But Clock customers remained as constant as the onion ring recipe, though now they showed up in small Japanese cars instead of flashy American to sit under the shaded overhang.Īt last, we return to Billie, who was a young woman in the early 70s. As the textile industry fizzled out, Greenville’s pace slowed. He did not raise prices and made only minor changes to the menu. In 1972, the Koutsioukis Brothers handed ownership of the Clock to Paul Banias. By an unwritten but uniformly observed rule, the indoor restaurant area was strictly male territory.” Not that the guys and gals didn’t ever mingle: the Clock was a great spot for a date. Writer Randy Sue Coburn remembers in an article for the Washington Star, “hile at the Clock, every Wade Hampton female, no matter how rebellious, was confined to sitting in a car.
Girls stayed in their vehicles and ordered from the friendly curb hops, while the guys either stayed in their cars or went inside to order. A police officer would be assigned to just The Clock, to try to alleviate some of the loitering and the tough guy shows that often came with it.Ī Changing Landscape Meanwhile, some of the resistance to this new social structure was showing itself in Greenville.īob Jones University had procured the Winn-Dixie Building and finished a wall between its campus and all that was beyond it, particularly The Clock, which allowed inter-gender socializing that wasn’t in BJU’s vision for its students.Įven though the “looser” conduct between students was indeed a big change for the times, guys and gals were still largely self-separated. You could pull into the Clock’s lot on a Friday night and have to wade through 2,000 students to get up to the bustling counter. The Clock Drive-In quickly became WHHS’s joint. In the ‘60s, Wade Hampton High School opened just a mile down the road.
The Winn-Dixie Supermarket provided meat and produce for the restaurant, and the Clock’s parking lot, about three times the size it is now, could fill up with the cars of eager customers.
Wade Hampton Blvd soon became a main thoroughfare, allowing Upstate residents to travel between Greenville, Spartanburg, and Charlotte. Located adjacent to a Winn grocery store (before Winn-Lovett and Dixie Home Stores partnered in 1955 to become Winn-Dixie), a pharmacy, and a Shoney’s, The Clock #3’s location turned out to be a product of great business foresight. If you were a student in Greenville and wanted to contact someone outside of school hours, you’d have to ring their home phone and speak to their parents. In fact, each high school in Greenville had its own “joint,” a popular place to socialize over hot food and cold drinks. The Clock, which was a popular family spot, began to fill with the cars of oh-so-cool teens after school. New opportunities for teens to socialize later and with less supervision was met with excitement by some and shunned by others. But the motor vehicle was exploding in popularity, and with four wheels came freedom. There was an attitude of thankfulness that inspired a supportive attitude between Greeks working hard to make a life in America.ġ950s Greenville was a conservative city built on the textile industry, steeped in Southern tradition. There were no brand rights claimed by original Clock founders there were no menu specifications. Nick’s son Paul Hambaris describes the expansion of the Clock name this way: “No strings attached: no franchises, no fees.just hard work.” That’s right. After getting a good handle on the business, Alex and his brother John (not to be confused with the other John!) took over ownership of the Clock a few years later. The brothers Hamberis hired friend Alex Koutsoukis to manage the third Clock. It was the third of over five businesses that would go on to open and benefit from the reputation for the good food, great prices, and fast curb-hop that came with the name. The newest Clock, the Clock Drive-In #3, opened its doors in 1954. A shiny new building was constructed in the Wade Hampton area of town. After learning the business from his managers, Nick, along with his brother John, purchased both Clock restaurants and planned a third. Nick Hambaris worked the cash register, cleaned, cooked, made orders–and made plans.
They opened a second restaurant, The Clock #2 on Stone Avenue, soon after. The First Clock The first restaurant bearing The Clock name appeared in Greenville in 1950, on Buncombe Street across from the Kash and Karry.
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