Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Gonder: "I believe that building can again be a jewel in that neighborhood."


Before it was Dorothy's, it was Haughey's Place, and may well have been one of the first re-licensed drinking spots after Prohibition was repealed. In this essay, councilman John Gonder makes his usual eloquent case, and does not neglect liver and onions.

The Sum of Its Parts (at Gonder for New Albany At-Large)

The building above remains a structure in jeopardy.

When I was a child, my father, my uncle and my grandfather referred to this neighborhood tavern as Dorothy's. That may or may not have been the name of it. But for some reason, unfathomable to me, and now known only to those long-departed souls, going to Dorothy's was a special gustatory treat. If my father and I dropped in at my grandfather's house, where my uncle also lived, for a Saturday afternoon visit, my uncle would occasionally announce with glee, as though it were a good thing, "Dorothy's made liver and onions". And off we would walk, from Elm Street to the building pictured above. An unspoken deal let me substitute a coke and potato chips for the offal and onions. We went there other times, besides these sterling occasions, and had things I considered food, open-faced roast beef sandwiches, mashed potatoes, all drowned in gravy. It was a good neighborhood spot. It was one of many neighborhood taverns in New Albany. It was a part of the fabric of the community.

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