NEBA ROAST BEEF

Is anyone wishing to recover a Neba Roast Beef sandwich? Arby's is chopped, processed and pressed back together before it is sliced for the customer. Neba was real roast beef. But they seem to have disappeared. Well I know where there is at least one left. It was originally owned by Mike's Giant Submarines. It was then taken over by Mr. B's Best, and there still is one in Queensbury, NY. It is located on State Rt. 9 just a few hundred yards north of Aviation Rd. This place needs to recover and come back and put Arby's out of business. I would also like to see Mike's Subs come back. From what I know, Mr. B's Best in Queensbury still also makes subs like the original Mike's.

Do you know what the name Neba stands for?

There was a "Mike's NEBA" in Albany, NY in the 80's when I was living there for college. They had a big picture of "Mike" on their street sign. I recall that it was a pretty good roast beef sandwich. There was a damn good stretch of food there on Central Ave:

Bob and Ron's Fish Fry
Mike's NEBA
Steak and Egg Kitchen
Westgate Diner
Grandma's Pie Shop (or something like that)

There was also a decent NY style deli behind the diner and a really bad (but very cheap) pizza shop in Westgate Plaza. I haven't been up there in at least 10 years, I wonder if any of those places still exist?

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Do you know what the name Neba stands for?

Someone told me back in the late 1960s -- I think it was 1969 -- that it stood for Never Buy Arby's.

i remember when i went to college there was a neba in hempstead, ny (on long island) and an arby's down the block. i convinced a friend of mine one night when we had ingested some mind altering chemicals that neba stood for "never eat beef again" and arby's was for "artifical roast beef" and that the supposed roast beef used was actually a reconstitued soy product. ahh the power of pyshcedelcs.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Do you know what the name Neba stands for?

Someone told me back in the late 1960s -- I think it was 1969 -- that it stood for Never Buy Arby's.

Thank you Mr. Hoffman.

We had a NEBA in Niagara Falls, NY, and it paired with a sub shop called, I think, Mike's. I remember it being good, but that was a long tiome ago.

i seem to recall a Neba Roast Beef on Dixie Hwy in Ft. Lauderdale in the early 80's

Mike's and NEBA were started by the same people. Often they were side by side sharing common prep, storage and refrigeration.

Mikes came first and I believe the first store was on the point of Washington and Central Avenues in Albany, NY

Walt

Someone asked:

Do you know what the name Neba stands for?

Back when I actually went to a Neba, somewhere near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1967, I was told by a friend that NEBA stood for New England Beef Association.

Back then I was working at a summer camp up there, and that same friend told me that Neba's were only located in New England, hence his interpretation of the name.

I have no idea if that is true.

quote:

Originally posted by milstein

Someone asked:

Do you know what the name Neba stands for?

Back when I actually went to a Neba, somewhere near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1967, I was told by a friend that NEBA stood for New England Beef Association.

Back then I was working at a summer camp up there, and that same friend told me that Neba's were only located in New England, hence his interpretation of the name.

I have no idea if that is true.

Here are another 20 possibilities, courtesy of Google:

NASA Employees Benefit Association
National Electronic Billers Alliance
National Ethical Breeders Association
National Exhibits by Blind Artists
Nebraska Economics and Business Association
Nederland Batam
Nepal Bar Association
Nepal Basketball Association
Net Environmental Benefit Analysis
New England Bankcard Association
New England Basketball Association
New England Booksellers Association
New England Bowlers Association
New England Bus Association
North East Bass Association (fishing)
NorthEast Baseball Alliance
North Eastern Bridge Association
North Edgewater Beach Association
Nordic Energy Broker Association
Nottinghamshire Education Business Alliance

I'd go with Nepal Basketball Association.

Hit the Neba in Ft. Lauderdale in the spring of 1974 for spring break. Walked in and instantly recognized Joe Namath (Bachelor's Three was around the corner) and he had just paid for a large sack of beef sandwhiches. We all yelled - hey Joe! and he started throwing roast beef passes to us. It was pretty cool!

Gordon....... you beat me to it!

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Do you know what the name Neba stands for?

