WHY A "P"?
It was 1973. Nixon had the White House, Dallas had (for the first time since Prohibition) open bars, and Tom Garrison had a vision: a hangout for nonconformists?a bar with real food?a place where people meet to talk?where guys and gals feel comfortable just hanging by themselves, reading or relaxing, sipping something comforting.
In a city mad for cutesy singles bars and theme restaurants, do what no one else dares: have no theme.
In a city where developers gleefully bulldoze art deco landmarks to erect neo-Disney schlock, move into an old building and change next to nothing.
Amazingly, Garrison found four other eccentrics willing to back him. The five of us leased a World War I era drugstore on Maple Avenue, across from the Stoneleigh Terrace Hotel, and began doing what needed to be done to sell food and drink.
We left the old drugstore cabinets and fixtures just as they were, turning the soda counter into a bar. We intended to operate under the drugstore's original name, The Stoneleigh Pharmacy.
Then, days before our planned opening, evil bureaucrats struck. Citing an ancient law requiring "pharmacies" to have to have a licensed pharmacist on duty, the bureaucrats refused to process the final paperwork.
What was to be done? Redoing all our paperwork and re-filing with all the government agencies would take weeks. Sending Garrison back to school for a pharmacology degree would take even longer.
"Not to worry," said our lawyer, "I've got the solution right here." And pulling a very small bottle out of his briefcase, he painted white-out over "harmacy" on every page of the official forms. The bureaucrats, realizing they were defeated, accepted the papers and slunk away. And so in April, 1973, we opened The Stoneleigh P.
Pros: Most items on the sunday menu are around $6.00! Specials all the time too!
Cons: a little hard to find, but worth it.
Posted 12/10/07