spa

[Joel S. Berson]

 From my searches, I infer that today's Boston-area spas serve food,
in addition in some cases to selling sundries.  Victor and I will
have to go exploring, I suppose.  The earlier spas were I suspect
either soda fountains primarily, or non-food-serving convenience
stores (with the latters' use of "spa" coming later).

Joel

At 3/1/2011 03:06 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 10:10 AM -0600 3/1/11, Joan H. Hall wrote:
>>DARE's Volume V entry for "spa" labels it "NEast, esp MA." Stay tuned!
>Is that always to designate a 'grocery, convenience store' as in most
>of the recent postings?  How widespread is "spa" in the 'diner,
>luncheonette' context Alice noted, as exemplified by the defunct
>local (College St., New Haven) "College Spa"?  Maybe the rarity of
>this use is what led inevitably to the demise of the establishment.
>
>LH
>
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