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Don and Katie Delaney, left, and Mike and Sue Radovanic are co-owners of Delaney's Chase Inn, Mentor's oldest bar where burgers and bikes are the order of the day.
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If you’re like me, after a few nice early spring days I start craving a cheeseburger. And if, like mine, your grill is still buried behind the boat at the back of your garage, just head on over to Delaney’s Chase Inn and they’ll fix you right up.
Don Delaney, co-owner of Mentor’s oldest bar at 8702 Mentor Ave. in Old Mentor, says the place has a very limited menu. That could be the understatement of the century – the menu sports just eight items. But with burgers as famous as Chase’s, who needs lots of choices? And who needs to make decisions at lunch anyway?
Here’s the entire menu:
| • Famous Chase burger |
• Ham and cheese on rye |
• Patty melt |
| • Grilled cheese on rye |
• Grilled or breaded chicken sandwich |
• Chicken fingers |
| • Fish sandwich |
• Breakfast sandwich w/ham and/or sausage |
That’s it, plus Friday fish fries during Lent and soup in the winter. You’ll drop anywhere from a whopping $2.75 to a whole $6, and the higher price includes fries or onion rings. However, if a burger just isn’t a burger for you without lettuce and tomato, ya better bring your own, but honestly, you don’t need ’em.
Don and his partners – wife Katie, and Mike and Sue Radovanic – buy locally. They hand-make the burgers daily from ground meat purchased at Krizman Farmers Market on the corner of Little Mountain and Mentor Avenue.
Worried about being seen going into a bar at lunch during the week? Instead of the long-haired, leather-wearing biker types I was led to expect, I saw all kinds of guys who looked like they had just stepped out of the offices of Randy Carver or Sikora Law right down the street. If they’re not worried, neither should you be.
Yes, I said guys because I was the only woman in there. The only others were the owners and the bartender. However, Don assures me Chase’s is a bar women feel comfortable walking into on their own. He also says he’s never had a problem with a biker in the 22 years he’s owned the place.
“They’re real gentlemen,” he said. “We put the deck out back for the bikers. They like to see their bikes.” Overlooking the rear parking lot, the picnic table-covered deck has become a smoking patio as well as look-out.
And bikes are what you’ll see, about 300 of them, if you’re there May 4 for the 25th annual Louie Run. It’s one of 17 starting places in Lake County for the unofficial opening of Northeast Ohio’s riding season, and Chase’s biggest day of the year. Don says they give out about 600 hamburgers and 400 hotdogs that day, all for free.
Don shared all kinds of stories about Chase’s, where at one time the dividing line between the village and township ran right down the center of the building.
A big pothole in the parking lot once had regulars using their imaginations on ways to fill it. A plot to put a Volkswagen bug in the hole, complete with sunglass-wearing dummies, was foiled when Don caught wind of it and filled it himself before the scheme could be carried out.
Instead, the same customers cut a car in half and wedged it against the front of the building. Passersby thought someone had driven the car into the bar. Don thought a sign was in order. “Don’t drink and drive” it read, much to the dismay of city officials, including the Mentor cops. The car enjoyed a brief notoriety before it was decreed it must be removed.
But don’t let that lead you to believe bikers and cops don’t mix. The place is frequented by local police officers. A now-retired Mentor cop once even interviewed there for a spot on the force, Don tells me.
Chase’s has had just a few owners in its 70-year existence. Paul Chase, whose name it still carries, was the second owner after original owner Lou Swetner. Then Don partnered with Larry Nicholson before taking on his current partners.
Don, at 72, is still at the restaurant four mornings a week. The former North High biology teacher and Cleveland Cavaliers coach and general manager says he’ll retire when they put him in a box. He has no reason to.
“I’ve been a lot of places in my life, but the best people I’ve met have been right here in this bar,” he said. “You’re a stranger but once at Chase’s – after that you’re part of the family.”
No reservations are required to dine at Chase’s, but if for some reason you need to call, the number is 440-255-6645.
Adventures in Dining is a regular dining feature written by Laura Freeman,
editor of Lake County Business Journal. |
