Picture Enfield - Then and Now

ENFIELD, CT — Today's installment of this weekly Enfield history series, courtesy of the Facebook group Picture Enfield, features a 1970s photo of Duke's Restaurant, located at 37 Pleasant Street in Thompsonville.

Though listed as a restaurant, the place was much better known for libations than lunch, according to the recollection of a former customer and as evidenced by the Seagram's 7 sign on the front of the building. Prior to Duke's, Sullivan's Bar had operated at the location.

The property fell into terrible disrepair and was boarded up for a number of years, but in the early 2010s, an amazing transformation began which has resulted in one of Enfield's "hidden gems": Mark's Restaurant.

Mark Dion (AKA "the guy that drives the red pickup truck") renovated the building and opened the restaurant on Oct. 24, 2016. Customers can enjoy breakfast all day (as my daughter and I did last night), and Kim, Tanya and the gang provide wonderful home cooking and friendly service which is hard to find these days.

Here is how the building looked a few years ago, and the remarkable shine it sports today:

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's Enfield trivia question was, "Annually, the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame awards a pair of $1,000 scholarships to deserving senior student-athletes from Enfield High School; prior to the high school consolidation, the committee awarded one each to an Enfield and a Fermi graduate, plus the Amy Romano Memorial Scholarship. In order to be eligible for consideration for election to the Hall of Fame, a candidate must be out of high school for at least 15 years. To date, who is the only former scholarship winner to be elected to the Hall of Fame?" No one guessed the correct answer, which would have required clicking on the Hall of Fame link provided within the question and looking it up (unless you're Janice, who would have known had she read the column last week). The answer: Tammie Repass (now Tammie Mangold), who as a senior at Fermi in 1999 was awarded a scholarship (it was just $500 at that time), and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014 following an outstanding high school and college swimming career. Here is a photo of Tammie with her fellow inductees at the 19th annual dinner.

This week's trivia question:
The shopping center at 25 Hazard Avenue is currently named Enfield Commons. By what name was it known when it was first constructed in the late 1960s? Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.

Photo credits: Duke's courtesy of Picture Enfield; 37 Pleasant Street exteriors courtesy of Mark's Restaurant; Mark's interior by Tim Jensen; 2014 induction class courtesy of Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame

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