Archive for the ‘Private Clubs’ tag
The Friar's Club / Ole Place Club / (The New) Ole Place, 3311 Two Notch Road: November 2022 no comments
This place goes back at least into the 50s when it was The Friar's Club, then it was Mary's Celebrity Supper Club, and then it was Ole Place Club, and, possibly after Mary Dixon's passing, (The New) Ole Place. I believe through all those times, and the ups & downs of Two Notch Road, it remained a membership-only bar & grill. Judging from the activity on their Facebook page it appears they closed around November of 2022.
Be sure to checkout the Celebrity Club link, and I have a picture of the Friar's Club on a postcard somewhere I will try to get uploaded.
(Mary's) Celebrity Supper Club, 3311 Two Notch Road: 1970s 11 comments
Fine Foods Smartly Served!
I can't actually recall any other operation in this building, right up the hill from Dick Dyer, before Ole Place Club. That operation seems to be pretty durable despite having, at one point when Two Notch was especially bad, to put up a tart sign saying This Parking Lot is not a Loading Zone for Hookers!
The 1970 Southern Bell ad for The Celebrity Supper Club, as seemed to be common then, much longer hours than are now usual for a restaurant (though there were obviously entertainment elements as well). Nowdays almost everything closes at 10pm during the week, and if you walk in at 9:00, they act like its an imposition to stop mopping the floor and take your order.. It also seems like there were more "steak" places back then than now. I don't know if its 30 years of the food police harping on cholesterol or if tastes have just naturally changed.
UPDATE 17 October 2009: Added "(Mary's)" to the post title.
UPDATE 29 December 2009: Sadly Mary Dixon passed away on Christmas Eve 2009. From The State's obiturary:
COLUMBIA — Mary Simpson Dixon, perpetually 34, passed away on Christmas Eve. She was born in the Kibbee Community near Vidalia, Georgia, to the late Alfred Oliver and Alma Louise Rabon Simpson. As a teenager, Miss Mary moved to Savannah and began her stellar career in food service by working for an exclusive hotel chain, DeSota Hotels, training staff across the Southeast. She continued working in New Jersey, Florida, California (The Brown Derby, even though Howard Hughes tried to steal her away, and served various movie stars including Joan Crawford), Tybee Beach (where she worked for the Brass Rail before opening Mary’s Nic Nacs), and Augusta, Georgia (Ship Ahoy), before moving to Columbia in the early 1950s. She worked for the Ship Ahoy in Columbia, Laurel Hill Supper Club (where Las Vegas acts and entertainers performed and requested her personally), and Dick’s Flamingo Club, where she perfected her cheese-stuffed potato.
UPDATE 29 June 2023: Adding tags & map icon.