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GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS  |  2020 – 2021 19 including his famous ribs — sandwiches and fried foods. When asked the secret to his culinary success in 1991, Mason told News reporter Amy Harper, “First, I enjoy people. You gotta do that to cook. That’s my life — people.” Village Variety For decades, cheap essen- tials could be found in the heart of downtown. Every- thing from penny candy to underwear to sewing materials was sold at Village Variety, which was in the space that now houses Cur- rent Cuisine and Dark Star Books and was open from about 1977 to 1996. I miss getting a sack full of penny candy, some issues of the ElfQuest comic and lots of vibrant colors of embroidery floss from their upstairs to make friendship bracelets. I can still picture the upstairs when I’m in Dark Star. And I can still remember the sugar rush biking home with a sack of candy swinging from my fist. —Sommer McGuire Prior to its incarnation as Village Variety, a similar “five and dime” store oper - ated at the same site for at least a decade. Then, in the late 1970s, Larry and Luella Acomb moved up from Cincinnati to buy the shop, turning it into Vil- lage Variety, an everything store that looms large in the memories of villagers. “It was like a local version of K-Mart,” recalls Sandy King, whose in-laws at the time ran the store. Cloth - ing, gardening supplies, toys and pretty much anything people needed was sold there. Many fondly remem- ber the upstairs, which had a wide selection of fabrics and sewing materials. And those who frequented the store as kids haven’t forgotten the candy section, which was the place to go after school. Carol’s Kitchen Simple food served in a homey environment describes Carol’s Kitchen, a popular lunch spot in the village in the 1980s and early 1990s. The vision of Carol and Bruce Cornett, the restaurant revolved around Carol’s breads and Bruce’s soups. I always loved Carol’s kitchen. The potato chips were awesome! —Tanya Ellenburg-Kimmet The couple opened it in 1984 in an old building that housed the town’s post office and now hosts Trail Town Brewing, and before that, William’s Eatery. With a few Hobart mixers and scales, they set up shop in Yellow Springs and decided to offer various “bars” — including a salad bar, sand- PHOTO: JULIE STEINHILBER Village Variety Store operated from the late ’70s to the late ‘90s and followed an earlier “five and dime” store at the site, which is now home to Current Cuisine and Dark Star Books. wich bar and fruit bar. Com- pleting those items were the soups, two 20-quart pots of them, made fresh each day, and served with a thick slice of bread. Bruce’s cheddar potato soup, Carol recently recalled, was “outrageously popular,” and her onion dill bread was legendary. “You could eat real well at Carol’s,” she said. Patrons could watch Carol prepare food on a huge butcher block in the dining room, eat on picnic tables in a plant-filled greenhouse they added to the building and enjoy good food and conversation. “The air was always full of baking smells and you could communi- cate with everyone,” Carol remembers. The couple sold the restaurant to Pam Moon in 1988, who ran it until 1995, when a national essay contest to find a buyer was unsuccessful. Molladoor “Trash with class.” That was the motto of the Molladoor, a secondhand shop filled with, well, everything, and which was a fixture in town for 30 years. A joint venture of Patti Maneri and Evelyn Sikes, the store was piled high with clothes, furniture, jewelry, clocks, lamps, home basics for Antioch College students and other treasures they purchased at auction. Sikes said the shop was defi - nitely not “neat and tidy.” “When people would ask me what I did for a living, I would say I ran a junk store,” she told the News recently. “It wasn’t just a classy sec- ondhand shop at all. It was a ‘have everything and lots of luck finding it’ store!’” Sikes and Maneri started out running separate shops, sometime in the early 1970s. Sikes’ The Blue Door, located in the building now occupied by Asanda Imports, was a consignment shop filled with local arts and crafts, such as Corinne Whitesell’s weav- ings, Pam Hogarty’s glass ornaments and art by local youth. Maneri’s Mollading on Dayton Street was a resale shop of items she bought at auction, Mol - lading being a “filler word” auctioneers used between bids. They joined forces, combined the names and the Molladoor was born. The two women bought lots at a Springfield auction a few times a week. “It was fun to go to the auctions, they are a real free show!” Sikes PHOTO: YS NEWS ARCHIVE Molladoor secondhand shop co-owners Patti Maneri, center, and Evelyn Sikes, right, in 1984.