You can always tell a collector’s life’s work has been dumped back into the stream when multiple items appear for the same place. It means someone was a completist. Or had a connection to the place we’ll never know.
For Anne McEwen, there was more to Aunt Hattie's Restaurant than plates smothered with creamed chicken and dumplings.
"There was the horse and wagon they rode around the city to advertise," said McEwen, a library assistant at St. Petersburg's main branch. "At about age 12, we all climbed on. We got to hold the reins, but the horse knew where he was going."
Aunt Hattie's first was a hamburger hot spot, established in 1939 by Ed and Hattie Boore. It evolved into a landmark for home-cooked food and offbeat promotions.
