The Great American Saloon Series/Arnold's of Cincinnati
Melling, James P. Jr.
ARNOLD'S OF CINCINNATI IN o neon signs inform passersby about Arnold's. The faded green-and-white striped canvas awning overhanging the sidewalk in front of this Eighth Street saloon in Cincinnati...
...Arnold's remains a neighborhood bar with a soup-to-nuts clientele because James Tarbell cherishes the past as much as he looks forward to the future...
...Central Canal which coursed through the core of the city...
...At Arnold's one eats in the Bathtub Room, where Bridget Mahoney did the Arnold family washing for over 50 years...
...To do so meant crossing by James P. Melling, Jr...
...he just drops in each afternoon for a draw or two of the native brew, Hudepohl, and tests the ivories of the Baldwin upright in the corner...
...After Prohibition Elmer annexed a second room to the side-bar in the original and added a dumbwaiter to service the family quarters-turned-private dining rooms...
...As one local put it, "The patrons regard the tub as part of the eternal scheme of the universe...
...The accepted procedure for getting a drink at Arnold's is to belly-up to the bar...
...Today, Boss Cox's farcical subway system still stands...
...Tarbell can be found in Arnold's most every day...
...This inconvenience seemed to him obedience enough to such a silly law...
...Art Deco pictures of shapely women with bobbed hair adorn the walls downstairs...
...Rather than totally ignore the wisdom of Congress, Hugo sold food at the street level while dispensing libations from the family quarters...
...When he...
...A dismayed diner once found herself seated next to a tub and wondered why...
...Barrels of Hudepohl beer arrived in horse-drawn wagons almost daily as Arnold's reputation for rolled oysters and chili spread...
...Not until the 1920s, when Boss Cox shanghaied the citizenry into believing that the canal (which produced a rare smell on a summer day and was no longer commercially used) would be the ideal starting route of a subway system, did the Germans in the area quit thinking of it as the Fatherland's biggest river...
...Arnold's survives amidst the dilapidation and clutter of an area where not many people live anymore...
...In this day and age of computerJames P. Melling, Jr., is a research associate in the Indiana University School of Business...
...It is said they are a tribute to Elmer's love of beautiful things...
...Much of the saloon's color today is attributable to Elmer...
...The ladies can be seen at eye level whether one is standing at the bar or sitting in a booth...
...The liverwurst sandwich he makes is called a "Mc-Sorley" in deference to Old John, and his turkey sandwiches are drawing people from mole distant places than Over-the-Rhine...
...Many of the patrons came from the German neighborhoods two blocks north called Over-the-Rhine...
...sees people jitterbugging in one room and dancing Irish jigs in another, he smiles winsomely, remembering Simon Arnold's motto: If you can't have a good time here, it's your own damn fault...
...The picture of them hanging in Arnold's was taken in 1940 at the Union Terminal, just before their departure for the baseball All-Star game in St...
...That was in 1946, and since then no one has said a word about the tub...
...It can be entered from Central Parkway but it has never been used...
...instead of choosing sides in 1861, Simon Arnold opened the doors of Cincinnati's first saloon...
...The last Arnold to run the bar was Simon's grandson Elmer, who held forth for 33 years until 1958...
...But if Simon, his son, or his grandson were to walk in today, they'd be pleased with what current owner James Tarbell has done...
...Arnold's has changed hands four times since Elmer passed away...
...Jack the piano player has never-earned a dollar for his renditions of "Sweet Georgia Brown" or "Tea for Two...
...He then built a larger kitchen to indulge his culinary style...
...At the time, he lived with his family above the one-room bar, nestled between a feed store and a tannery...
...Louis...
...The faded green-and-white striped canvas awning overhanging the sidewalk in front of this Eighth Street saloon in Cincinnati has been the outward and visible symbol of Arnold's to generations of Queen City beer drinkers...
...it is a scant eight-block walk from his house in Peasel-burg...
...Elmer Arnold set her straight: "The bathtub was there first and I'm not going to take it out for anyone or anything...
...Often he appears to be doing both at once...
...Bowls of sliced pickles still dot the tables, but the house specialty has become spaghetti and a variety of other pasta which Tarbell prepares as the mood strikes...
...He prefers tweed sports jackets and black derbies and wears a chest-length beard that practically covers his forever-flushed face...
...But it is still a neighborhood bar...
...He can talk about John L. Sullivan whipping Jake Kilrain in 75 rounds in 1889 with the old-timers at the bar, or proclaim the fate of discotheques in the Queen City to modern secretaries in the courtyard...
...He has made only two changes, both good ideas...
...After buying the saloon in 1976 he tore out the old kitchen and transformed it into a courtyard where a tree-of-heaven provides ample shade for outdoors types...
...There are no bar stools, and I have never witnessed a bartender use any measuring device besides an eye, regardless of the concoction requested...
...Since that mayor's heyday Cincinnati has been run by a city manager...
...He gives the impression of haying spent many hours in his favorite pub, something he can do because it's his...
...ized martinis such skill and easy manner have cooled many parched throats and warmed still more hearts...
...If whipped cream is needed for, say, an Irish coffee, it is prepared from scratch, not squirted from an aerosol can...
...During Boss Cox's tenure Simon Arnold turned over the bar to his eldest son, Hugo, who ran the place through Prohibition as a cafe...
...This balding, failed musician can play only "Happy Birthday" and the "Call to Lunch" on his trombone, but whenever he gets the chance he does so...
...These rooms were often reserved for regular customers like the " Cincinnati Cowboys," a group of 19 builders from the area...
...They are wearing the sort of cowboy hat favored by Tom Mix, and, according to the affixed caption, sporting white canes for "color...
Vol. 12 • October 1979 • No. 10
