Lyndora Hotel not closing as buyer is sought
Mike Pawk, co-owner of the Lyndora Hotel, wants to make one thing clear. While the stalwart Butler Township tavern is for sale, it is not closing.
“Come on down and have some wings and beer,” Pawk said on Friday as news of the sale emerged on social media.
Pawk said the business, building, property and liquor license will be sold together so the business can remain largely the same after the sale.
“It’s business as usual,” he said. “I want to make sure people know we’re not closing our doors.”
According to online real estate sites, the Lyndora Hotel was listed for sale about a year ago at $790,000.
The price has dropped to $695,000 for the almost 15,000 square-foot, four-story property.
Pawk said the building was constructed in 1902 as a hotel to accommodate those traveling to the new Standard Steel Car Company, which was founded in 1902 by John Hansen and “Diamond” Jim Brady off what is now Hansen Avenue.
Ukrainian immigrants Ike and Marie Pawk, Mike Pawk’s grandparents, bought the hotel in 1947 and put a bar and restaurant in the basement, which remains today.
Pawk, who owns the hotel with his three siblings, said the rooms upstairs were closed in the 1990s after a fire had broken out.
“There were just some old-timers who rented by the month at that time,” Pawk said.
He said the establishment has remained not only viable, but popular, over the years because it has offered largely the same food.
“It’s been a staple in the community,” Pawk said. “It’s been a meeting place for generations of families.”
Pawk, an attorney in Butler, said he and his siblings have professions of their own and their grown children do not live in Butler.
“We want to sell to a good buyer who will keep it how it is,” Pawk said.
He said he has had a lot of interest in the business, but does not have a prospective buyer at this time.
“We appreciate and thank all the great people of Butler over the years,” Pawk said.
Donny Eozzo, of Butler, has a long family history with the Lyndora Hotel.
He tended bar at lunchtime during the late 1970s, when workers from Armco would come in for a quick bite.
Eozzo also worked on Sundays, when the Lyndora Hotel was one of the few open bars in Butler, if not the only one, due to blue laws that prohibited most establishments from serving liquor on the Sabbath day.
“That place used to be standing room only on Sundays,” Eozzo said.
He got the bartending job from his late mother, Donna, who managed the bar and restaurant from approximately 1977 to 1990 with Ike Pawk.
Eozzo said his mother created the wing dust that is used to this day at the Lyndora Hotel.
“Everyone in my family worked there at some point,” Eozzo said.
He called the late Ike Pawk “a character” who owned racehorses.
Even after Eozzo moved to California to pursue his dream of becoming a rock star, he always met with friends and family at the Lyndora Hotel when he returned home for a visit.
Today, Eozzo plays guitar and holds open mic nights every other Friday at the business.
“Of all the bars and restaurants that have come and gone, the Lyndora Hotel has held strong,” Eozzo said. “It seems like it has always been the place to be.”
He hopes the new owner will continue the fun, comfortable atmosphere created by three generations of the Pawk family.
“I’m sad to see it for sale because I have nothing but respect for the Pawks,“ Eozzo said.