NEBA stands for 'Nicest Eating Beef Around" ..this is not a guess. I'm from Glens Falls, near where NEBA got its start. I remember that 'Nicest Eating Beef Around' was part of the advertising for the Mike's Subs and NEBA shops. As reported here, there is a Mr. B's Best that took over the location and menu of a Mike's/NEBA in Queensbury, NY. The current Mr' B's is fairly close to the original Mike's/NEBA in recipe and taste although it has slipped some.

All these answers are quite amusing!  The actual answer is a bit more boring.  Neba was the name of Mike's dog. 

Mike Davis founded Mike's Giant Sub's and Neba Roast Beef.  Please don't ask why he named his dog Neba.  That I don't know!

BTW - My dad owned 8 Mike's/Neba's in the Albany area throughout the 70's and early 80's.  I worked there beginning at 14.  And Neba's were awesome!

Mike Davis moved to Ft Lauderdale to take his franchises national, then went belly-up.  He opened a popular restaurant in Charleston, SC, then a store that accepted returned bottles and cans as payment (or something like that).  He contacted my dad a few years ago because someone was going to write a story about his life.  I'm not sure, but I think I remember my dad telling me he passed away recently.

They opened several in Miami during the 60's. The one I remember best opened up right accross the street from an Arby's. Even KFC tried to get into the act and opened several "Kentucky Beef" restaurants that were company owned and often next door to the newer company KFC owned red and whites. Both used the same formula as Arby's. If I remember right, KFC's was also real,shaved beef too. Neither lasted very long. All the NEBA's became Mother Butler Pies within a few years and KFC closed their KB outlets about the same time.  Arby's pared down to a few remaining restaurants afterwards too.

One of the things that irked a lot of people when you brought up these beef sandwich outlets back when was the blatently obvious portrion control that they did in front of you. Maybe someone in marketing thought that it was a selling point, but it really pissed a lot of people off so badly that mentioning Arby's would often get a negative reaction not about the food, but the way they would put a plastic glove on and shake out the meat onto a scale in front of you.

Dawn, I vaguely remember the Kentucky Beef restaurants you mentioned. I'm pretty sure that we didn't have them here in the Chicago area, so I must have seen them on my family's many roadtrips to Kentucky and North Carolina. Do you know which states had them?

So if there's a Mike's Subs here, could it be the same chain?

nocarolina


Dawn, I vaguely remember the Kentucky Beef restaurants you mentioned. I'm pretty sure that we didn't have them here in the Chicago area, so I must have seen them on my family's many roadtrips to Kentucky and North Carolina. Do you know which states had them?

In the '70s the KFC in Belvidere IL had a cupola with KFC and KBH (Kentucky Beef & Ham) signs on alternating sides.
 
Brad

JayW2112


All these answers are quite amusing!  The actual answer is a bit more boring.  Neba was the name of Mike's dog. 

Thanks for the information, but I'm sticking to Never Buy Arbys. It may not be true, but I like it better. And I agree with it.

AFAIK, the only ones that I ever seen were here in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale area. I was in jr.high when they opened them around here in '68-'69. As a kid, I have really no idea where else they were.

KFC's company stores entered the market very agressively all at once at the time, often within close proximity of their franchises. Typical pattern was a corner lot that two or three buildings went up at the same time, with the corner building being a red and white KFC, Kentucky Beef (which looked a lot like an Arby's) and in some places an Italian restaurant called Victoria. I don't know if Victoria was a KFC project too and I never been in one.   The KB's and Victoria restaurants vanished shortly after, probably by  '72 or '73.  A seafood chain called 7 Seas took over most of the KB's around here.

Brad, I stand corrected. Apparently there were Kentucky Beef outlets in northern Illinois. Once again my aging brain cells have let me down.

Nancypalooza


So if there's a Mike's Subs here, could it be the same chain?

Nancy - There's another chain called "Jersey Mike's Subs" that is not the same.  If it's actually "Mike's Giant Submarines", then it might be.  But I thought they were gone.

Michael Hoffman

JayW2112


All these answers are quite amusing!  The actual answer is a bit more boring.  Neba was the name of Mike's dog. 

Thanks for the information, but I'm sticking to Never Buy Arbys. It may not be true, but I like it better. And I agree with it.

No problem Michael.  As I said, the real answer is more boring.  Actually, Arby's wasn't even around when Neba's came out.  Certainly not in Albany.  Mike's was a pretty creative guy though, so you never know!