The Times from Munster, Indiana • 14

A-2 TIMES EXTRA Wednesday, JulvS. 1987 Politics takes back seat to good food -J if uvA Sf lemon butter sauce and also had a small Greek Salad. She was surprised at the size of the "small" Greek Salad. It was a good variety with a generous sprinkle of Feta cheese. The chicken had a sweet but also tangy taste.

Coffee and cheese cake topped with fresh strawberries rounded out our meal and we certainly felt like full members of the town council for just under $30. "Because we like people, we don't want to make everything too fancy and expensive. We want to attract all kinds of people so we are keeping quality up and making the prices more moderate," Mrs. Frankos said. The Town Hall Restaurant has been going strong since it opened March 23.

Chef Geroulis worked on the conversion with the architect and settled any differences by saying "But, you don't have to work in a kitchen." Having the design input, he now has a spacious kitchen out of the portion of the building that was once the town's fire house. He uses a simple bulletin board -setup. "I don't like to use ccmputers. They break down and the people could starve," Geroulis said. He does keep a daily routine for his specials so if you feast on the same day each week, you can order off the menu and still get your favorite.

But, the menu itself is so extensive that you can eat your way through it for many weeks without repeating a selection. Helen and Chris agree that the various fish entres average about 45 pounds a day. By RICHARD SHERMAN Time Correspondent Politics may be no picnic, but The Old Town Hall Restaurant makes one more unique dining place that gets my vote. I've dined in converted railroad stations in upstate New York, eaten family style in an old barn with the Arnish in Pennsylvania, an old barge in Florida, and even in the once "men only" real back room of Tamany Hall, where it is reported that seven U.S. presidents have been selected.

Now I've eaten in a town hall Old Town Hall Restaur rant Ridge Road and Calumet Avenue Munster, Ind. (219)836-0600 Open Seven Days a Week 6 a.m. to Midnight where I once paid a water bill. Deno and Helen Frankos and chef Chris Geroulis have converted their establishment from what was once a three-room public school and then a townhall (1914-1982). It's Minister's old town hall to be exact, and where there was once political wrangling, you won't find any hassles in this family eatery.

Jacob Munster sold the corner lot in 1875 for $30. Now you can get a very full meal for two for just about that. Of course, you can also get a -wsSfr nnnnm a 1 Peter Frankos behind the 1 sSSSiSB- A Art- full meal for much less. The Frankos moved to Munster in 1970 and the family with sons Jim and Pete juggle college and working in the restaurant. The Frankos also own the Hessville Restaurant on Kennedy Avenue in Hammond, but the idea and decor are quite different.

Deno has been in the business for 30 years beginning as a partner in Hot Dog Johns. There's a warm ambiance talking to Helen Frankos and while her sons Pete and Jim may move on from the restaurant business sometime after graduation, they are now committed to making the business a success. "We wanted to do something for Munster," Mrs. Frankos said. "I thought it would be more appropriate to use the local decor, so we have historical pictures from the town." -The restaurant caters to families and has many steady customers, drawing patrons from Illinois and from Valparaiso and Merrillville.

"While we have working people at our Hessville place, the same people dress up a little and come here for dinner," she said. "The specialities are changed every day. We have the main menu and we have specials," Mrs. Frankos said. Breakfast is served from the breakfast menu from 6 to 11 a.m.

Everything is available from the one egg and potatoes ($1.55) to the Town Hall delight of fresh strawberry crepes filled with sour cream and sprinkled with shaved coconut ($3.45) It's all ready for an early morning rush or a leisurely morning gambit. After eleven, the lunch and dinner Beryl Ann Brownell Times travel correspondent Fredericksburg, but there are several small, comfortable motels. The amazing thing is that more than 100 homes are open for bed and breakfast. Why do people come to the German community dating to the mid-1800s? "When we get lonesome for Indiana, this is where we come for and said Matt MacGregor, a transplant from Indianapolis who was wearing a Purdue T-shirt. He Times photos by Mary Anne Prashina part of the menu comes into its full glory along with numerous specials.

