Thursday, January 13, 2000
Silverton says goodbye to Grafton's
Restaurant makes room for CVS
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SILVERTON — Betty Coffman said goodbye to her “second home” on Wednesday.
“I'll not forget the customers and the employees and, oh yes, the good times. There are tears on my pillow. And memories? I have those right here in my heart,” Ms. Coffman said.
She worked from 1955 to 1994 as a waitress at Grafton's Restaurant on Montgomery Road — a piece of this community's history, soon to be razed to make way for a CVS drugstore.
The 68-year-old landmark closed in July. CVS bought the property for $825,000 in December, according to Hamilton County property transfer records.
Wednesday was, indeed, a day to remember as auctioneer Mark Euton of Semple and Associates in Williamsburg sold everything from fire extinguishers to table ware to pictures on the walls to the woodwork around them. Even the plumbing will be gone by Saturday.
While many of those at the auction were other restaurateurs or business owners looking for bargain prices on deep fryers and stemmed glasses, stainless steel tables,
others had different motives.
“There is a human aspect to this auction,” said Mr. Euton before he began the sale. “This place has been here for years, and many of these people (at the auction) have been coming here or working here for years. They want to remember it and, maybe, take home a piece of it.”
Ralph Vieson, 63, formerly of Deer Park, was among them.
“That was our spot, me and my friend, Leo (Weber), now (living) in Florida,” said Mr. Vieson as he pointed to two stools at the corner of the bar in the restaurant's lounge.
“We spent many years and many hours in here,” Mr. Vieson said. “When we were younger, we drank Miller High Life; then, as we got older, it was the harder stuff. Bourbon? Yeah. And, (we) solved world problems, or at least thought so. There used to be three boot (-shaped) lamps in here, but they're gone.
“So, I'm here to buy my stool — no, two stools — one for Leo Weber, too,” said Mr. Vieson, who now lives in Wilmington.
What a demolition company will level next week really started in 1927, when a small barbecue stand opened on the site of Grafton's. The tangy-pork barbecue and cole slaw was such a hit, a restaurant called the Hop Off Inn opened in 1930.
Grafton's was one of the oldest family-owned restaurants in Cincinnati. It closed in July 1998 and was later sold by Marc Grafton and his father, Joe, to Calvin Ingram.
Mr. Ingram reopened the restaurant in the black English Tudor-style building in September 1998 but closed it after 10 months. “We had some good customers and we had a good staff, but I guess we just didn't have enough of everything we needed,” Mr. Ingram said when he announced the final closing.
CVS offered a major reinvestment in the city's downtown Montgomery Road business district at a time when the community needs an injection of new enterprise, said Silverton City Administrator David Waltz.
Still, many who visited the auction asked themselves why a longtime restaurant with long-standing good ownership failed. They had no answers. “I worked here up until the last day,” said Marlene Harrington, 45, of Silverton who was employed at Grafton's since 1984 as “waitress, bartender, hostess, assistant manager and, yes, I was a dishwasher.
“I'm here to say goodbye. I wanted to see some old customers, and I have. I'd like to take home a menu, or maybe a (drink) blender — something small, something to keep to remember.
”
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