“For the finest in foods and cocktails,” not to mention live entertainment, multiple generations of families flocked to The Arion Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge at 210 Main St.
As soon as a football or a basketball game ended at Burlington or Notre Dame high schools in the ’70s, the teens headed to the Arion to relive the action and order “the genuine Italian pizza.” Shirley Temple drinks were popular with the girls, who collected the little plastic elephants and monkeys, in pink and orange, that garnished the drinks.
Their parents loved the expansive menu that included “Pan Fried Chicken, Lobster Tails, Fried Oysters, Grilled Calves Liver, Prime Rib of Beef, Jumbo Shrimp, Bar-B-Q Ribs, Choice Iowa Steaks, Channel Catfish” as proclaimed in a familiar advertisement in The Hawk Eye in the early 1970s.
Is your mouth watering yet?
The house-made pizza sauce was so good that a rival restaurateur came in one evening, slammed a wad of bills on the bar, and asked Arion founder Art Diewold to give up the recipe. She didn’t get it, and the recipe eventually was lost. (Using trial and error, grandson Curt Diewold recreated the sauce years later and now sells it on the internet. Click here.)
Related post: Beautiful artwork reflects “Beloved Burlington” businesses
The Arion wasn’t Art Diewold’s first venture into making people feel good. That was Art Diewold’s Beer Barrel, located at 803 Jefferson St. It was the early 1930s, and Prohibition was in full reign. In keeping with his establishment’s name, Art was only legally allowed to sell beer─no liquor by the glass.
“They had a woodburning stove behind the bar, and Grandpa kept a bottle of whiskey in the ash pan in the stove,” Curt Diewold told this author. “All the old boys were sitting at the bar, and Grandpa was telling a story, and the feds come busting in the front door and start raiding the place” just like in the movie The Untouchables, Curt said.
“Grandpa just kept talking and talking, and they were looking in cupboards, and one of them opened up the woodburning stove, looked in there and closed it, and he said, ‘Art, you’re good this time but we’re gonna bust you next time!’ ” The feds left and the guys at the bar all started to laugh and one said, “Art, we thought you were gonna give it away, because when they opened the door, you went” and this fellow sucks in his breath, imitating what he had heard Art do.
Art didn’t give it away, and in fact, this was not the only time he would elude the authorities. …
Did you enjoy this excerpt from “Beloved Burlington: Featuring businesses you knew and loved?”
The book, which contains chapters on 10 other businesses and many historical photos, is available for $19.99 at Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St., Burlington, Iowa and by mail order. For details, click here.
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