One of the things I love so much about living in Chicago’s north side is how many cultural experiences are easily within an arm’s reach. Within a relatively short amount of time, and whether by foot, bus ride, or train trip from where I live, I can be in a pan-Asian district (Asia on Argyle), a formerly Swedish American enclave (Andersonville), Little Germany (Lincoln Square), or a few areas with a significant Latin American population (Rogers Park, Uptown, Buena Park). I don’t keep banging the drum of diversity arbitrarily, as this is a significant, enriching, and satisfying part of my life experiences in this vast city, and in a broader sense, the United States.
I have my own ethnic mix that I bring and add to the collective stew. As the son of a west African immigrant, it’s innate to me to respect others’ cultural traditions, culinary and otherwise. I’m also part German American, and I love German cuisine (decisively excluding braunschweiger). “From what parts of the world do your people originate, and what do you like?” I may not absolutely love new-to-me foods at first taste, but I’m game to try almost anything.
There’s a wide array of ethnic bakeries at my disposal, which brings me joy on weekends. Not only do all of them have an incredible assortment of baked goods for sale, but the best of these shops are also inexpensive. It’s ridiculous. Often for less than five dollars, I can leave with a small, white paper sack stuffed full of treats. (To be clear, I don’t do this all the time, as I have health-related things to consider, but we all have to treat ourselves occasionally.) I have also learned my favorite specialties from each bakery. Chiu Quon on Argyle has the best almond and walnut cookies. La Baguette on North Clark is my favorite for a flaky crust.
Artemio’s on North Sheridan in Wrigleyville, is the king supreme of any, small bakery I’ve ever been to. Just thinking about its neon-lit storefront makes my mouth water. Artemio’s isn’t just a bakery… it’s an experience. It’s nestled in a little storefront, but it dazzles in its array of anything sweet one could want out of an oven. There are cupcakes, cookies, tarts, tortes, and things I can’t yet pronounce correctly that are beyond comparison.
Fresh from Artemio’s Bakery at this writing.
One day at Artemio’s, I saw some pig-shaped cookies stacked in a row next to other treats. Little piggies? Huh!, I thought to myself as I took my tongs, grabbed one, and placed it on the sheet of wax paper on my self-service tray along with my other finds for the day. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the pig cookie was brown, semi-soft, and looked a little like gingerbread. These Mexican-origin cookies are called “marranitos”, which is Spanish for “little pigs”. For a dollar twenty-five, why wouldn’t I try one? I had nothing to lose.
When I was home from the day’s adventures and was ready to take a bite, I chewed… and thought to myself how it didn’t really taste like what I thought it would. Maybe I had decided in my mind that my marranito was going to taste just like gingerbread, and so it didn’t fit that exact flavor profile, I was left scratching my head. To be clear, the cookie was far from gross at first bite. The taste of the molasses came through, as did the cinnamon. It simply hadn’t been what I expected, as I was mentally prepared for something sweeter.
I was just a young kid when the second-generation Celica arrived for model year ’78, so I wouldn’t have any recollection of an immediate, direct comparison between it and what had come right before. I can safely say that by 1981, the year of our featured car and the last for this generation, I was definitely old enough to have an opinion, and I did. Unlike the first Celica, version 2.0 was styled in the U.S. at the manufacturer’s Calty Research Design Studio on the West Coast.
The 1978 – ’81 notchback is one of my favorite iterations of any Celica, with a certain clean, athletic rightness to its look and stance, with just the right amount of curviness to it. By comparison, though, the hatchback, or “Liftback” in Toyota parlance, took some getting used to, especially after the brilliance of the miniaturized ’69-Mustang fastback look of the previous design. I didn’t think the new Liftback was ugly, but there were things about its proportions that seemed off to me, at least at first.
