Miller's Dining Room

The Miller family was on old Cleveland food family. The had a butter and egg stand at Central Market. Doris Miller had a degree in home economics from Mather College and had trained as a dietician at Stouffer's. After Central Market caught fire and burned down, she talked her parents into joining her in taking over the former "Kaase's" restaurant in Lakewood at 16707 Detroit Ave.

Miller's Dining Room opened in 1950. My memories are faint, and because we always went after church I think of it as some fancy place, but it was a family-style restaurant where the emphasis was home-cooked meals at a decent price. The table cloths were crisp and white, and they even had finger bowls!

Ask anyone about Miller's and they will tell you about the sticky buns. Servers circulated throughout the meal offering a selection of piping hot rolls to whoever wanted one. It was like dim sum for crackers. The sweet and chewy, caramel-swirled sticky buns were the most popular selection.

The "average costumer ate two." The child must have had three or four, or until someone told him to stop. This was important, because I also usually ordered the chicken a la king, chicken in gravy served in a crispy shredded potato basket.

After 40 years of business, Doris Miller Urbansky and her husband Tom sold the venture to the Thomas family, who kept the Miller name and style. Five years later, in 1995, Miller's Dining Room caught fire and burned down.

Doris Urbansky died in 2010.

Sticky Buns
originally served in Miller’s Dining Room
[makes approximately 30]

For the Sticky Buns:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (regular white enriched flour; not bread flour)
2 packages active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cold water
1 1/3 cups butter
1 egg

For the Topping :
(to be put in each muffin cup)
1 to 2 teaspoons melted butter
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 dash cinnamon
For the Filling:
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 to 3 cups light brown sugar

In large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix well.

In saucepan, heat milk, water and butter just until warm (between 120 and 130 degrees F). Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Add egg. Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough.

Turn out onto well-floured board or pastry cloth and knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes.

Place in well-greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover with clean cloth toweling or waxed paper. Let rise in warm oven (turn oven to lowest setting for one minute, then turn off) for 15-20 minutes, or place in warm area of kitchen and let rise until doubled in size.

Prepare muffin tins by generously greasing each cup with butter, adding about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar to each cup. Set aside.

Amply flour clean toweling or pastry cloth. Roll dough out into rectangular shape no more than 12 inches wide and about 1-inch thick. Generously brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle up to 1/2-inch brown sugar over top of butter.

Roll dough loosely as for jellyroll, pinching along the seam to secure filling. Cut into 1-inch slices and place in prepared cups.

Bake rolls in oven preheated to 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool a minute, then remove rolls with fork. Spoon any remaining topping over the rolls.

*Recipe note: Miller’s secret was the type of brown sugar the restaurant used — C&H Pure Cane Golden Brown. You can buy it in bulk ($22 for 24, 1-pound boxes) by calling the company directly at 1-800-234-5708, but Domino brand is a good substitute.

Source:
Lakewood Sun Post
Cleveland Magazine
Cleveland Memory Project

Western Reserve University

Western Reserve College was founded in Hudson, Ohio in 1826. Hudwas at that time the most populated area of the region. "Reserve" as it was known was the first college in Northern Ohio.

In 1882, railroad baron Amasa Stone donated half a million dolars to move the institution to Cleveland, where it became a "University." The site was adjacent to the Case School of Applied Science (founded 1880) and the two institutions worked together, sharing buildings and staff, long before they merged into a single entity in 1967.

WRU's undergraduate men's college was named Adelbert College after Amasa's son Adelbert who drowned when a student at Yale. In 1888 WRU establied the College for Women, which in 1932 was named Mather College in honor of Flora Stone mather, the college's second council president. Mather was a liberal arts school which also offered courses in home economics and education.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Wikipedia

The Red Salute

"True! Timely! Terrific! See the effect RED teachings have on the youth of today!"

The Circle Theater was located at Doan's Corners, the area at Euclid Avenue and 105th & 107th Streets. Originally the Hoffman Theatre, Loew's assumed management of this 2,000 space and converted it from a live theater to a movie house. Bought by Max Marmostein in 1935, he made it a space for live performances and film.

In 1936 there was a showing of The Red Salute, which attracted the kind of protests this movie also found in other large cities. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, this anti-Communist "screwball comedy" really pissed off left-leaning college students at Western Reserve University. An army brat (Stanwyck) is in love with a Commie agitator, so her father, a General, arranges to have her kidnapped (by an aunt) to Mexico where she falls in with an AWOL soldier (Robert Young) but after returning to the States she reunites with the Communist boyfriend. However, in the end the dopey dogface convinces her that a) Democracy rules in spite of b) comparing Democracy to Communism is like comparing Christianity to Vegetarianism.

This area that was Doan's Corners has, of course, been swallowed by the Cleveland Clinic. Interestingly, I once performed I Hate This at the W.O. Walker Rehabilitation Center, which stands in virtually the same location.

Sources:
Red Scare Filmography
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History