| Sources |
- [S1] Ancestry.com, 1950 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Lehi, UT, USA; Date: 2022;), United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Lemay, St Louis, Mis.
- [S3003] Obituary of Ernest Dohack Sr - St Louis Post-Dispatch - 1980, (Name: St Louis Post-Dispatch; Location: St Louis MO; Date: 29 Apr 1980;), ERNEST W DOHACK SR FUNERAL MASS THURSDAY.
A funeral Mass for Ernest W Dohack Sr, founder of Dohack's Restaurant in Mehlville, will be celebrated Thursday at Most Precious Blood Catholic Church. Entombment will be in Mount Hope Mausoleum. Mr Dohack, 78, of South County, died Sunday at St Anthony's Medical Center. A native of Kimmswick MO, Mr Dohack founded Dohack's Restaurant, in 1923 with his mother, Catherine, and his brother, Arthur. Although Mr Dohack retired in 1965, the restaurant remains family-owned and is now operated by his son, Richard.
Mr Dohack was a past director of the Metropolitan Sewer District, a former member of the St. Louis County parks and transportation commissions and the State Welfare Commission. He was a member of the St Louis County Grand Jurors Association and a senior director of the Lemay Bank and Trust Co. Mr. Dohack was a member of the board of directors of the Sisters of St Joseph Nareth Home and a member of Knights of Columbus, Kirkwood Council No. 2117 and St Louis Assembly. Surviving are his wife, Joste; two sons, Ernest Jr and Richard; and a daughter, Joyce Lang, all of St Louis.
• St Louis Post-Dispatch • St. Louis, Missouri • 29 Apr 1980, Tue • Page 30
https://www.newspapers.com/image/139188594/?article=927b8043-2caf-4fc9-8597-ff83f97be8a5&focus=0.33611113,0.02025002,0.49070466,0.38517883&xid=3355
- [S6] Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2015;).
- [S3004] Obituary of Josephine Dohack - St Louis Post Dispatch - 2000, (Name: St Louis Post-Dispatch; Location: St Louis MO; Date: 11 Oct 2000;), JOSEPHINE DOHACK - FOUNDED LANDMARK RESTAURANT.
Josephine "Josie" R Dohack, retired owner of Dohack's Restaurant, a former south St Louis County landmark, died Monday (Oct 9, 2000) of infirmities at Nazareth Living Center in Mehlville. She was 96 and had lived most of her life in south St Louis County.
Mrs Dohack and her husband, Ernest Dohack Sr, now deceased, opened their first restaurant on Lindbergh Boulevard and Lemay Ferry Road in 1923. His parents, Joseph and Catherine Dohack, and his brother and sister-in-law, Arthur and Esther Dohack, were also part-owners.
Mrs Dohack attended Miss Hickeys Business School. She baked pies at the restaurant, which was known for its homemade desserts and fried chicken. Many of the recipes were hers, and one of the most popular dishes was the jack salmon. The dish was actually made with whiting, but when the Dohacks called it "Jack salmon" on their menu, the name became a tradition in St Louis restaurants. Over the years, there were seven Dohack's restaurants in the St Louis area; the original restaurant closed in 1993. "It was actually a true landmark because when people talked about traveling south they would say, 'You go to Dohack's and turn right,' " said her son, Richard Dohack of St Louis County. "Every body in the city knew where Dohack's was."
Mrs Dohack worked at the restaurant until 1965, when she turned the business over to her son. There are two Dohack's Restaurants open today; Dohack's Restaurant in Festus and Cisco's in Oakville. In addition to her son, among survivors are a daughter, Joyce Lang of Mehlville; another son, Ernest Dohack Jr of Concord Village; a brother, Raymond Marlotte of Oceanside CA; 18 grandchildren; and 43 great-grandchildren. Visitation will be at Nazareth Living Center, Mehlville, followed by funeral Mass. Entombment will be at Mount Hope Mausoleum in Lemay. Memorial contributions may be made to Sisters of St Joseph Retirement Fund.
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch • St. Louis, Missouri • 11 Oct 2000, Wed • Page 32
https://www.newspapers.com/image/140930241/?article=1ea842a3-b9e3-4b35-a964-b0fbce0f3450&focus=0.04613144,0.07136317,0.50816905,0.25118423&xid=3355
- [S109] Ancestry.com, U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2014;), Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File.
- [S3216] Findagrave, (Location: Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA; Date: 9 Oct 2000;), Josephine Regina “Josie” Merlotti Dohack 9 Oct 2000.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/242187745/josephine-regina-dohack
- [S3214] Lost Tables, (Name: Lost Tables; Location: St Louis MO;), Lost Tables: Dohack's.
Anna Catherine Gangloff was born on September 11, 1880 in Kimmswick, Missouri. She married Joseph Dohack on June 29, 1897, when she was 16 years old. They had four children, including Arthur, born in 1899, and Ernest, born in 1901.