The roofline seemed to stay far too horizontal aft of the B-pillar, and then there was that drop-off at the rear and that unusual bend in the hatchback door. The unbroken expanse of the rear quarter window made it look out of proportion to the overall length of the car. It was like some weird cross between a conventional hatchback or fastback and a small station wagon or “shooting brake”. All of this probably made for better rear-seat headroom, but for many sporty coupe buyers, I’d wager that this measurement is a secondary consideration most of the time.
As it has often happened with new-to-me foods, however, something eventually clicked. I’m not sure if there was some positive association that had later been formed, or what was at work in this wondrous, curious thing of a brain I’ve been entrusted with, but these breadvan-looking Celica hatchbacks became attractive to me. Plain and simple. This occurrence was not unlike how after having finished my first marranito cookie, I kept thinking about it until going back for another one not long after. I knew what I was getting the second time around, and that next cookie with the exact same recipe was delicious.
There had been many sporty hatchbacks around that had held to certain paradigms and more traditional styling elements, such as Monzas, Mustangs, and the like, but there was absolutely nothing that looked like the 1978 – ’81 Celica hatchback, either before or after. The ’82 GT liftback reverted to a much more traditional fastback profile, so there was zero visual continuity with what it replaced. Our featured ’81 is powered by a then-new 2.4 liter, “22R” four-cylinder engine rated at 96 horsepower. I didn’t get a look inside this car (sometimes you just don’t want to linger in an open, neighborhood parking lot), but it likely has a five-speed manual, though there was a new-for-’81 four-speed overdrive automatic that was standard on that year’s GTA.
With a curb weight of around 2,300 pounds, and with those 96 horses and a five-speed, this brown Celica probably wasn’t considered to be a slow, little piggy by the new-car standards of the day. Just when I had gotten used to that bulbous rear roofline, Toyota (again) radically changed the look of their Celica hatchback. If anything, giving both the look of this generation of Liftback and new-fave marranitos a chance was an exercise in broadening my tastes, which can only be considered a good thing. An informed opinion is the best kind.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, June 29, 2024.
An excellent essay, as always, from Mr. Dennis. This has always been my favorite Celica flavor. The slightly extended roof line and the little drop at the end of the rear window give it some visual tension. The satin finish B-pillar is a subtle reference to the Porsche 911 Targa. I see a nice balance between straight lines and arcs, flat planes and curved surfaces.
I believe this was Calty’s first effort that made it into production. No pig in my eyes. If you want to see a pig car, here is one from 10 years earlier:
Thank you, Read. When looking at the Liftback in profile, I wonder if some of the ’70s Maseratis (I’m thinking of the Bora and maybe a different one?) might have provided some styling inspiration around the greenhouse.
I also think you’re correct about this being the first Calty-styled Toyota. And that pink racer is something! I like it.
Well I’ll be farnarckled if I ever thought of this gen liftback Celica as a quirky looker, but you having named the bothersome parts, now – 40+ years late – I kind-of do too. Hmm. Not sure if that’s a “thanks” or a “never noticed the crooked alignment of my house and now I can’t un-notice it and will have to move” situation.
You make an excellent analogy. The taste of the cookie you describe sounds a lot like a pfeffernuss – which in its brown humpiness, this Celica resembles – which are themselves a slightly weird-ass Germanic biscuitty staple, though not resembling pigs (and I must add, in the spirit of seeing things a new way, your piggy looks very like a turtle to me, so there).
A nice post, as ever, Mr D. If we don’t keep eating new things from new people, or at minimum, trying to, and thus missing delight and connection, we’re not going to continue to advance our tastes, and I’ll leave any implications from that to the reader.
Thank you, Justy. And it’s true that it’s hard to unsee things. I make my observations not to “ruin” things on purpose (LOL), but only because I see what I see. And I love pfeffernuss cookies at Christmas. My grandma had *thee* best recipe for them. I buy them at Aldi sometimes when grocery shopping. Marranitos do not taste like pfeffernuss, but I’d say they’re similarly nuanced and unique.
