Community National Bank & Trust is accepting sealed bids for the large building at 415 W. Madison Ave.
How you refer to the building at this address probably says something about how long you’ve been in Iola. The building, recently known as “Madison Avenue Steaks and Chops,” began life in 1933 as H.L. Miller & Son Inc. — to a handful it will always be “the old dress factory” — whose faded brand name still clings to the north side of the large brick structure, and whose historic architecture lends character to a corner that counts among its premises a gas station, liquor store, and two fast-food spots.
The dress factory arrived in Iola not long after the Pet Milk Company, and though years separated their respective ends, it was the similar acknowledgement of shifting consumer taste that spelled both companies’ eventual obsolescence. Almost overnight, it must have seemed to some, families stopped cooking with condensed milk and women traded in their everyday dresses for a pair of smart trousers.
In time the dress factory gave way to a restaurant and sports bar and, aside from a few framed photographs depicting the factory at the height of its production, the building’s interior bears all the traces of its most recent owners, Dan and Cindy Neal. Tables and chairs are in dining-position throughout the spacious lower level. Stacks of plates and glasses line the large, industrial kitchen. There are a number of functioning high-end appliances. A station for fountain drinks. Beer taps behind a full-service bar.
And all of it, said bank vice president Mike Waldman, who offered prospective buyers a guided tour Thursday afternoon, is included in the bid. The small stuff, too: an old box of kitchen staff hairnets, a tub full of reusable mustard bottles, stacks of children’s booster seats.
The floor-level restaurant comprises a sunny 9,766 square feet, but it was the upstairs living area — previously off-limits to restaurant patrons — which prompted the most interested reactions.
The Neals, while operating the restaurant on the ground floor, were busy building a unique apartment for themselves on the second. The three-bedroom setup has high, pressed ceilings; a full kitchen; a master bath with an hourglass-shaped tub in the corner, which looks out of the window just this side of the restaurant’s familiar red Madison Ave. sign; and down the hall — an 850-square-foot “cigar bar” fitted with a saloon-style, wood carved bar with mirrored backdrop. Branching off from the living quarters is a system of hallways and largely unused rooms. According to Waldman, the building’s roof was recently replaced.
Dan Neal is in failing health and — following his wife’s death from cancer — is no longer able to operate the restaurant on his own, said Waldman. It was last open for business January 2013.
There will be a second showing of the interior on Dec. 11, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Sealed bids must be received by Johnson Law Office by 5 p.m. on Dec. 16 and will be opened at 10 a.m. the next day. The top three bidders will be identified and then given an opportunity to revise their bids at that time.
Iconic landmark on sales block
