LAST CALL, After 72 years Lefty’s Club Tavern closes doors in Mount Ayr
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An icon of the Mount Ayr business community has closed its doors after nearly three-quarters of a century.
Wednesday, May 21 was “last call” at Lefty’s Club Tavern,
The business has been located at 111 E. Madison for its entire existence, and to say it carries a great deal of history with it would be an understatement.
The building was built in 1897 as the office and plant for The Twice-A-Week News, which was, ironically, a prohibitionist newspaper. Later, the building was used as a meat market, grocery, electrical supply company, and a harness shop.
Carroll Porter “Lefty” Geist was born at Ellston, Iowa in 1919 and was a star for the Ellston High School baseball and basketball teams.
At the age of 17, he signed a major league contract to play baseball for the Saint Louis Browns. His love of baseball shaped his life, from being honored as the Outstanding Amateur Iowa Athlete of Iowa to pitching in a baseball game so hard that it broke his arm.
When he moved to Mount Ayr, he played first base with the Mount Ayr Vets team. During that time players as good as Lefty could make money playing on “amateur” teams.
World War II called and Lefty served his country in the South Pacific until his discharge in October 1945.
He married Cleola Burchett on August 26, 1948 and son Cullen was born a year later.
Club Bar Tavern had been started by A. I. “Bob” Wilson in 1951. Lefty continued to play for and manage the Mount Ayr Vets baseball club while running the tavern.
In 1951, Lefty bought a half interest in Mount Ayr’s Sandwich Shop. His partner Donald “Joe” Sobotka and he then purchased the Club Bar Tavern in 1953 and sold the Sandwich Shop in January 1954.
Lefty would buy out the half-interest of Sobotka before 1955 to take full ownership of the what would now become known as “Lefty’s Club Tavern.”
Lefty’s son Crae was born in 1957.
Six years later, liquor by the drink became legal in Iowa. Lefty’s became not only the first tavern in Mount Ayr to serve mixed drinks but also the first to install bar stools, a jukebox, and a television set.
In the 1960s Lefty installed a second bar upstairs above the Club Tavern and opened “The Attic” with Cullen and Cleola helping with the duties there. Live music was provided by Jane Thomas or Margaret Pence on the organ, and Jack Terry would play drums on occasion. The Attic closed in 1988.
Lefty bought the Q Club pool hall in 1966. Crae began working at the Q Club as well as cleaning his father’s bar as a teenager. He started his bartending career in 1975.
Finally in 1988, after having run the tavern for thirty-five years, Lefty sold the bar to Crae, who had operated the tavern since.
The interior of the tavern is decorated with a countless assortment of baseball memorabilia, photos, vintage advertising, antiques, and miscellaneous items. Even the cash register is an antique.
Lefty’s was famous for a unique piece of furniture known as the “smart table.” It originally sat in the kitchen of the Geist home but made its way to the tavern in the 1960s. It is believed to increase the I. Q. of those who make use of the table. “The longer you sit there, the smarter you get,” Crae said with a laugh. “We’ve even had a few graduates.” Supposedly, the process is accelerated if one places a pitcher of beer in the center of the “smart table.”
Over the years, Lefty’s remained a hub of social activity. Friendly competition in the Pitcher’s Pool, 13-run Pool, and the Chili Cook-off, along with televised high school, college, and pro sporting events; holiday gatherings; bachelor and bachelorette parties; two throngs of RAGBRAI riders; class reunions and much more regularly filled Lefty’s to standing room only. Many wedding parties even made a point of stopping for a drink at Lefty’s before moving on to their receptions.
After 37 years of his own behind the bar, Crae and wife Jodie decided it was time to retire, travel, and spend more time with family, especially their grandchildren.
Crae wishes to thank his many customers and employees over those many years.
“I hope they have come away with some good Lefty’s stories,” he said.
The bar itself remains for sale, and Crae hopes someone can one day carry on the camaraderie and memory-making that defined Lefty’s for the past 72 years.
Lefty passed away in 2001, but Crae has kept alive a unique phrase Lefty always told departing customers: “Tell ’em where ya got it.”
That phrase still rings true through the memories of thousands of friends, neighbors, locals, and strangers who had the good fortune to enter the friendly confines of Lefty’s Club Tavern over the past quarter century.
[Mike Avitt, Sharon Becker, and others contributed to this story.]
