BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Shirley Hauser serves lunch to Dan Ackman.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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Customers walking into the black English Tudor-style building for lunch Wednesday pleaded: "Say it isn't so, Marc. Please say it isn't so."
News that Grafton's Restaurant, an icon in Silverton for 68 years, will close July 18 was met with disbelief and regret from regulars.
"This is like the end of an era for me," said Ross McElroy, who said he has been coming to the restaurant since it opened.
Mary Courts of West Chester, who comes to the Silverton restaurant once a week, said she couldn't believe it is closing.
"I go back to the 1930s," she said. "I have many fond memories of this restaurant and the many parties I have attended here. I hate to see this happening."
Grafton's is one of the oldest family-owned and operated restaurants in Cincinnati. It has served traditional American food for more than half a century.
Its owners said it has grown too big for one person to operate. Joe Grafton, 65, is retiring and his son, Marc, 37, said he can't run it alone.
"The business is doing excellent financially," Marc Grafton said. "But with my father retiring, I can't spend 15 or 20 hours a day here, five days a week. I have a 3-year-old girl and we are expecting another child in September. "
Marc, who has been working at the business since he was 12, said it is the toughest decision he has had to make.
"It is hard to tell your employees and customers that this is it," Marc Grafton said.
News of the closing brought shock and sadness to workers and customers alike. Waitress Shirley Hauser, who has worked there for 28 years, said she was still fighting back tears since learning the place would close.
"I have grown up with so many of the customers who came here," she said. "Some would call and say what time they would be here. I would have their drinks and food ready when they arrived because I knew what they wanted. This has meant more than a job or a place to work. This was like a family."
Marc Grafton said he will look for a buyer after they close for a few weeks.
"Our customers have been loyal. They never argued about a steak overcooked or service slightly slow. They always came back because this was like having dinner with their family."
