Bittersweet days, today and Saturday, for all who considered Esber’s Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge the place to go when dinner was not ready at home.
“It’s been nonstop, completely nonstop,” said Debbie Esber Charles, who with siblings Michelle, Michael and Bruce Esber, are the third generation of family to operate the gathering place at 414 12th St. NE in Canton. “It’s a tribute to our family how much people have enjoyed it here. I’m booked solid (today) and Saturday. It’s totally ridiculous.”
The last-ever Esber Middle Eastern feast will be served tonight and patrons still are calling with pleas for reservations.
“I have to tell them the best we can do is tell you to get it to go,” Debbie said.
Customers have sent flowers. So have Dave Motts, vice president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Maria Byington, longtime owner of the Arcadia Grille downtown.
The soups, the special salad dressings, the broiled scrod and much-revered pork chops, all favorites, can be traced back 84 years to founders Sliman and Suzanne Esber followed by Michael and Barbara Esber and on to their children.
Though patrons have begged for recipes, Debbie and the others remain adamant.
“The recipes die with us,” she said. “And, you never know. We might put out a cookbook.”
SCRATCH AND DENT ... ART?
If you are a collector of William Shearrow’s pottery and tile, painter Joe Martino’s art or photographer Jeremy Aronhalt’s work, then make your first stop at tonight’s First Friday downtown celebration at A Studio, 602 Sixth St. NW.
They are calling the event a studio clearance sale but Shearrow says his vintage first-quality works are 50 percent off and seconds and scratch and dent pieces are 60 to 75 percent off.
Get there early. Today’s hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closing at 4 will give Martino just enough time to dress for the fifth annual Guest Sommelier Night at Bender’s to which he donated a painting to be auctioned benefiting the Stark County Hunger Task Force.
LI’S GETS A THUMBS UP
Li’s Asian Cuisine opened recently in Thursday’s Plaza, Jackson Township.
For those still on the fence, reader Jim Snyder offers his experience.
“It’s great. It is as good as any P.F. Chang’s or House of Hunan. The meal was very tasty and they even have brown rice, which my family loves. The table next to us ordered sushi and it looked fantastic.”
OMNIUM-GATHERUMS
Tozzi’s Downtown opened Thursday night, the bar at 4, dining room at 5. Dina and Duke Tozzi have transformed the former Fedeli restaurant on Court Avenue NW in downtown Canton. Live jazz will warm the background. Tozzi’s will be open Tuesday through Saturday for dinner, Thursday and Friday for lunch ... Former local radio personality Scott Davidson’s — aka Scott Shapiro — new TD’s Tailgate Grill will open Feb. 15 at the former Mallonn’s Grill at 2234 Tuscarawas St. W ... Resumes are making their way to the Ohio-Erie canawlers’ inn Jon Elsasser is readying for reopening near Zoar. Formerly known as The Inn on the River, the Canal Tavern of Zoar’s tentative opening month is May ... Peter Shears is offering a $15 voucher for use in March if you dine there tonight ... Hear ye, hear ye, Hummel’s, Precious Moments and Department 56 collectors, get ’em for 75 percent off at Main Street Greetings, part of 1/2 Off & Hot Buys at 700 W. Main St., Louisville ... Thinking of building? The former DSD Builders Supply in Perry Township will become a full-service lumberyard under new owner, Holmes Lumber, a subsidiary of the Carter Lumber Co. ... Heads up for bargains galore at 2nd Hand Treasures at 4701 Eagle Circle NW in Jackson Township, behind and down the hill from The Home Depot. There’s been a major buy-out of a national chain and an entire room is filled with deeply discounted, gently used merchandise. How about $60 for a sleeper sofa or $15 for a lamp with shade? Artwork, tables and chairs also among the offerings ... Former local United Way czar Steven L. Miller, now living in Washington, D.C., just returned from a photo journey to Vietnam and his haunting black and white photograph of a crouched woman selling her wares in the same outdoor market spot for 50 years is sure to cast a spell on collectors. See it at www.SLMphoto.com.