'Waterfall' Holds Many Memories For Owner Who's Leaving

The Ann Arbor News, Sunday, December 10,1972

At This Stage

By Norman Gibson

'Waterfall’ Holds Many Memories For Owner Who's Leaving

I couldn’t believe my shell pink ears when Jimmie Kales told me he was selling his sensational baby—Kales Waterfall Supper Club. And on the eve of their 10th anniversary at 2161 W. Stadiim, yet.

“That’s right, selling...” he was saying. I stared at the special Waterfall steak Kales had ordered from the kitchen presided over by Chef Constantine Kastanias. It was just yesterday—if January, 1962, can be called yesterday—that Kale was trying to get a liquor license from the City Council. It had to be a brave council which finally voted for the license and a food permit, with 200 west side residents protesting the unusual, to say the least, design. Architect James H. Livingston changed the design three times. It no longer looked so much like an abstract octupus or whale, although the cave interior with its 35 foot waterfall remains the same to this day.

I tuned in again to Kales, who likes being host better than anything, even money.

“I planned to have my only son take over,’’ Kales said. But Kales wants his son to do what he likes best and Alex Kales and his wife Teddie are teaching in Monroe. A runner at Ann Arbor Pioneer High, Alex also is track coach. Alex often played the piano at the Waterfall.

“Mrs. Kales doesn’t even want me to give up this place, Kales said. “It’s become a landmark. Everybody asks, ‘Why do you want to sell?’ But I’ve got my place, Pier 23, at Whitmore Lake. We’ve just enlarged and remodeled it. There won’t be any entertainment or liquor, so we’ll concentrate on meals.”

Kales opened Pier 23 in 1967. He moved into an apartment over it last month.

“The couple who runs Lim’s of Farmington are the buyers,” he said. “They’ll take over about the third week of this month. They’ll serve Oriental and American food. I don’t know what they plan to do about entertainment. I have contracts through the 30th. I think they plan to bring in someone for New Year’s Eve.”

Tony and Carolyn, who are the last entertainment Kales have hired for the Waterfall, showed up shortly.

With just Pier 23 to concern him, the remarkable Kales plans to get back into some of the service clubs he has been ignoring for the past 10 years, because the Waterfall took 19 hours a day of his time. Kales is used to getting only 4 1/2 hours sleep, usually not getting to bed before 4:30 a.m. and waking by 9.

“It’s not the number of hours, but when you can get away,” he says. In the past 10 years, he says he has been able to get away only about nine days a year. Last year was an exception when the Kales went to Europe for three weeks.

‘‘The atmosphere helps keep me on my feet,” he said. “You become accustomed to long hours. I felt at home here. My entire social life is wrapped up here. Many customers become personal friends, and this is what I’m going to miss most. I got to know a lot of nice people personally.”

A native of Wisconsin, he studied political science at the University of Wisconsin, where he always had a meal job. After graduation, he went in the Army, where he taught field artillery and thought of taking pre-law. Back home, he worked in a personnel office and was assistant manager in a clothing store. In 1947, he took the advice of a couple he knew in Wisconsin and moved to Detroit. He bought a bankrupt restaurant and operated Linday’s on Second Blvd. for four years. However, he didn’t care much for Detroit and liked Ann Arbor the first time he came here.

Although Kales drinks only infrequently, the design for the Waterfall evolved over “a couple of martinis” with architect James H. Livingston.

Kales wanted something different. He tried to get away from the conventional square corners ceilings. The first plan was an abstract plastic form, similar to a dinosaur at rest.

All the controversy brought a big crowd when the restaurant finally was opened. The cook on duty froze at the controls and one guy complained he got drunk while waiting in line for a table.

Actually, when he first came to town, he operated a bar in town, but it has degenerated so much, Kales doesn’t want the name mentioned.

When they were in town, visitors from France and Andy Devine, Julie Wilson, Tom Harmon, Duffy Daugherty, and Bennie Oosterbaan came to the new Waterfall. It later became the first establishment in the history of Ann Arbor to have dancing. Kales brought in talent from Detroit and for a week had the famed Billy Maxted.

Some of his employes will go to Whitmore Lake with him; others will stay at the Waterfall. Ginny Galindo and Lavada Jarred, assistant bar maid for seven years, will go with him. Barbara Lipps, who has been a waitress for nine years, will manager the Whitmore Lake dining room.

"It’s been a great satisfaction,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate. It’s going to be easier to get away at Whitmore Lake because there is no liquor. You have to stay on the job where liquor is served, because it is hard to tell a girl of 17 from one of 21. But in 22 years of dealing with it, I never have had a violation.

Kales took up golf and skiing three years ago. He was an active member of the Toastmasters, Optimists and Masons before building the Waterfall, and he may return to these as well as bowling.

“After a while, you forget the money,” he said, “and you look at the people and make sure they like the service.”

As well as "the kids” who came from as far as Port Huron and Saginaw, Kales remembers the loud squeal of a girl who got her engagement ring in an ice cube in a champagne glass. Of course, he remembers the guest part in honor of his son and his new wife, Teddie, when they returned from a three-month honeymoon.

When Alex just was beginning to entertain at the club, a band director joked, “Did you have to build a night club so your son will learn to entertain?”

The Kales Families

Jimmie Kales (left) stands behind his daughter-in-law, Teddie, who is seated at the piano with her husband, Alex, who is in front of his mother.