Draneks Astorhurst < Restaurant Ware Collectors Network

Manufacturer: Jackson China
User: Draneks Astorhurst
Pattern name: Merlin
Date of platter: 1946-51

{"arrow":"false","pagination":"true","speed":"1000","autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"2000","loop":"true","slide_to_show_3d":"2","slide_show_ipad_3d":"2","slide_show_tablet_3d":"1","slide_show_mobile_3d":"1","slide_to_scroll_3d":"1","auto_stop":"false","centermode_3d":"true","space_between_3d":"0","depth":20,"modifier":20,"img_rotate":0,"img_stretch":0}

{"animation_fancy":"zoom-in-out","transition_fancy":"fade","fancy_box_loop":"true"}

Notes: Draneks Astorhurst restaurant was located at Dunham Road at Tinkers Creek in Walton Hills, Ohio, as identified with the aid of a matchbook from the restaurant (below), with the motto: "We serve the best … because we buy the best." The venue served "luncheons, dinners, late suppers" and provided "private dining rooms available for all occasions."

Postcards show the restaurant, with bar off to one side, with the logo on the wall and typical mid-century interior décor that includes chairs with aqua vinyl upholstery on seats and backs, pops of red in the carpet and water pitchers, and white tablecloths and napkins. Another postcard – from probably a different room – shows circular tables with what appears to be aqua Formica tops, red bases, and wire-framed chairs with red seats.

According to the Walton Hills Journal, Joseph and Eleanor Dranek (and a group of investors) in 1958 bought the "country club type of restaurant" that had been opened by Philip and Martha Astor in an 1840s-era house located next to what was at that time the Astorhurst Golf Course. The Dranek family sold the restaurant and associated Astorhurst picnic grounds and pavilion and the adjacent Park Place ice cream store in 1973.

In 2013, the entire 16-acre complex was sold to Cleveland Metroparks.

The gray Merlin border pattern with waves has a red or maroon line on the verge. Inside is the restaurant's shield logo divided into four areas, in red outline, with a chicken, steer, lobster and the script initials DA inside each quadrant.

Photo contributed by justwhatswest
ID contributed by Babcock
Matchbook contributed by ebay seller tine-kays