Great comparison. I owned one of these very cars in that color. It was an automatic. I’d seen it in a farmer’s driveway with a for sale sign. Curious, and needing a car for my 16 year old son, I stopped to inquire.
The daughter came out as it was her car. She had tried using it for her job; a mail carrier, but found the console too high. She felt she had a classic (or future classic) and didn’t want to tear it up.
If my memory serves me correctly it had 109,000 miles, ran it well, and had little to no rust. I asked her how much, and before she answered she said that it might need carburetor repair. All this for $500. Take my money!
It did need a carb repair which was $175.
It couldn’t have come at a better time as I’d just been transferred with my job to a different store some 70 miles from home. Immediately I began driving 140 miles six days a week! That car never failed me and was great on fuel.
After three months we were able to move closer to my work and my son had his eyes set on a 96 Buick Skylark GS in bright red. I traded the Celica in for $1200!
Thank you, and your Celica experience sounds like a really positive one. It’s one thing to find something usable that you really like, but the icing on the cake is when you get it for a great bargain and / or can make useful repairs or fixes yourself! It sounds like you were able to do both, and end up turning a profit at the end.
I can’t imagine delivering U.S. mail in one of those, driving and delivering mail inside the car in the “wrong” side with that console in the middle.
I do remember when the 2nd-gen Celica was new – I was just into my teens at the time – and I found them strikingly crisp and modern. Many Japanese cars at the time, reliable and practical as they were, looked a bit lumpy – think of the Datsun 710 and F-10 or the original Accord hatchback. The ’78 Celica with its clean, straight lines looked like the future. While the previous Celica liftback may have looked like a ’69 Mustang, Ford was selling the rather misshapen Mustang II when this Celica dropped. The Honda Prelude was still a year away. While the greenhouse of the Celica liftback went its own way, the lower half of the car, from the crease below the beltline down, looked remarkably like the Fox-body Mustang the followed a year later (compare the front-end appearance of the ’79 Mustang with this Celica for example), as well as the 1980 Datsun 200-SX. The only other Japanese coupe that looked as modern as the Celica in 1978 was the also-new Mitsubishi-sourced Plymouth Sapporo and Dodge Challenger (which also had a close variant of the grille treatment of this Celica too).
The sports coupe market was fashion-conscious and as fashion is wont to be, quite fickle, so it’s unsurprising Toyota ignored continuity from one Celica generation to the next and instead went for a new look each time. This wasn’t just the case with the first three generations, but all that followed.
I think these are all great observations. You have me thinking about other Japan import sports coupes of the day. The Celica was exceptionally cleanly styled, for a car of any country of origin.
Mitsubishi cars of that era also has great styling. While I like the first Challenger / Sapporo twins, they had some gingerbread on them that leaned heavily into brougham territory, but I didn’t hate that.
I suppose that with the introduction of the second Celicas, Toyota had set the precedent with its sporty car that each successive generation would be a thorough rethink from a styling standpoint. The only exception to this, I think, might be in the transition from the fourth to fifth generation.
The 1978 Sapporo got the full-bore Brougham treatment (is this the only Japanese car ever to have opera lamps?), but the Challenger had a sportier appearance with plaid cloth rather than monochrome velour, styled wheels instead of color-keyed wheel covers, no woodgrain on the dash, and less chrome. Dodge took lots of flack for calling this car a Challenger, but it was a much better car than what Ford called a Mustang in 1978 imo. Starting in 1979, the Sapporo also went with a more restrained European-style appearance.
The Celica styling “mistake” for me was the gratuitous bump next to the rear side marker lamp on the 3rd-gen hatchbacks. Why?
