Gables had rich history

Max Wildman has been in the restaurant business for 30 years, running such Bloomington establishments as Gold Rush, The Big Wheel and Mustard's.\nBut he decided to throw in the towel in the early 1990s, opening a car wash instead.\nWhile Wildman made good money, something was missing.\nWhen the opportunity presented itself to buy the long-vacated space at 114 S. Indiana St., he didn't hesitate. For years, he had wanted to run a coffee shop, a place where students and locals could relax.\nBut the location just off campus reminded him of The Gables Restaurant, a local landmark dating back to Hoagy Carmichael's days at IU. Now long closed, it was in the same spirit as his lifelong dream, a place where students went to socialize and listen to jazz. \nSo he met with the Poolitson family, who ran the Gables from 1932 to 1977, and they decided to give him the rights to the name. \nWildman decided to replicate the old restaurant as best he could.\nHis wife, Linda, scoured basements and attics for old photos. She hit every garage sale in town and took out loans from local historical archives. Soon, they had a vast collection of IU memorabilia from the restaurant's golden years. Prominent local figures such as Carmichael and John Mellencamp received photographic shrines.\n"It was hundreds upon hundreds of hours," Linda said. "I went out, getting donations and buying whatever I could. It was a lot of hard work, but we wanted it to be realistic."\nServing the same kind of made-from-scratch, homestyle meals as its predecessor, it was as if the Gables had been reborn.\nAlthough he was engrossed in running the restaurant, Wildman didn't give up on the coffee shop idea, buying an adjoining building and opening the Coffee Tree. Specializing in walk-out espressos, it wasn't quite what he had envisioned. \nThe dream died last Tuesday, when Wildman and his wife decided not to renew the lease.\n"We had four years of construction," Linda Wildman said. "It was one hurdle after another."\nLinda Wildman blamed the closing on the lengthy construction of the Carmichael Center and two consecutive summers of Kirkwood construction.\n"People just couldn't find anywhere to park," she said. "They had no reason to even bother going downtown to eat. Since it was the Gables, we couldn't just relocate out by the mall, where we'd have parking spaces."\nThe Wildmans said students didn't turn out to be the reliable customers as the Wildmans had expected. \n"It was either feast or famine," Linda Wildman said. "We'd be packed one week, and no one would come in the next."\nThe Gables is the latest downtown landmark to close.\nThe Von Lee Theater, 517 E. Kirkwood Ave., has rolled its final credits. Kerasotes, the chain that bought it from the Vonderschmitt family in 1976, shut its doors last May, citing declining profits and the summer construction. \nWhile the long-standing Book Corner, 100 N. Walnut St., isn't closed yet, it shouldn't be long. Margaret Taylor and her mother Barbara Spannuth, the store's owners, intend to sell their lease as soon as the find a suitable applicant. Taylor said she refuses to sell the space to "another restaurant."\nFor the moment, the Wildmans are focusing on tying up loose ends, such as paying off bills. All of the Gables' photos will be auctioned off Jan. 20.\nNow in their sixties, they know they're not going back into the restaurant business. \n"I don't know what I'll do," Linda Wildman said. "Maybe I'll go to Florida"