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Golden Dawn future not known
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Video
Longtime customers of the iconic Golden Dawn restaurant on the North Side should know today if the restaurant will close temporarily or permanently.
A member of the Naples family, who owns the restaurant, told The Vindicator that a statement on the future of the restaurant would be released today.
VIDEO: Future of the Golden Dawn
Customers were told Monday that the bar would close for good Saturday, but later in the day, Phil Naples, who said he is a co-owner of the 83-year-old business, told The Vindicator the restaurant might close temporarily to fix the electrical wiring.
Johnny Naples, another co-owner, did not return phone-call requests to comment.
Customers informed of the possible closing were saddened and surprised.
“There will be something else that opens, but there will never be anything like this,” said Steven Klein of Liberty, who has been going to the Golden Dawn for 17 years.
To many customers, the Golden Dawn is more than a restaurant. It’s the place they go to gather and enjoy life with friends and family. They drink out of a schooner glass, eat one of the famous jumbo burgers and embrace the old-school atmosphere that seems to take them out of everyday life.
“It’s part of the fabric of my life,” said Jane Eichenberger of Youngstown.
Eichenberger has been going to the restaurant for 49 years. It’s where her parents would take her and her siblings to get pizza, where she would go on a visit home and where she had her dad’s memorial dinner.
“Of course you have to go to the Dawn,” she said. “My favorite thing to say is all roads lead to the Dawn.”
The Golden Dawn was started by Andy and Mary Naples in 1934. It was one of the first places in Youngstown to receive a liquor license after the end of Prohibition in 1933. The restaurant went through a series of moves before landing at 1245 Logan Ave. in 1946.
Ralph and Carmen Naples took over the restaurant from their parents in 1960. They tended bar well into their 90s, and their white button-down shirts and black ties were synonymous with the restaurant. Bartenders still wear that attire. Carmen died in 2015 at age 94, and Ralph died in February 2016 at 96. Ralph’s son Johnny has operated the restaurant since then and told The Vindicator last year that it would continue.
The Golden Dawn typically is filled with regulars who are often Ursuline and Youngstown State University students and graduates.
It’s known for its unique, old-school classy feel that customers say you can’t find at other places. At the Golden Dawn, customers can’t pay with credit cards. They have to pay with cash or check. And in this bar, patrons have to keep it classy.
“I don’t think there’s any place that will replace the Golden Dawn,” said Travis Williams of Youngstown, a senior at YSU.
The restaurant has been a backdrop to several elections. NBC broadcast election results from the Golden Dawn in 1978, and many national outlets visited the restaurant last fall as Mahoning County became the epicenter of union Democrats deciding to vote for President Donald Trump.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden stopped by the restaurant in 2010, when he was on the campaign trail for former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. YSU President Jim Tressel and actor Ed O’Neill were known to frequent the establishment, and NBC cameras followed rock star Tom Petty to the restaurant after a performance in the 1980s.
Contributor: Justin Wier, staff writer.