Manufacturer: Caribe China
User: The Wig and Bottle, Minneapolis
Date of plate: unknown

July 4, 1965 review in the Star Tribune

Recipe from the Star Tribune

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Notes: In 1951 John Skowronski purchased Danny's Funhouse, located at 2501 N.E. Marshall Street at Lowry Avenue. Skowronski and his wife and partner Dorothy Skowronski named the establishment (whose building was originally built in 1891) the Lowry Bar, and according to his obituary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in 1965 "expanded it into an English-style bar and restaurant [and supper club] in 1965," reopening as The Wig and Bottle.

From the StuffAboutMinneapolis Tumbler blog, the Wig and Bottle "was called a 'pearl' in the neighborhood … 'The décor was warmly pleasant, with dark wood and heavy beams, red armchairs and decorative gaslight chandeliers. The noon light came through the stained glass window overlooking the booths in the bar. There was a middle room with a hand-carved fireplace and wine rack, and farther back another large dining area with two levels and a large meeting room downstairs.'"

The restaurant became known for its Lamplighter Sandwich (recipe shown above), and now that we have the ID, the signage widely used for advertising, and on the china, makes sense that what might be assumed to be a Dickens character or English dandy is in fact a lamplighter, albeit with a much shorter pole than is usually depicted.

On May 18, 1979, the Wig and Bottle was destroyed by a fire with a damage estimate of $300,000. The fire department had ordered a sprinkler system to be installed at the restaurant the year before, but it had not been done. The StuffAboutMinneapolis blog gives the story a slightly different twist, noting that "the owners were unable to rebuild because of tightened city codes regarding off-street parking." Either way, it was not rebuilt, and that coincided with Skowronski's retirement to Florida later that year. A car wash was built on the site in 1984.

Keywords: Dickens, cane, overcoat, top hat, red muffler scarf, lamplighter

Sources:
StuffAboutMinneapolis
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Contributor:
Roland Burritt: ID, research