Here's the pitch:
What does the Pink Pony restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ have in common with Duff Tweed?
Swing, hit and it's a home run! This truly is a home run.
So often we attribute names and hunches to the pieces Duff has carved unless they are noted on the back of his carvings.
The Pink Pony: Yesterday and Today
The Pink Pony Steakhouse in Old Town Scottsdale is still welcoming spring training fans and hungry people world wide into what Sports Illustrated called, "the most famous baseball bar in the civilized world". " When Charlie bought it back in 50', Dizzy Dean was a good friend", says Gwen Briley, Charlie's wife of 30 odd years, and the proprietress of the Pony since Charlie's passing in 2002. " Pretty soon, all of Dizzy's baseball buddies were hangin' out. Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Joe DiMaggio,Roger Hornsby, Willie Mays. You name em' & they were here." Billy Martin promised Charlie never to fight in the Pony, or at least start one.They still tell the story of the night Five Hall of Famers, Mantle, Lemmon, Mathews, Boudreau, and Banks were all in having dinner. Players were traded; league commissioners would gather, Gene Autry had his own booth, called the Millionaires Booth. It still remains the most requested spot in the house. When you enter the Pink Pony, you literally walk into history. Home plate from the original Scottsdale Stadium hangs on the wall. Charlie, and a few friends, put up the money, and the land to build it, then donated it to the City. He bought the first Ambulance for Scottsdale. He was quite the character. And that Character lives on. Little has changed. Little has to. The Pink Pony was named a Historical Landmark in 2004. The other reason to come to the Pink Pony Steakhouse is that it features a large menu including Prime Rib, Chicken, Fish, Pasta, Chops, Lobster - you name it. Prices range from $12. to $60. Great cocktails and a Fine Wine list. Ask the bartender about the famous bat collection behind the bar.
Scottsdale's oldest restaurant, the Pink Pony, closes August 2009
Gwen spent half of her life in the Scottsdale
A lot of the old-school baseball guys who used to visit, from Dizzy Dean to Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin, are long gone. Charlie died in 2002.
A lot of the old-school baseball guys who used to visit, from Dizzy Dean to Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin, are long gone. Charlie died in 2002.
Charlie Briley, owner of the Pink Pony restaurant, and Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean
Charlie Briley with Carl Yastrzemski at Fenway Park
Gwen, 76, carried on the tradition with her son, bartender "Downtown" Kenny Brown, and her husband of three years, entertainer Steve York. But the world, and baseball, have changed.
Baseball is big business. Places like the Pony seem like relics in an age of $100 million spring-training complexes.
"The players don't come in anymore," Gwen said. "They go to the yuppie places."
Battered by the recession and an especially slow summer, she closed the Pony a week ago and put the building up for sale.
"At our grand finale, the whole place was crying, crying and drinking," Gwen said.
Scores of big-name Valley restaurants have taken it on the chin in the deep economic slump. But the Pony's demise stands out because of its longevity and its place in the history of Cactus League baseball.
Charlie Briley and the Pink Pony, which was Scottsdale
Briley's baseball connections started in the 1940s with Del Webb, a New York Yankees owner, who went on to build Sun City .
"Dizzy Dean used to go quail hunting with Charlie all the time," Gwen said. "Dizzy got all the baseball guys to come into the Pony."
Claudia Ogden, with some investment money from Webb, opened the Pink Pony in 1949, according to a Scottsdale Historic Register report on the restaurant. Ogden
Charlie was the Pony's first bartender. He bought it from Ogden
Ponying up
In 1955, Charlie and other Scottsdale
"He was absolutely one of the select few people responsible for spring training in Arizona and what it's grown into," said Don Carson, owner of Don & Charlie's, another Scottsdale
Mickey Morabito, the Oakland Athletics traveling secretary, called it the end of an era: "Places like that aren't opening up anymore." On his first Arizona
Dark bar, 9 stools
The Pony was a dark bar, an icy martini and good steak.
Framed jerseys, photos and cartoon caricatures of baseball greats fill the walls. There are 19 black booths, nine barstools and a copper moonshine still that Briley got from a judge in his native state of Kentucky
On the back bar is a collection of Louisville Slugger bats signed by players on every World Series team from 1972 to 1997.
Some of the cartoons, drawn by Disney artist Don Barkley, have been given either to the people who posed for them or to their families, Gwen said.
The rest of the Pony's baseball collection, including home plate from the original Scottsdale Stadium, will be appraised and sold.
The 8,242-square-foot restaurant has been valued at $3.25 million. Gwen said she has talked to potential buyers and hopes someone will step up to the plate to take over the restaurant and possibly operate it as the Pink Pony.
In the meantime, the Pony's 35 employees are out of work. That includes longtime chefs Silvio and Alberto Flores, who are brothers, and Jesus Perez, a busboy for the past 16 years.
Gwen said she is sad to give it all up, even though it's been a struggle in recent years.
"Charlie told me he was going to make me a lady of leisure when he married me," she said.
"I never worked so damn hard in my life." But it has had its rewards. "It's been a blast," she said.
"I never worked so damn hard in my life." But it has had its rewards. "It's been a blast," she said.
"I'm grateful for every moment I've spent here."
Whether the carving is actually called Double Jigger Jack Grant or Charlie Briley is of no consequence. This is a worthwhile story with some nice baseball and a little Disney history too! This restaurant represents the time, the era and the feel of what life was like 50 years ago. It also tells us Duff spent some time in Arizona as the Slaughterhouse Four band also originated out of Mesa, Arizona.
Slaughterhouse Four carvings by Duff Tweed
Just wanted to add one more picture of Charlie along with two of his Rotary counterparts. Combined they represented 120 years of "service above self" for the Rotary Club. Impressive!
Ralston Pond - Dwight Thomas - Charlie Briley
Charlie was quite a guy and I would not be surprised one bit if Duff had decided to make a caricature carving of him.
We found all this to be quite interesting. We hope you enjoyed it too!
Until next time, keep your eyes open for those hidden Duffy treasures. They're there, you just have to be paying attention.
All the best!
-Joe
