Ashtabula County’s Front Yard… Lake Erie, part five: The development of Geneva on the Lake

Note: Geneva on the Lake pictures taken from vintage postcards. DiFabio family photos taken from Louis DiFabio collection.

Geneva on the Lake holds many memories for those who spent their summers enjoying the lazy days of summer along Lake Erie’s jewel in Ashtabula County.
Former Geneva on the Lake business owner Louis DiFabio, now 90, shared a wealth of information with me after reading this summer series on resorts.
DiFabio’s life careers include restaurant owner, Jefferson history teacher, lawyer, defense attorney and even musical performer with his wife, Gloria Jean. The story of how he became a young business owner at Geneva on the Lake is unique.
When only 19, DiFabio came to Geneva on the Lake to check out a business opportunity he had heard about the summer before. The year was 1954 and his life was about to drastically change. He sat down with Giles Cook, the owner of the Eagle Cliff Hotel, the place where DiFabio was staying.
Cook must have seen great possibilities in the young man when he offered to lease a small concession stand to him. With the help of his parents, Severino and Josephine Polombo DiFabio, the new business owner accepted Cook’s offer of $400 a month rent plus utilities for the summer. It was the beginning of a lifetime of business ventures and expanding horizons for DiFabio.
The little 12×24-foot business, known simply as “The Stand,” became LAD’s Grille, so named after DiFabio’s initials. The following summer he returned to the resort area and took on a second venture Cook offered to sell. In 1959, Cook’s Waffle and Pancake Shop, a 24×36 foot rough cut wooden frame and masonry building constructed during World War ll, was sold to the DiFabio’s. It was the beginning of DiFabio’s Restaurant. His parents sold their restaurant and with their help and the help of his wife, Gloria Jean, Difabio ran both businesses. He also bought 55 acres adjoining the property to the east.
DiFabio could have been content and successful with those two business ventures for the rest of his life. But taking a completely different route, he became a history teacher in Jefferson, Ohio, where he met my husband, Bill Hamilton, another history teacher.
But several years afterwards, DiFabio went on to earn his law degree and became a defense attorney. My husband also left the teaching field and went to work for United Parcel Service for 39 years. We were able to keep up with the career of DiFabio because he always seemed to be in the newspaper either on a committee, trying a case, running a business or entertaining crowds with his wife, Gloria Jean.
When he left DiFabio’s Restaurant in 1972, his dad took over but after his father’s death, he returned and ran the establishment from 1976-1988. The DiFabio children worked all kinds of jobs at the restaurant and even learned to cook great Italian food using the recipes from their grandmother, Josephine.
The 55 acres DiFabio had purchased east of his property helped add parking for the restaurant in 1983. The old cottages were torn down that had been on the land. All except one, saved for Josephine DiFabio to live in her latter years.
In the summer of 1988, new owners Joe Biscotti and Rocco Scotti bought the restaurant and leased it to Mary Ann Hanna who changed the name to Angel Mia’s. After nine years, Hanna gave up the lease and the DiFabio’s bought back the business.
Anthony Delia bought the property and business in 2005 and renamed it, Lakefront Restaurant. In 2015, the establishment began operating as the GOTL Brewing Company providing outdoor dining and entertainment.
Today, the Eagle Cliff Hotel across the street from the restaurant still stands. It was built in 1880 by Bert Warner and operated as Eagle Cliff Cottage by Mrs. Amelia Warner. Today it is known as the Eagle Cliff Cottage with nine guest rooms on the second floor and two on the third. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The Warner family also built Warner’s Colonial, which is next door and still stands.
Seventy years after Lou DiFabio met Giles Cook at the Eagle Cliff, folks can still walk across the street and enjoy a good meal and the beautiful view of Lake Erie, still creating waves along the shoreline for visitors to enjoy.
Further down was Chestnut Grove, a wonderful beach and picnic area which early on brought folks loaded down with their tents and camping gear. I was able to locate a few rare postcards that show folks camping in the very early days as well as a bathing pavilion known as Gregory’s. I wonder if it is the same Gregory family that include Bert, who married Jennie Munger. Jennie Munger Gregory would offer her home if it retained her name when she gave it to the Ashtabula County Historical Society for a museum. Today, The Lodge at Geneva on the Lake has taken over the entire end of the Strip, providing dining, entertainment, lodging and more.
This glimpse into Lake Erie’s shoreline in Ashtabula County will continue next summer as I discover familiar and not-so-familiar places that folks once called home during the summer months.