So? Where, exactly, *WAS* Club 64?

So? Where, exactly, *WAS* Club 64?

(This is an update to Forgotten Cuisine II and references to Club 64 also appear HERE and HERE, among several other mentions in various items on this blog.)

Ya know, although I've lived in these parts continuously for over 30 years now, there's a lot about the area I don't know, or in many cases just don't remember or remember well. As I write these items, it becomes more and more obvious how much I do not know, or how much I have forgotten.

Such is the case with the recent Forgotten Cuisine II item, particularly regarding the location of Club 64.

I started writing the Forgotten II article in 2010, shortly after the popularity of the original hit me in the head like a ton of bricks! I remember that my first trip to photograph the site of Club 64 resulted in nothing, since nothing in the area looked remotely familiar to me as the site of Club 64.

I remember dining at Club 64 twice, but I'm sure I did not drive there on either occasion. I distinctly remember it as being north of the highway - I would bet the rent money on that! However I really could not place it.

I did find an address. I forget whether it was from an old phone book, an old newspaper ad, or a web search, but the address zoomed right in on the corner where the discount supermarket now lies. That's how I got that location.

Then the comments started coming in!

The site I had pegged as the Club 64 location was apparently a turkey farm back in the days. (Visions of a political candidate pardoning a turkey as a farmer mass-terminates birds in the background.) :)

In consulting with our Resident Expert of All Things Iowa ("BBTBABE"), she described the site as "Up the road a bit, on the right, just where it curves. That would place Club 64 about 1/4 of a mile to the north of the site I had identified.

As cited in a comment, the area is now a housing development known as "64 Estates", probably not coincidentally.
 

 Looking at the typography of the sign (above) and of the Club 64 logo, the connection is obvious!

Mystery solved!

However, there's one very persistent rumor about Club 64 that simply refuses to die! That is that the casinos killed Club 64. It's almost as if it's common knowledge that Club 64 (and Mr. C's, and the original Caniglia's, and Angie, and Marchio's ...) all closed because of the casinos.

Yes, the casinos have their fair share of detractors, and yes, casinos compete with stand-alone restaurants for disposable dollars, which have become more and more scarce as the Great Recession lingers on.

However, I think the casinos are unfairly blamed for several restaurant closures, including that of Club 64.

Rick G. of the Glasford family said it in a previous comment:

"We had to close down early in 1997 because the city of Council Bluffs closed the road to the restaurant for over a year and a half. it is hard to have a restaurant when the clients have to walk a mile to it."

Let's bury that rumor in the Chernobyl sarcophagus, shall we? :)