Scott Robey
If the retail mantra “location, location, location”
is true, then the story of Miller’s Restaurant is an incongruous one.
When James L. Miller and his wife, Mary Ellen, purchased a grimy beer joint
that was fraught with rats, cockroaches and assorted local derelicts their dream
was modest. They just wanted to clean the place up and turn into a nice little
family restaurant. Tucked away in the cornfields of Clinton County, Indiana
the only thing close to the town of Colfax was the ground.
After cleaning up what became Miller’s Restaurant and
having their destiny altered due to a visit by the Indiana Department of the
Treasury, the Millers launched a menu that created a craving that lured over
5,000,000 people to Colfax during their ownership of the business. That the
primary attraction was fried catfish and onion rings is itself illogical but
attract people they did. From the rich and famous to the farmers and factory
workers of the surrounding area, Miller’s became a dining establishment
where the wait for a table could last up to two hours. Yet, people were willing
to endure the wait to satisfy their cravings. Cravings so intense that some
were unwilling to evacuate the restaurant during a 1980 fire until they were
served their food.
Fish Story: The Millers of Colfax is the story of
how the Miller families worked to make their dreams come true and how they endeared
themselves to legions of loyal customers. The story is complete; from the moment
Mary Ellen Miller watched an attempted murder occur outside the business her
husband had just purchased, to the sale of the restaurant to outside interests
in 1995, to the destruction of the property in December 2000 at the hands of
an arsonist.
Fish Story: The Millers of Colfax is about people.
The Miller family, its cadre of loyal and hard working employees, the residents
of Colfax, Indiana and the tens of thousands of customers who frequented Miller’s.
It’s a story about building a business in a small town that may never
be repeated, but it is a story that could be used as a blueprint for those willing
to make the attempt.
Scott Robey is a native of Colfax, Indiana. He has spent
most of his professional career in advertising and public relations writing
ads, radio and television commercials and feature stories, attempting to make
his clients appear better than they actually were. He has worked as an independent
marketing services consultant since 1996.
As was the case with many teenage boys growing up in Colfax,
Robey once worked as a bus boy at Miller’s Restaurant and has been a close
friend of the Miller family for nearly fifty years. He lives in Lafayette, Indiana
with his beautiful wife of thirty-four years, Susan.
Introduction
The catfish is a plenty good enough fish for anyone.
—Mark Twain
A man ambled along Colfax’s Oakland Street toward the center of town.
He needn’t be closer than two blocks from view for anyone to know who
was approaching in the late afternoon sunlight. A powerful hulk of a man—always
walking with his shoulders hunched slightly forward, he was dressed in a bright
white uniform so heavily starched one wondered how the man could move at all.
But it was the uniform he’d worn almost every afternoon for nearly fifty
years. Most afternoons he walked at a brisk pace, an energetic gait of someone
who was about to go on stage to perform—and most who knew him considered him
a virtuoso performer. But this late afternoon of April 15, 1995, his stride
was shorter, slower. He had tried for days to not dwell on this afternoon’s
stroll—the last he would ever take as the owner of Miller’s Restaurant.
James L. Miller and his son and co-owner, Mike, had made the decision that
their business of nearly fifty years should be sold. This afternoon was the
beginning of the last day the Miller family was to own a business that had
defined their lives and the reputation of the small farm town of Colfax, Indiana.
It was a difficult decision, but one that had to be made. Even when the details
of the sale were being worked out, it didn’t really register that this
last walk would be only a few weeks away. James L. Miller paused in front of
Wright’s Hardware Store at the corner of Oakland and Franklin to peer
across the street and take one last panoramic view of his business—a business
that would belong to someone else on Monday.
It took only seconds to distill the memories that had accumulated since the
late October evening in 1946 when he first showed his young wife, Mary Ellen,
what was to be their new livelihood. He allowed a faint smile to spread across
his face when he remembered her reaction to the smoke-filled beer hall and
the shocking event that had unfolded as they pulled up to the side of the building.
Yet, just as she had done in the first years of their marriage, she followed
him toward his dream—a dream that came true in the little town of Colfax.
The town of Colfax, Indiana has a land area of one-third square mile, about
two hundred and twelve acres. It has never been populated by more than 850 citizens
at any time in its history. For those wondering what Colfax might be close to,
the answer is simple: the only place it’s close to is the ground. The
state capitol of Indianapolis is forty miles away (as the crow flies) and Lafayette
is nearly twenty miles to the northwest. If the retail mantra of “location,
location, location” is true, then the story of Miller’s Restaurant
becomes quite implausible.
The story of Miller’s begins in 1946 when a young man took the plunge
and bought a business that had, for the most part, been nothing more than a
raucous beer joint that would have fit comfortably in a scene from the Old
West. Through a combination of talent, excruciating hard work, experimentation,
and some luck, Miller’s grew to become one of the most famous dining establishments
in the history of Indiana. What follows is the story of Miller’s Restaurant
and how it built its reputation throughout the United States and several foreign
countries. While there are a number of restaurants throughout Indiana that have
enjoyed widespread recognition in Indiana and the Midwest, few can claim the
nationwide reputation that Miller’s built during its nearly fifty years
of ownership by the Miller family of Colfax.
The story of Miller’s Fish Suppers is more than just a story of good
food and service; it’s a story of a community—a community that was, early
on, uncertain it wanted this young couple and, what was then, their tavern.
Not many years passed before the community discovered it was becoming as famous
as the fish suppers being served at the corner of Railroad and Oakland streets.
Most small towns spend their days in quiet obscurity. Colfax was far from obscure.
In the period spanning from October 1946 to April 1995, nearly five million
people found their way to Colfax and over fifteen million catfish sacrificed
their lives to satisfy the cravings of those who made the trip. This fish story
is, in the parlance of the town liar’s bench, a real “whopper”.
The only difference is—this “whopper” is true.
