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Michael's uncorks Uptown liquor sales
News & Public Opinion photo by Dan Trittschuh  Westerville businessman Bill Morgan (left) samples the first legal beer sold in Uptown Westerville since 1879. Morgan bid $150 -- with proceeds going to charity -- for the right to buy the first beer legally sold at Michael's Pizza & Pasta, 15 E. College St. At right is Michael Evans, owner of the restaurant. |
Originally published Jan. 18, 2006 By MARK MAJOR News & Public Opinion Reporter Students of Westerville history may want to jot the next sentence down in their notebooks: At 1:49 p.m. Jan. 12, 2006, Michael Evans of Michael's Pizza served the first legal beer at an Uptown Westerville establishment since the 1879 end of the Whiskey Wars, part of Westerville's fabled temperance history. Bill Morgan, 51, a local jeweller, paid $150 for a Budweiser long neck and the opportunity to break Westerville's long dry spell. "Here's to a new tradition," Morgan said, holding up the bottle to toast the small crowd gathered at Michael's to watch Westerville history in the making Thursday. "I'm proud of the traditions of Westerville, but it's time for a change. It's time to compete." As a village first incorporated in 1858, Westerville banned the sale of alcohol with its first adopted ordinance. When the state of Ohio for a time revoked local municipalities' power to regulate alcohol sales, resident Henry Corbin opened a saloon at 37 W. Main St. in 1875, sparking large-scale protests by local temperance backers and launching the famous Westerville Whiskey Wars. An explosion lifted the roof off the West Main Street building a few years later, forcing Corbin to relocate the saloon to a State Street location. It, too, was dynamited -- in 1879, ending Uptown liquor sales until last week. Decades later a former Otterbein College student admitted to dynamiting the State Street Corbin's Saloon in a letter to the editor in the New York Times. He said he feared for the soul of his college dormitory roommate, after the roommate returned home drunk from the saloon.
But as of last week, dry Westerville was history. Morgan's $150 bid on the first beer at Michael's will be donated to the Westerville Area Resource Ministry, Evans said. Voters in Westerville Precinct 1-D approved two liquor options for Evans' restaurant in November. He received word this week he could pick up the permits Thursday to sell beer and wine, he said. Evans hopes adding beer and wine to his menu will attract more customers, but said he doesn't plan to change the way he does business. "We're never going to be a bar," he said. "We're still going to be a mom and pop Italian restaurant. This just gives our customers more options." When word got out that Evans was about to break a longstanding tradition, an impromptu crowd of about 10 Westerville residents gathered in the dining room of Michael's, 15 E. College Ave. Wally Carl, owner of Old Skool Skateboards two doors down from Michael's and the second to buy a beer from Evans, said he expects beer and wine sales to help Uptown businesses. "I think a lot of people are going to come out for the novelty of having a beer in Westerville," he said. "It can't hurt to bring people to Uptown and while they're here, maybe they'll buy a skateboard." Justin Schilling, a resident of the Uptown area for nine years, said he won't need to travel to the new northern sections of Westerville, Blendon Township or Columbus for a drink now that he can buy a beer within walking distance of his apartment. "I've always dreamed of this since I moved to Westerville," he said with a smile as he waited for Evans to sell the first beer. "It's probably a small dream to have, but regardless it's coming true." Reprinted courtesy of the Westerville News & Public Opinion/Suburban News Publications © Copyright 2006 |
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