A full range of salads, sandwiches and ala carte meals run frcm $1.45 for Grilled Cheese sandwich to a full slab of Bar-B-Que Ribs The menu is both plain and fancy, and though there is a Greek orientation, the range of foods runs the entire dining spectrum. Surf or Turf as well as land and sea items, and Italian dishes make up the rest of the menu. Geroulis was trained in Chicago and said his specialty is "every thing, we speialize in everything." He's working on some new creations, but wasn't yet ready to reveal them. And, rounding out the family service is his wife, Effie, who teaches nursery school by day and moonlights at the Old Town Hall. A shared appetizer of Saganaki at $2.75 got us off to a flaming start, cooled with a couple of glasses of white wine.

The melted Saganaki tasted almost like a gooey cake. An ala carte bowl of lemon rice soup had that "stick to the ribs" heartiness. As main course, I selected the Special Skirt Steak Athenian Style with baked potato ($6.95) which comes with a small but generous Greek Salad and rolls and butter. The skirt steak made for the longest hemline I've ever had and the large oval plate hardly contained it. It was tender and succulent and I knew I was in for a full evening as I started in the middle and sliced my way to both ends.

It's an excellent value. My wife had the Grecian Style Chicken at $5.95 which is broiled in and his wife May and Lita and Mike Hoffmann work in Houston and drive to Fredericksburg for "a restful, fun weekend that won't cost us a whole paycheck. Besides, we feel comfortable here and welcome." The two couples were staying in a log cabin outside town, the accommodations arranged by the Chamber of Commerce. What were they going to do? For starters they were going to walk down the wide Main Street and browse in the many antique shops, book stores and boutiques. Then they were going to stop for some German food and perhaps a cold beer, and poke through the Pioneer Museum.

The afternoon might be at the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park of 200 acres, swimming in the Olympic-size pool, playing tennis, golf or Cbitnu bar (top) in the restaurant Fredericksburg the place to go for rest, relaxation couples sitting at benches along the ed if the State of Texas museum could be named after him, Admiral Nimitz agreed, but only if it be dedicated to the 2 million men and women who served with him in the Pacific War. It's like reliving the war years from a sound and light video presentation of "the nearly perfect" destroyer battle in the Pacific War the Battle of St. George to a walk by a downed Japanese "Val" dive bomber that attacked Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. This "Val" was given to the museum by Australians who recovered it at Gasmata, a Japanese air base on New Britain Island.

The Nimitz Historical Park which is just a few blocks from the museum is a walk-through of war memories as indicated by several There's more to Texas than Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Fredericksburg, a town of about 6,000, is to the Hill Country of Texas what Nashville is to Southern Indiana and Gatlinburg is to the Smokies of Tennessee. There is a difference, however. Fredericksburg is not a weekend vacation mecca with hordes of tourists spilling off buses. Visitors seem to blend into this town which is about 70 miles west of Austin and the same distance northwest of San Antonio.

Residents of Nashville and Gatlinburg usually leave, or at least hide, during the summer and fall tourist season a clue to the influx being the large number of hotels and motels. There isn't a hotel in walkway, the men explaining the war mementos. First are the three-inch deck guns from the mine-sweepers USS Hazard and USS Strategy, followed by anchors from the attack- destroyer USS Yokes. There is a U.S. Navy dive bomber, the SBD Dauntless used at the Battle of Midway; a Japanese Chi-ha Tank from Guadalcanal, and countless other items coming from the U.S.

government, the Japanese and Australian' governments- Mementos and relics from the Pacific War are welcome for the museum. For information write The Admiral Nimitz State Historical Park, P.O. Box 777, Fredericksburg, TX 78624. mm For people who eat Charcoal Briquets Subscribe to The TIMES now and get 60c off per veeh for your first 13 weeks (non-subscribers only) 69 Win Free Groceries Wlloo wUl be giving away TEH BAGS OF FREE 0R0CERIES at each Wlloo location. And that's good newel The free groceries are all part of the Wllco Store Brands Promotion going on this week.

Be sure to stop in, and sign up to Wlllll just watching the boats and fishermen on the 20-acre lake. The LBJ State and National Historical Park is 15 miles to the east and the Pedernales River which runs through the ranch also flows just south of Fredericksburg. The citizens raised the funds for the park, naming it in honor of Lady Bird "because of the former First Lady's efforts toward the beautifica-tion of the Hill Country of Texas." Another good reason for going to Fredericksburg is to visit the Admiral Nimitz State Historical Park and Museum of the Pacific War. Nimitz, who was born here, grew up at The Steamboat Hotel on Main Street which was owned by his grandparents. The hotel has been transformed into a three-floor museum.

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