Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Another Oberlin Avenue Mystery Restaurant

Diso's Bistro at All Nations
A few months ago, my realtor, Jenae Pavlich was telling me how excited she was that she was going to be having dinner at Diso's Bistro at All Nations that evening.

I hadn't had the pleasure of eating there yet, but I knew where it was located: right in that ever-changing restaurant row on Oberlin Avenue, south of Tower Boulevard, that I mentioned yesterday. I've driven by the building many times; it had been the All Nations Social Club since around 1974.

But what was it before that? I had to hit the Lorain City Directories and phone books to find out.

To my surprise, 4286 Oberlin Avenue had started out with a double listing as Olde English Fish 'n Chips and Olde English Ice Cream Shoppe in the Lorain Phone Book in 1970. At first I assumed it was a branch of the well-remembered Old English Parlour restaurant which was part of Lorain Creamery (that I discussed way back here and here). But it didn't seem to be, with different owners – and a different spelling.

The restaurant showed up in the 1971 and 1972 phone books as well. But it was in the 1973 directory that an ice cream - loving Lorainite had a confusing choice: the Olde English Ice Cream Shoppe at 4286 Oberlin Avenue or the Old English Parlour on 14th Street.

Apparently, thar was only room for one Old English-themed ice cream in Lorain – one of them had to git outta town!

When the smoke cleared in the 1974 phone book, the Olde English Ice Cream Shoppe had apparently packed up its extra e's and skedaddled – leaving the Old English Parlour as the winner.

The Old English Parlour (a favorite of our family) continued on until the mid 1990's.

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I don't remember eating fish 'n chips at the Olde English restaurant either; we preferred Arthur Treacher's on W. 21st Street. By the way, Arthur Treacher's is still around! Click here for details!

7 comments:

Ken said...

Wow, I did not remember that at all.

Dan Brady said...

I have only the vaguest memory of a Tudor style building there; I'm hoping somebody who lived around there and patronized the business can enlighten me!

-Alan D Hopewell said...

Speaking of restaurants, who remembers Mister S, on Broadway? It was supposed to be a national chain, but I've only seen one other, in Omaha, Nebraska. Also, if you Google "MISTER S", you get bupkis.

Dan Brady said...

If you look in my blog archives, on June 22 and 23rd of 2009, I did a couple posts on Mister S., and someone left a comment in which they have a link to a street-level view of a former Mister S in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Anonymous said...

I remember that it started as an ice cream place. When we were kids hanging out at Big Town, we went there for ice cream. We opened the door and to our surprise there was a bunch of folks sitting at a bar! We asked about the ice cream but they chased us out.

However, after Yala's closed their dining room, we would go the Pizza Hut in the in strip restaurants south of Tower Blvd that Dan mentioned. I don’t think we even know it was a chain at the time. We used to squeeze into one of the two corner booths. We didn’t care too much for the pizza though. I remember it was very thin and nothing like Yala’s.

Chuck
Jackson MI

Anonymous said...

We loved AT too! Later it became JoElla's Fish & Chips. Same great food.

LHS Blazer Man said...

The All Nations Social Club was owned and operated by Lorain native Carl Ferraro, son of Gandolfo (Tony) & Lucia (nee Curci) Ferraro. Tony and Lucy Ferraro owned the Villa Capri restaurant onBroadway in the 1950s and 60s. Lucy and Carl also operated My Brother's Place on Broadway in the 1970s. Carl (nicknamed "Fuzz" for his curly hair) is not to be confused with his many cousins who were also named Carl Ferraro, including: Carl son of Charles & Mary Ferraro or his son Carl; Carl son of Giacomo (Jack) & Anna Ferraro of Chicago or his son Carl; Carl son of Francesco (Frank) & Maria Ferraro or their granddaughter (and my sister) Carla!!

As you can guess, you couldn't swing a cat in my family without hitting someone named Carl Ferraro.