HOPEWELL BOROUGH -- The daily menu appeared on index cards.
The regulars sat at reserved, yet unmarked tables.
And behind the candy counter sat an empty, wooden cigarette dispensary.
Nearby, a tiny woman who went by the name Chubby watched over the luncheonette from an opening in the kitchen.
It has been almost three years since the lights dimmed on Chubby's Luncheonette in Hopewell Borough.
But it was so special to owner Carol "Chubby" Montello that she chose to die in the place she ran for 36 years.
In early October, after just five hours in a local hospital, Montello's loved ones arranged to have her hospital bed wheeled into the eatery on Railroad Place.
Montello spent her final 11 hours at Chubby's. She was 78 years old.
"She was a tough little old lady but with a big heart," said Mike Vecchiarelli, manager of a frame studio in the borough. The 20-year borough resident went to the luncheonette often, though he did not regard himself as a "regular."
Chubby's, to this day, looks much like it did in the 1950s. Chubby wanted it that way, and held sway over the narrow luncheonette with an iron fist and a warm heart.
Joanne Farrugia, a Princeton resident, was raised by Chubby.
She said there were unofficial rules to being anointed a regular.
For starters, Farrugia said, you knew that the "newcomers" sat in the front even if the back tables were empty - the regulars, or "old-timers," would eventually file into their respected seats in the back.
And secondly, you probably arrived at Chubby's before Chubby herself.
"Chubby was not an early riser," Farrugia said. "The luncheonette opened at 5 a.m. but Chubby wouldn't get there until around 9 or 10 a.m."
However, Montello left the door open "24-7," Farrugia said and the regulars would make coffee and heat their muffins on the always-warm stove before she arrived.
The luncheonette was open Monday through Saturday.
With old, framed Trenton Times articles, baseball cards and toys lining the walls, Farrugia said Chubby epitomized Americana.
"And I think the thing we always talk about in today's restaurants are these 'community tables,'" she said. "Chubby's was a community table long before it was called a community table."
Chubby entered Farrugia's life at a young age. Chubby was working as a nanny to single father Tony Farrugia and raised Farrugia and her two sisters Michelle Hamilton and Lyn Farrugia.
The three girls - now women with children of their own - said Chubby was like a "guardian" to them. (Tony Farrugia died five years ago.)
"She took care of her community," long-time friend, customer and Hopewell Borough resident Joe Vaccarino said.
Along with donating food to any community event, Joanne Farrugia and her sisters, and Vaccarino, all spoke of one woman in particular who Chubby looked after.
Her name was "Tiny" and she had no money or home that any of them knew of.
She would come into Chubby's regularly and Montello fed her free of charge. "And she would do that for anybody who needed it," Joanne Farrugia said.
The luncheonette has since been passed down to the "daughters," but they are unsure of what will become of it yet, Farrugia said.
All three have their own careers.
Joanne Farrugia runs the Princeton toy store JaZams, Lyn Farrugia works out of her Hopewell Borough home as a physician and Hamilton is a third-grade teacher at Hopewell Elementary School. They say they'd be unable to manage the business full time.
Before Montello bought "Chubby's" with her friend Rose Sponholtz - then referred to as "Rose and Chubby's" - the luncheonette was owned by four prior Hopewell Borough residents.
None made any serious changes from the 1950s decor.
Chubby - who worked at the luncheonette before she bought it with Sponholtz in 1979 - ran it with her partner for 12 years.
When Sponholtz decided to leave in 1991, Chubby hired "Buzz" as a waitress who helped her with operations.
Joanne Farrugia and Hamilton said they remember going to Chubby's before it was "Chubby's" for homemade ice cream. Then they helped out once Montello bought it.
"She'd always have me run down to the general store for hard rolls," Hamilton said. "Then I'd run back so she could finish making sandwiches for everyone."
Joanne Farrugia said Chubby used all fresh food items from the Columbus Farmer's Market, where she would spend hours once a week "picking the perfect cantaloupe and the perfect tomato and the perfect pepper."
"She was sourcing, maybe not organic, but local produce long before there was such a thing," she said. "She was known for quality."
Chubby's went out of business three years ago when Montello could not keep up with the day-to-day costs.
Two years ago she started complaining of back pains which led to complications in her chest, but Chubby did not want to be medically treated or diagnosed. She just wanted to ride it out, Hamilton said.
Although closed to the public, Montello often sat inside Chubby's, since she lived above it.
Vaccarino recalled going to the luncheonette on a regular basis after it shut down and having coffee with Montello while she read newspapers and smoked a cigarette.
"The store closed three years ago," Vaccarino said. "There was no heat. She was freezing. I bought her one of those ceramic heaters. She sat in there all the time."
I figured she was sick but it never really dawned on me how bad it was," he said.
In early October, Montello had to go to the hospital.
"She didn't really want to go to the hospital," Hamilton said. "It was probably her first time in a hospital and her last."
So the sisters parked her hospital bed alongside the regulars' tables on Oct. 11. She died that night, with her "daughters" by her side.
Hopewell Borough Mayor Paul Anzano said the borough will likely not see another Montello.
"I went there with my daughter," Anzano said. "We loved going there. One time there was a hair in my daughter's egg. She said 'eat around it.'"
"She was a good egg when all's said and done," Anzano said. "She was just a good person and she'll be missed."
Lindsay Rittenhouse may be reached at lrittenhouse@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.