![]() (Mike) Abraham repaired the leaky ceiling in the Vienna Inn last year, it almost cost him his customers. Blechman The Washington Post Excerpted from The Washington Post, October 17, 1985. Read full story Mike and Mollie's Food, Friendship For 25 Years, Customers - and Waitresses - Have Remained Loyal to Vienna Inn, Owners By Barbara H. As one anonymous patron said when asked what a visitor should know about the Town of Vienna: "You're sittin' in it." The history of the establishment hangs in the dimly lit bar like the smoke from Mike Abraham's cigar. Philip Abraham's brother Mark is now a lawyer, and his sister Lynn owns the Calvert Grill in Alexandria. Now retired from the refrigeration business, he helped put in the freezer in 1976. Henry Kulesza has been a regular at the bar for "20 some-odd years." The exact number wasn't important, only that fact that he was a regular. He paused a moment and then glanced over the table to an older man sipping a beer. "My brother built the freezer I keep my hot dogs in," referring to the cooler in the kitchen. Philip Abraham, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., spoke of the family tradition associated with the business. But then you have no business being there." "You could sit at a table with strangers and by the end of the night be friends," said Mollie Abraham. Only those who are relaxed and polite can fully enjoy the bar. ![]() "I may fix up a few things - windows, I put in a new floor - but I don't want to change the atmosphere," Philip Abraham said, looking at the paneled walls covered with trophies and t-shirts. Over the years only minor changes to the structure have taken place, leaving the front of the pub nearly identical to its original architecture. The Abrahams now own the land with the building. The business portion was again sold, this time in 1960 to Mike Abraham in 1960, who renamed it, what wife Mollie said was only appropriate, The Vienna Inn. The Reeveses turned the business into a bar named Freddy's Cafe, and ran it for five years. In the mid-1950s the business was purchased by Fred and Madalin Reeves, with Coppock, now 90 and living in D.C., still holding ownership of the land. It was later purchased by Mildred Coppock, who kept it running as a luncheonette and drug store, also selling candy and gifts. Feeser opened an ice cream parlor in the front room of their house on 120 Maple Avenue. The Vienna Inn has a long history in town. He and his wife Marie have two sons, Thomas, 3, and Jonathan, 20 months, whom they occasionally bring into the kitchen and allow to help out any way they can. "A lot of these guys were at my bar mitzvah," said Abraham with a laugh. "Regulars" are more prominent than one-stop shoppers. What makes the pub special is its patrons. ![]() "I don't want to cater to people only once a year," said Abraham.
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