Joseph Dohack was involved with the operation of the Kimmswick Hotel, along with his parents and his brother. In 1899, Catherine Dohack (who got married as Anna, but used the name Catherine, thereafter) took over management of the hotel restaurant.
The Kimmswick Hotel provided food and lodging for riverboat crews making the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans. They would station someone on the roof to spot smoke spewing from the stacks of the paddlewheelers so they could adequately prepare for the boats' arrival.
By 1910, the Dohack family had moved to St. Louis and were living in Carondelet Township. On the 1910 census, Joseph Dohack listed his occupation as blacksmith and by 1920 he worked at a chemical plant. However, by 1930, Dohack was in the restaurant business.
In June of 1923, Joseph and Catherine Dohack built a small frame structure on the side of an unpaved thoroughfare, at the intersection of highways 61 and 77 (Lemay Ferry Road and Lindbergh) in Mehville. They were joined in their endeavor by their sons, Arthur and Ernest. Initially called Mehville Barbecue, the little sandwich stand served barbecued meats and fish.
It wasn't long before the little frame stand was replaced by a two-and-a-half-story building with dormers and Cyprus log siding. The first floor contained a large dining room, bar and two kitchens. The second floor was used for office and storage space. The rebuilt restaurant also had a new name – Dohack's.
At the time, there weren't many places for working-class families to eat out, and the business flourished. Legend has it that the Dohack truck was the first to load up at Anheuser-Busch on the day Prohibition ended, with the restaurant drawing large crowds as it began pouring the brewery's drafts again.
The name Dohack became a byword for good eating throughout the St. Louis area. The restaurant served barbecued rib, fish, ham, beef and hamburger sandwiches, plus lots more, and was the largest fish fryer in Missouri.
Joseph Dohack died in July of 1934 at the age of sixty. Catherine Dohack and her sons continued to operate their restaurant, which evolved into the 1950s with jukeboxes and curb service.
On February 18, 1955, Dohack's was severely damaged by a fire which raged out of control for three and a half hours. Damage was estimated at $100,000.
A temporary structure was erected, and construction of a new building commenced in April of 1957, the new restaurant opening in January of 1958.
The new building, 90 feet long by 42 feet deep, was a one-story fireproofed structure, framed with steel and enclosed in red Norman brick, crab orchard stone and thermo-insulating plate glass, all trimmed in aluminum.
In addition to a drive-in and car-hop arrangement served from a corridor off the kitchen, there was a 40 foot by 32 foot air-conditioned dining room, surrounded on three sides with the insulating glass, under a butterfly type roof. A short-order counter was located on one side of the dining room near the entrance.
Catherine Dohack died on November 22, 1960, at the age of eighty. Arthur and Ernest Dohack retired a few years later and turned the business over to Ernest's son, Richard.
Dohack's was known for its homemade desserts and fried chicken. Another popular dish was their jack salmon. The dish was actually made with whiting, but when Dohack's called it "jack salmon" on its menu, the name became a tradition in St. Louis restaurants.
Dinners at Dohack's were served with potatoes, sweet vinegar coleslaw and homemade hillbilly bran muffins. A 1976 menu offered a half friend chicken ($2.95), strip steak ($5.95), T-bone ($5.75), filet mignon ($4.95), barbecue ribs ($4.15 and $4.05), pork chops ($3.95), roast round of beef ($2.95), baked ham ($2.75), fried chicken livers ($1.95), jack salmon ($2.25), fried shrimp ($3.50) and fried fish ($2.45).
In 1977, a Dohack's operated restaurant called Char's opened in Collinsville, Illinois, adjacent to Sonny and Char's night club. Two more Dohack's locations opened in 1984, one in Fairview Heights and one in Festus. By 1988, a Dohack's had opened in North County on Dunn Road.
By 1993, Steve Dohack had joined his father Richard in the management of their Lemay Ferry Road restaurant. Richard's older son, Richard Jr., managed the Festus restaurant, the only other remaining Dohack's location.
However, when in 1993 Richard Sr. retired at the age of 63, the family decided to close their landmark South County restaurant; the last meal was served on December 31. Steve Dohack said expanding government regulations and the prospect of a greater profit from sale of the property also figured in the decision to close, even though the business was still successful, serving more than 100,000 customers in its final year.
In 2002, the Dohack's in Festus was closed to make space for an addition to the restaurant's more popular and younger cousin, Cisco's, which had opened next door in 1991. Fried chicken and jack salmon stayed on the menu, cooked "exactly like always," said Richard Dohack, Jr.
"People ask me what my grandmother would say about taking down the name," Dohack said. "I know exactly what she would say. She'd say this is a family business, and you've got to do what you have to do to stay alive."
https://losttables.com/dohacks/dohacks.htm
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1904 - 2000 (96 years)
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