Amelia restaurant makes history with liquor sales

AMELIA – He couldn't be there in person, but former Vice Mayor Charles R. "Bob" Pollitt was there in spirit when village officials recently offered a toast to the first Amelia restaurant to sell alcoholic beverages in more than 80 years.

In 2012, Pollitt, who was battling prostate cancer, went door to door to convince Amelia voters to put a local option issue on the ballot that November to make Amelia a wet community, including the sale of alcoholic beverages by the glass.

"All summer long, he would get up, put on a shirt, coat and tie, and I would drive him to every street in Amelia," said Lutishia "Tish" Pollitt, who was married to Bob for nearly 60 years. "The village backed him, and they helped him in his campaign. Fortunately, the issue passed in November 2012 because Bob died on Dec. 3. So he did get to see that it passed."

Fast forward to April 6 of this year. On that date, Tish Pollitt joined Amelia Mayor Todd Hart and members of Amelia Village Council at the grand opening of Don Rigo Mexican Bar & Grill. Owner Javier Melendez also owns two El Jinete restaurants on the Eastside.

This month, the new restaurant at 224 W. Main St. in the Amelia Town Center became the first establishment in the village to sell alcoholic beverages by the glass in nearly a century. For its grand opening on Opening Day, the restaurant was packed with customers watching the ballgame on TV.

"This has been a long time coming," Hart said. "We started this project about three years ago."

Although a small portion of the revenue from liquor licenses will go to Amelia, the village will reap the most benefit from future business growth, the mayor said.

In the past, Amelia couldn't attract chain restaurants such as Applebee's and O'Charley's because they couldn't get a liquor permit, Hart said.

"This should bring more businesses our way," Amelia's mayor said. "Once business people look at the volume of traffic and the volume of patrons and see the numbers go up, they'll want to come here too."

After a ribbon cutting at Don Rigo Mexican Bar & Grill, Tish Pollitt joined Amelia's mayor in a tequila toast to her late husband.

"I'm sure that wherever Bob is now, he's happy that this is happening," his 86-year-old widow said, as she posed with a cardboard cutout of her late husband.

Ironically, Bob Pollitt was the grandson of a former mayor who was instrumental in making Amelia dry in the 1930s.

"Now I'm trying to make it wet in 2012," Bob Pollitt told The Community Press in November 2012.

His widow, who sipped a glass of White Zinfandel during her recent visit to Don Rigo Mexican Bar & Grill, said her husband wanted to allow the sales of alcoholic beverages in the village to help the local economy.

Another motivation could have been to undo what his grandfather had created, village officials said.

"I have no idea why Bob's grandfather talked the people of Amelia into going dry all those years ago because he was a drinker himself," Tish Pollitt said. "Bob said at one time, 'If I end up where my grandfather is, there's going to be a big argument."

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