When Mutt & Jeff's Was Penny Morgan's Place

I thought I'd done about a complete a history (here) as I could of the building that houses my favorite Saturday night eatery – Mutt & Jeff's – until I found this great article. It's by well-known Journal Staff Writer Hank Kozloski, and ran in the newspaper on April 2, 1989.

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Oberlin Avenue Tavern has colorful past
By Hank Kozloski

Except for the sign in front of 3700 Oberlin Ave., and maybe an occasional change in paint color, the building now known as Mutt & Jeff's hasn't changed much over the years.

But the building has a colorful and sometimes notorious past.

Today Mutt & Jeff's is a popular weekend haunt. To oldtimers, it will always be known as the Airport Tavern.

But during the Great Depression, when the building was still in Black River Township, it was called Penny Morgan's Place and was the site of a famous Lorain County scandal.

Lorain County Sheriff William F. Grall,who served three two-year terms as Lorain mayor (1920-24 and 1926-27), went to prison in late 1938 for accepting bribes in a sensational grand jury probe of a slot machine and vice racket which operated out of Penny Morgan's Place. Five other Lorain County men were also sent to prison for running the racket and giving bribes to Grall for allowing them to operate.

Grall, who was paroled from prison in 1941, moved from Lorain after being paroled to become editor of the Lake Union Herald, a weekly magazine published by the Lake Union conference of Seventh-Day Adventists at Berrien Springs, Mich.

Former Lorain builder Vlad Nickoloff, now living on Key Largo, Florida, recalled delivering newspapers to Penny Morgan's Place during the early 1930's.

"All the politicians went there," Nickoloff said.

He said Carl Finnegan, who replaced Grall as sheriff, put Penny Morgan's Place out of business.

The list of people who owned a building at that site dates back to 1928 when Celia Florence Chovik acquired it, then lost it to Cleveland Trust Co. in 1936. Gus Gailus Sr. bought it in 1937 and sold it to Alex Hormanski in 1943.

It was Hormanski who named it Airport Tavern, after Mills Airport located on Meister Road. When Hormanski was killed in a car accident, Nettie Sroka took over Airport Tavern in 1954. She later sold it to Bruno Dombroski, a local professional wrestler, in 1959.

The name Airport Tavern disappeared from the building when ownership changed five times since 1959.

Wilma George, the next owner after Dombroski, changed the name to Sherwood Inn. Then former County Commissioner Fred Ritenauer became the owner. He called it The Trademark. It wasn't long after that it became Scardi's under Guy Scardami's stewardship. And now, Mutt & Jeff's under Klaus J. Grm.

Whatever it is called, it will always be a part of Lorain history and Oberlin Avenue history.

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Hey, speaking of Mutt & Jeff's, here's a nice look at how it is today. After watching this, you'll understand why my wife and I are Saturday night regulars. (The only problem with the short video? It doesn't have Brenda, our favorite waitress in it. But it does feature her twin sister Becky.)