| Worth the drive |
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Owner Lisa Garrett and her daughter, Jessica Walton, take pride in serving delicious menu items to customers, including their signature Red Slaw Dog, Cobb Salad, Dagwood sandwiches, sundaes and banana splits.
Still a favorite hangout for ice cream, good food
By Aaron Tanner
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ayne’s Soda Fountain and Sandwich Shop celebrates 150 years centuries, many drugstores across the U.S. added soda fountains to in Scottsboro this year. Founded originally as Payne’s Drug their business to attract customers. Mr. Payne, a visionary businessStore in 1869 by Civil-War veteran William Henry Payne, it man, added a soda fountain when he moved his pharmacy to its is the oldest continuously operated business in Scottsboro and Jackcurrent location on Laurel Street. As the first place in Scottsboro to son County and is also believed to be the oldest continuously opersell Coca-Cola, customers would come in and enjoy a beverage or ated business in the state of Alabama. ice cream while having their prescriptions Payne’s Soda Fountain is a Scottsboro institution The pharmacy was located in differ- that turns 150 years old in 2019. filled. “Pharmacies were more like conveent parts of downtown Scottsboro before nience stores back then,” Walton says. moving to the northwest side of the courtEven though the drugstore closed in house square in 1891 where it sits today. 1991, Payne’s continues to offer customAlthough the Payne family still owns the ers the opportunity to experience an era building, the soda fountain is now run by when soda fountains were the favorite run by Lisa Garrett and her daughter, Jeshangout spot in town. Today, it’s still a sica Walton. hangout, and one that serves good food in During the late 19th and early 20th addition to tasty treats. 34 MAY 2019
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