Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Tradewinds Supper Club Mystery: Solved

1986 Elyria Phone Book ad
You might remember my post from back in January about the Tradewinds Restaurant, which was described in ads as "Lorain County's Complete Restaurant Center" and "Beautiful Polynesian Supper Club." It had a 41274 Griswold Road address, and its ad appeared in both the 1985 and 1986 Elyria and Lorain phone books.

My problem was that I couldn’t figure out where the Tradewinds had been located on Griswold – and if the building was still there.

My second post revealed that the restaurant had been in the planning stages since May 1980.

However, the Tradewinds remained a mystery – until today.

It turns out there's a very good reason why I couldn't pin down its location, why it had so many different phone numbers, and why it wasn't listed in the city directories.

It was never built.

That's the answer I got today when I spoke on the phone with someone employed at the Griswold Road family business of one of the investors. "It was supposed to be over by where Bob Evans is," she revealed. But that was all I could find out. I never even got through to the family member I called.

Perhaps the unbuilt restaurant is still a sore point with the investors’ families. Since January, my various phone calls, messages, emailed inquiries and reaching out on Facebook had all been met with stony silence worthy of a Polynesian Tiki idol.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They say that on certain dark & stormy nights you can hear laughter and the tinkling of glasses (and sometimes that sounds comes from the men's room, too). Soon exotic dishes are served on phantom plates. The trade winds arrive and roll a thick fog away--and there you will see it: The Tradewinds Supper Club! The faint moaning of an old saxophone signals the start of the night's entertainment: a living skeleton (female, I am told) who will dance the Dance of A Thousand Veals--yes, that is correct! For tonight's special is veal!!! Come for the veal, stay for the, umm, veal.

--Slip Mahoney Jr.

Wireless.Phil said...

We hated this, but what could we do.
Plus we're still confused with Atlanta 404!

Area code 440 is a North American telephone area code for the state of Ohio, serving parts of the Greater Cleveland area, but not the city of Cleveland or most of its inner suburbs. This area code was established August 16, 1997. Area code 440 was formed by a three-way split of Area code 216, one of the original North American Numbering Plan codes. Areas 330 and 440 were added in 1997 to keep up with the increasing number of cellular phones, as well as population factors.

440 covers all of Lake and Geauga counties. It serves almost all of Ashtabula and Lorain counties, part of Erie County, and the northeast corner of Huron County as well as the northwest part of Trumbull County. Finally, 440 shares Cuyahoga County with area code 216.

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_440