I am old enough to clearly remember these when they first arrived. The brochure for this car unfolded into a direct profile shot that I had used for a template in redesigning the hatch. Overlooking the seams needed to assemble it, there was a lot to fix in this design. My sketches of this car hung in my art corner for a year. I made a number of changes to the design to eliminate the very errors you pointed out. And a few more. I wish I still had them, but back in those days we just had paper, pens, markers and pencils. Also, I’m not a pack rat. Here’s what I learned…
Errors: As an artist I believe it is the errors that makes art memorable. It is our flaws that are remembered and cherished. Most of my favorite work has errors in it and those errors is what drives someone into wanting more of it. I believe capture our imagination.
The first generation of Celica hatch was a cribbing of the Mustang – famously so. It looked like a smaller Mustang, and that is what made it memorable. I looked like a Mustang, but then – it didn’t. However, you should only steal once. So Toyota launches Calty.
Calty put out a good new design with a lot of new visual ideas that included flaws. These are very irritating. The window line isn’t right. The rear side windows are too long. The roof is too long. The B pillar is too fat – it has ZERO movement and is actually trimmed out like a picture frame? Nasty. The C pillar isn’t shaped right at all – what’s with the janky corner? The rear end drops off wrong. Why did Calty accept those horrible black rubber bumpers? The competition at the time was covering them with the exterior color, inserting small horizontal trim pieces into them and incorporating them. I mean, wow – those Celica bumpers are bad!
There’s no movement in this generation’s design. It just sits there.
What the hell with the headlights? These were too large for the grille’s horizontal line as are the bezels. GM had modern low front ends. Ford had handsome front ends. What’s with the “big doll’s-eye” headlights? A black grille? Are you kidding me? The tail lights are just too large and boring. You had to put horizontal lines on them or they’d look ridiculously tall.
The coupe looked a lot better than the hatchback.
This generation of Celica was a risk, and it worked out because of Toyota’s reputation and its growing market acceptance. The mechanicals of this car were spot-on. Thanks for the 6 cylinder! However, it is the next generation of Celica/Supra that put the pedal to the metal and didn’t take any risks – delivering a high quality beautiful product still cherished today.
You mentioned two elements that I had thought about, but now they stick out to me more now. The black bumpers were retrograde and not even addressed for higher-spec models (the Celica Supra had body-colored, painted bumpers) or on the 1980 refresh.
The other thing was the scooped beltline that dipped aft of the A-pillar, but stayed straight on the Liftback. I suppose there are many different choices when styling a car, but I like most of them here, and It was really a unique looking coupe.
When these came out, I was not paying much attention to imports beyond Honda. Around 1985 a friend called me and asked me to test drive a used one. They knew the owner and knew it would be a good car, but neither my friend nor his wife could drive a stick. For a good car they would learn, but needed someone with experience to evaluate the car – which became my job.
I remember being a little surprised – I expected something that felt light and zippy, but got something with inputs I felt were kind of slow. By this time I had a little wheel time in old Beetles and a couple of hours in an early VW Rabbit. This Celica felt very much not like those VWs. The VWs were playful and invited tossing, but this Toyota felt more like a small Buick. But it drove right and my friends bought the car – and got quite a few good years out of it.
I never loved the style, but now you have explained what my gut felt. And I love that this car is the same color as the unique cookie!
It’s funny you should mention “Buick” only because I remember reading that the U.S.-built VW Rabbits, introduced around the same time as the second generation Celica, seemed Buick-ified. Between these examples and the aforementioned, Mitsubishi-sourced Plymouth Sapporo and Dodge Challenger, that seems to have been what at least a few imports aimed for.
Until I retired about 10 years ago I lived in Toronto which also has a number of different ethnic communities. Like you I enjoyed the availability of the variety of cuisines. It is the thing I miss most about life in Toronto.
For different bakeries, if you ever get the chance to visit Montreal, you must try a Montreal bagel. They are very different from the other varieties and are backed in wood fired ovens. Everyone has their own allegiances, but my favorite is Fairmont Bagel, but the best known is St. Viateur. They are both open 24 hours a day, which is a real bonus if you are working nights.