The early years
Park Row was located at 969 Patterson Road at Wilmington Pike, near the Breitenstrater Shopping Center.
It was opened in 1948 under the name 8 Ball. Glen Freshour bought the restaurant and established it as Park Row in 1951. Freshour sold the business in 1953 to open the Melody Pine restaurant.
Harold Elder and his wife, who had owned the restaurant since 1953, sold it in 1957 to Hank Collins and George Brun.
Brun sold his part of the business to Collins in 1961. After a fire, Collins rebuilt the restaurant, doubling it in size. The restaurant could seat 150 for dinner and had a bar that would accommodate 16.
Known for it’s steaks and salads and the menu contained a long list of each.
A 1955 newspaper advertisement offered a Lord Louie tenderloin steak dinner special complete with potato pancakes, salad, vegetables, hot rolls and coffee for $1.25.
In 1962 a newspaper reviewer ordered the “Extra Aged Sirloin Strip” steak that weighed in at 18 ounches and cost $8. With that he had the “Wilted Endive” salad.
A note on the menu discouraged diners from ordering a steak “well-done” and stated, “It takes time to properly prepare good food. If you are in a hurry, consult your waitress so she can suggest dinners that will fit into your time schedule.”
In the 1960s, Collins began packaging and selling shrimp cocktail sauce, sour cream bleu cheese, thousand island, Italian and German hot slaw dressings.
Collins used the Park Row label and did all the manufacturing, bottling and labeling by hand in the lounge kitchen with his regular kitchen employees.
A Dayton Daily News reporter gave this description in 1966: “If the imagination eliminates a few rows of upholstered booths and lamp-shaded chandeliers, the decor could be said to imitate a moonlit garden veranda...Ferns fan around a divider post and a mural depicts a garden scene.”
In 1971, Collins sold the Park Row to BeMart Associates Inc., led by Marty Hallabrin.
Collins said he sold the business because “I had to have open-heart surgery and the doctors made me quit.”
» RELATED: Dayton recipes: Remembering Park Row on Patterson Road
The Coach House
The restaurant was purchased by realtor John J. Lane in 1977 from Marty Hallabrin (BeMart Associates Inc.). Lane changed the name to The Coach House.
The Coach House was a franchise of Joe Bissett’s Grub Steak Restaurant and added their patented specialty “Royal Ribs” to the menu.
Other changes at that time were a new bar, kitchen improvements and a new front was put on the building.
Daniel’s Park Row
Chef Daniel Martin purchased the business in 1979.
Martin, born in Alsace-Lorraine of a hotel and food family, apprenticed in Europe and had also been the chef at the Sycamore Creek Country Club of Springboro.
In a 1979 Dayton Daily News article, food critic Charles Riesz described the interior as “A blessed respite from red decor, Daniel’s Park Row is pale green and comfy, like a large living room.”
Park Row was redecorated in 1985, and by that time they had installed a sidewalk cafe, which according the Dayton Daily News reporter Ann Heller, was “indeed on the sidewalk, although no one walks by and there’s nothing to watch but the traffic on Patterson Road.”
Frederick’s Place Restaurant & Park Row Lounge
In 2000 Owner/chef Susan Taylor along with her husband, jazz guitarist Terry Taylor, owned the restaurant, and renamed it Frederick’s Place Restaurant & Park Row Lounge. Most people just called it Fredrick’s Place. Frederick was the name of their cat. The menu had new specialties but still included many previous Park Row favorites.
The Terry Taylor Trio played jazz standards there often.
When Terry died in 2003, Susan lost her motivation to continue to business. She closed it down in 2005.
There was an auction for their equipment and memorabilia, which included old menus, reservation books, chandeliers and the piano used by musicians Betty Greenwood and Gardner Benedict.
Eventually, a Tim Hortons restaurant was put in it’s place.
