Roman Villa on Routes 6 and 2

Another of the long-gone businesses on that vacation map from two days ago is Roman Villa. The restaurant was just west of Edna's Restaurant on the same (south) side of West Erie.

The small blurb on the map (at left) promoted the "ultra-modern" restaurant's "true Italian food."

The restaurant was immensely popular in its heyday, hosting countless dinner meetings, banquets and bridal parties during the 1950s and 60s.

A few online newspaper articles indicated that the restaurant was co-owned by Dominic and Angeline Gigliotti from 1952 to 1971. After that it was owned by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for a few years.

The city directory has a variety of businesses at that 4953 West Erie location from the mid-1970s on, including the Silver Dollar Restaurant (1975-1980), Barbary Coast Restaurant (1981-1982), The Connection (1983), Morelli's Restaurant & Lounge (1984-1985), Cara Vee Cove (1986), Lahn Lounge (1987), and Seven Seas Lounge (1988).

After 1988 it gets a little sketchy, thanks to plenty of holes in the library's city directory collection.

From 1989-1991, the address was listed as being vacant. From 1992-1993, Night Out was listed at that address. The late 1990s showed the address as being a residence, and the early 2000's the address was "not verified."

The final listing was as a "nonclassified establishment" in 2003 and shortly afterwards the address was no longer listed in the books, according to my research.

The property is currently for sale (here is the listing).

It sure would be great if someone could launch a successful new business along that stretch on the approach to Lorain, and make it truly part of Vacationland.