On Dec. 30, 1953, the Witzke brothers’ Town House Supper Club in downtown Rochester and its off-sale liquor store located next door were destroyed in a spectacular fire.
Shortly after the club’s remnants had been cleared away, the empty lot got the attention of Milton and Sam Golob.
Sam Golob had been in the men’s retail clothing business in Rochester for 27 years when his son Milton mustered out of the Army. Milton was in search of a business of his own.
In 1952, the Golobs bought a liquor store from Robert Kennedy. Bob’s Liquors had been successful at its Fourth Street SW location for many years, but it suffered from a lack of parking.
That was not the case at 17 Second St. SE after the Golobs built a new store that featured plenty of off-street free parking. Customers could just drive in as the name implied, Bob’s Drive-In Liquor Store.
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“Lens on History” is a weekly photo feature by Lee Hilgendorf, a volunteer at the History Center of Olmsted County.
