cold water dispensers

It’s fun to look back to the days of June Cleaver, when evenings only consisted of the family dinner and  the fellowship around the table was the most important part of the day; and Thanksgiving dinner perhaps the most important meal of the year. The innovation of modern technology in kitchen appliances has helped preparing Thanksgiving dinner come into the 21st century, but some things like the warmth and love of family and friends while eating great food will never go out of style.

Famous TV Kitchens Reloaded: Hi-Tech Upgrades to Retro Designs for a Blast from the Not-So-Distant Past

If you love television, chances are that you grew up right alongside some pretty famous families. The Bradys. The Waltons. The Seinfeld gang. And at the very center of all the laughs, the confusion, the sadness, and the touching moments you’ll likely never to forget, are the memorable kitchens in the homes of the families we loved.

Many people still consider the kitchen to be the very heart of the home — for a variety of unique reasons. So let’s take a walk back down memory lane — revisiting the famous TV sitcom kitchens of the past — and highlight what it was about these environments that made them so special.  Plus, consider how their designs have influenced the kitchens of today.

The Brady Bunch: Alice ran a tight ship, feeding and raising a special group of kids

The Brady Bunch was the dominant family-focused sitcom of the 1970s. And in the Brady family kitchen, housekeeper and matriarch Alice Nelson was the master of her domain. The kitchen environment itself was a nod to everything that was great about the 70s. With an open floor plan in the middle class suburban home, the walls were adorned with perfectly fake wood paneling broken up by that memorable kitchen island.

Add to the atmosphere the stainless double oven, and Alice had everything she needed to keep the family eating heartily and running smoothly. The only thing missing? A retro microwave oven from Northstar. Imagine what Alice could have done with 1200 watts of power and capacity of 1.6 cubic feet. We’re talking sensor reheat, genius sensor cook setting, inverter turbo defrost, and a popcorn key.

The Waltons: An All-American tale of just how hard — and sweet — life could be

There’s little denying that the Waltons owned 1960s drama. This All-American family from Walton’s Mountain in Jefferson County, Virginia gave us a glimpse into growing up during one of the nation’s toughest times. And as you might expect, hearts soared and challenges were bested in one of the more memorable kitchen settings in American television history.

The Walton kitchen garnered specific acclaim for its period-appropriate detail — from the matching woodgrain furniture to the woodburning cookstove that anchored this special room. However, swap that out with the Fireview woodburning cookstove and you have a model that still perfectly matches the time period, but adds the convenience of high-efficiency and optional side burners.

Seinfeld: The show about nothing from the smallest kitchen in history

Kitchen space in a New York City apartment is at a premium. And no TV show demonstrated this phenomenon more clearly than the sitcom that dominated the 90s — Seinfeld. The motley crew of Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer spent years getting in and out of trouble — shoulder to shoulder in the confines of Jerry’s cramped apartment kitchen. Literally two steps would take you from the fridge to the stove and back. And you could access the microwave halfway through that trip.

One addition to the Seinfeld kitchen that they would have loved might be the Northstar fridge. With six models and eight dynamic colors to choose from, this retro appliance would have done wonders for Jerry’s cool factor — particularly on the few occasions when he entertained a female visitor. And with the addition of a BrewMaster factory-installed draft kit, the boys could have enjoyed cold brews to fuel their insane conversations.

Elmira Stove Works carries several complete lines of antique kitchen appliances to help you capture the look of your favorite TV kitchen. Plus, our brands are equipped with the very latest in cooking technology — which means you’ll never sacrifice the performance you demand for the aesthetics you prefer.