Dohack's Anna Catherine Gangloff was born on September 11, 1880 in Kimmswick, Missouri. She married Joseph Dohack on June 29, 1897, when she was 16 years old. They had four children, including Arthur, born in 1899, and Ernest, born in 1901. Joseph Dohack was involved with the operation of the Kimmswick Hotel, along with his parents and his brother. In 1899, Catherine Dohack (who got married as Anna, but used the name Catherine, thereafter) took over management of the hotel restaurant. The Kimmswick Hotel provided food and lodging for riverboat crews making the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans. They would station someone on the roof to spot smoke spewing from the stacks of the paddlewheelers so they could adequately prepare for the boats' arrival. By 1910, the Dohack family had moved to St. Louis and were living in Carondelet Township. On the 1910 census, Joseph Dohack listed his occupation as blacksmith and by 1920 he worked at a chemical plant. However, by 1930, Dohack was in the restaurant business.
In June of 1923, Joseph and Catherine Dohack
built a small frame structure on the side of an unpaved
thoroughfare, at the intersection of highways 61 and 77 (Lemay Ferry
Road and Lindbergh) in Mehville. They were joined in their
endeavor by their sons, Arthur and Ernest. Initially called Mehville
Barbecue, the little sandwich stand served barbecued meats and fish.
It wasn't long before
the little frame stand was
replaced by a two-and-a-half-story building with dormers and Cyprus
log
siding. The first floor
contained a large dining room, bar and two kitchens. The second
floor was used for office and storage space. The rebuilt restaurant
also had a new name – Dohack's.
At the time, there weren't many places for working-class families to eat out, and the business flourished. Legend has it that the Dohack truck was the first to load up at Anheuser-Busch on the day Prohibition ended, with the restaurant drawing large crowds as it began pouring the brewery's drafts again. The name Dohack became a byword for good eating throughout the St. Louis area. The restaurant served barbecued rib, fish, ham, beef and hamburger sandwiches, plus lots more, and was the largest fish fryer in Missouri.
Joseph Dohack died in July of 1934 at the age of sixty. Catherine Dohack and her sons continued to operate their restaurant, which evolved into the 1950s with jukeboxes and curb service. On February 18, 1955, Dohack's was severely damaged by a fire which raged out of control for three and a half hours. Damage was estimated at $100,000. A temporary structure was erected, and construction of a new building commenced in April of 1957, the new restaurant opening in January of 1958.
The new building, 90 feet long by 42 feet deep, was a one-story fireproofed structure,
framed with steel and enclosed in red Norman brick, crab orchard
stone and thermo-insulating plate glass, all trimmed in aluminum.
Catherine Dohack died on November 22, 1960, at the age of eighty. Arthur and Ernest Dohack retired a few years later and turned the business over to Ernest's son, Richard. Dohack's was known for its homemade desserts and fried chicken. Another popular dish was their jack salmon. The dish was actually made with whiting, but when Dohack's called it "jack salmon" on its menu, the name became a tradition in St. Louis restaurants. Dinners at Dohack's were served with potatoes, sweet vinegar coleslaw and homemade hillbilly bran muffins. A 1976 menu offered a half friend chicken ($2.95), strip steak ($5.95), T-bone ($5.75), filet mignon ($4.95), barbecue ribs ($4.15 and $4.05), pork chops ($3.95), roast round of beef ($2.95), baked ham ($2.75), fried chicken livers ($1.95), jack salmon ($2.25), fried shrimp ($3.50) and fried fish ($2.45).
In 1977, a Dohack's operated restaurant called
Char's opened in Collinsville, Illinois, adjacent to Sonny and
Char's night club. Two more Dohack's locations opened in 1984, one
in Fairview Heights and one in Festus. By 1988, a Dohack's had
opened in North County on Dunn Road.
By 1993, Steve Dohack had joined his father Richard in the management of their Lemay Ferry Road restaurant. Richard's older son, Richard Jr., managed the Festus restaurant, the only other remaining Dohack's location. However, when in 1993 Richard Sr. retired at the age of 63, the family decided to close their landmark South County restaurant; the last meal was served on December 31. Steve Dohack said expanding government regulations and the prospect of a greater profit from sale of the property also figured in the decision to close, even though the business was still successful, serving more than 100,000 customers in its final year. In 2002, the Dohack's in Festus was closed to make space for an addition to the restaurant's more popular and younger cousin, Cisco's, which had opened next door in 1991. Fried chicken and jack salmon stayed on the menu, cooked "exactly like always," said Richard Dohack, Jr. "People ask me what my grandmother would say about taking down the name," Dohack said. "I know exactly what she would say. She'd say this is a family business, and you've got to do what you have to do to stay alive."
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