Thursday, March 03, 2005

The Grove

The Grove was located in Morristown, Ohio. It was the victim of an arson attack about 15-20 years ago. It was the BEST restaurant in the entire area. For those of you who don't know, here's what happened. The guy who owned the place willed it to his daughter. She immediately shut it down for a year and decided to remodel. She planned on reopening it as a country western bar. How creative! We need more country western themes in this area. Anyway, she laid off all the employees and a group of them decided to retaliate - so they burned the place down to the ground. I never met this woman but I regard her with great contempt. There's another group of people who interfered with the establishment of a restaurant whom I also despise. They are the concerned local activists of Greggsville. Where is Greggsville? It's that crappy community at the bottom of Oglebay Hill. Anyway, these businessmen wanted to build a table-side Japanese restaurant (possibly a Benihana) at the site of the old radio station on Waddles. These local morons all got together and convinced the city that it do irreperbale harm to their community. These are the people I loath. I don't any of them personally, but let's just say I understand them. Better than they understand themselves. I know what motivates them. Here's an example of the kind of behavior they might engage in. They will call their parents 8 times each day to make sure everything is ok. They will purchase beanie babies off ebay and then try and get a refund when they receieved one that was yellow instead of gold. They eat bologna. They buy t-shirts that cost $19.95 with pictures of angels. Get it...
This place was a wide open bar/restaurant. Your options were limited. Steak, chicken, and ribs (there were a couple other things, but the menu centered around these options). All the portions were gigantic. Did you know that "gigantic" isn't even a word? Anyway, this place rocked. Killer house dressing. A viniagrette loaded with paprika (paprika is the key, but people around these parts are only familiar with salt, pepper and garlic salt). After all, a spice that appears red or maroon could have some affliation with the devil.

12 comments:

Ren said...

Too late. You're linked off my blog. Noone we know reads it. And I never heard the story of the Japanese restaurant before. SO thanks for that.

sonofsaf said...

Being unfamiliar with the nature of the blog, I think I overreacted to an anonymous comment. I think I'm getting the gist of this thing. Plus, I really don't worry about the ramifications of this stuff anyway. If I am to be interroagted by the owner of some crappy local restaurant, then so be it.

Ren said...

At the top of your blog in the upper right hand corner is a link to "next blog". just keep clicking thru and you can randomly check out other blogs.

Anonymous said...

Where can I find more info about the grove. There is very little info on the net that I can find.

sonofsaf said...

You'd probably have to speak with old-timers around Morristown, Ohio.

Everyone raved about the ribs. But the true gem? Surprisingly it was the house dressing. They used to load it up with paprika. I was 10 years old and I used to look forward to the salad. Now that's a statement. And I ain't no vegan fuck!

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I was only able to visit once as a young kid. I remember seeing the ribs being cooked. Wish I had not missed out on such a legend.

tina said...

I truly miss the Grove this place was my family's Friday night out in the early 80's my father was a coal miner for North American coal co. times were good food was great o god how I miss them good ol days Michael j Nagy

Elizabeth said...

Very inspiring story, thanks for sharing. Nice blog!

Unknown said...

Eve and Big Sam of 'The Grove' were my grandma and uncle! It warms my heart to see people share such fond memories!

Anonymous said...

I remember the Grove back in the late 80's Love the ribs. I wish I had the recipe. I drove by a few years back and almost dried when I saw the building. I was hoping it was still open. I've known a lot of people from that area and have found that there are a whole lot of spiteful jealous people that live down there. very few good people. you'll find drunks and addicts everywhere. sad beautiful area.

Tracy said...

The Grove was a fabulous restaurant. I went there with my husband as we were dating. It was not fancy it was a cut up building.
We sent many people there from Zanesville on the way to Wheeling Downs
The chicken was the very first I ever ate with rosemary used as an herb. It was rotisserie cooked. There was delicious homemade bread in a basket. Yes, the salads were great.
No one could walk away hungry. I can't imagine why the daughter would close the restaurant. The place was always busy.

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