Dooley's Ltd. Alexander Garvin Dooley was born in St. Louis on January 25, 1940. He entered the restaurant trade as a teenage busboy at Rigazzi’s on the Hill. In 1953, after graduating from Chaminade, he joined the Marine Corps. Returning home three years later, Dooley worked at Tony’s and the Mayfair Hotel. For two years, he managed the Playboy Club in Detroit, and back in St. Louis, he briefly managed the Playboy Club on Lindell. And then in 1968, at the age of 28, Alex Dooley opened his own place. Dooley opened his restaurant on the ground floor of the Chemical Building, at 308 North 8th Street, between Olive and Locust. He put plaid wallpaper and wooden crests on the wall, and hung chandeliers.
Dooley originally opened his restaurant
as Beef Eaters, with an Old English facade. When an agent for
Beefeater Gin dropped by to discuss copyright, Dooley put his own
name on the sign instead.
Dooley's started as a burger joint, and over
the years, the "Dooley Burger" became a staple of the downtown diet.
Customers ordered in a cafeteria line and watched their burger as it progressed from six ounces of
raw ground beef to a full-meal sandwich with toppings of their
choice. The result was a juicy and
tender burger, with good flavor, which filled the toasted sesame
seed bun. In 1975, TWA called the Dooley Burger the best in
the world.
In 1975, a Dooley Burger could be had for $1.20. Ten cents extra brought cheddar, blue or creamed onion cheese topping. By 1990, Dooley’s had grown into a full-sized lunch restaurant with a lengthy menu, including salads, club sandwiches, steaks, fried chicken and appetizers like crab Rangoon and toasted ravioli. The basic hamburger was now $3.45, with the first extra topping adding 30 cents and others available at 35 cents apiece. A menu favorite was Dooley's beer frank, a fat juicy hot dog, split in half and grilled so the edges were slightly blackened.
The rib eye sandwich featured a thin rib eye grilled to order, interspersed between slices of garlic-cheese bread.
The fish and chips sandwich offered battered fish wedged between slaw and tomato on a potato bun.
When time was important and privacy not,
Dooley’s was the perfect place for lunch. Food came rapidly, and
since customers carried their own trays past the condiment
counter and on to a table, there was little waste of time.
Chairs were available, but most seemed content to stand as they
ate their burgers from serving baskets. Those with more time sampled free popcorn or sat at
the bar, where full liquor service and draft beer were available.
Dooley's glory days were in the ’70s and ’80s. Customers lined up for 45 minutes to wrap their hands around one of Dooley's succulent burgers. But in the '90s, things were starting to change. Alex Dooley described "a creeping cancer" of emptiness moving eastward from Tucker Boulevard.
In 2006, the Chemical Building was acquired by Heisman Properties, a group of investors from Los Angeles. They planned to turn the historic skyscraper into a posh new condominium development. This should have been good news for Alex Dooley's eatery, but the new owners wanted Dooley's space for an underground parking garage.
Heisman Properties struck a deal with Dooley to pay off his $35,000 credit line and end his lease early so work could start on the condo project. After almost 40 years in business, Dooley’s Ltd. turned out its last Dooley Burger on March 17, 2008 – St. Patrick’s Day. There was hardly a place to stand as customers pushed their way through the crowded restaurant to give Alex Dooley a pat on the back or a hug.
In 2011, Dooley's son Sean opened Dooley’s Beef N Brew House at the corner of Grand and Washington, where Dooley Burgers were served until the restaurant closed in 2015.
Alex Dooley died on February 20, 2014 at the
age of 74. In his heyday as a downtown restaurateur and pub owner,
Dooley was second to none as a champion of the "little guy." He was
a tireless voice for small businesses, which he felt were overlooked
and abandoned by government and big business. He was always
battling. But through it all, when you walked in his door, no matter
who you were, he always greeted you with a smile.
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