Robert “Bob” Labate, a founder of the former Amber Pub, a longtime Akron favorite in the Wallhaven area, died Saturday.
Mr. Labate, 87, died at his West Akron home with his wife, Jean, at his side. The two had been married 64 years.
Mr. Labate and Jean founded the restaurant, known for its friendly, low-key atmosphere. Tucked away on a side street, it nevertheless quickly gained a loyal following. Customers included politicians and rubber company executives.
Customers, employees and others benefited from Mr. Labate’s generous spirit, his family said.
“Not too many restaurant employers would give their [full-time] employees a paid vacation, said Margaret Labate-Naylor of Macedonia, one of Mr. Labate’s five daughters.
He would periodically give food to a nearby convent, and Labate-Naylor recalled that her father helped finance some of his employees’ car purchases.
“He was their first bank … he was a very generous man,” his wife, Jean, said.
Mr. Labate was an Akron native and the child of Italian immigrants. He graduated from North High School, where he met his future wife, Jean Niewiadomski.
After high school, Mr. Labate served in the U.S. Navy as a dental hygienist and technician, working in San Diego and Annapolis, Md.
He returned to Akron, married Jean and joined his father-in-law in his business, the former Maple Valley Tavern, in the early 1950s.
In 1968, the couple opened their own place, the Amber Pub, at 1485 Marion Ave., off West Market Street.
Jean said her husband worked to create a pub where customers felt at home and families as well as single women would feel safe.
“He made sure people could come in and relax,” she said. “He would escort women to their cars.”
The pub was a family affair with all five daughters working there at one time or another.
The Labates ran the Amber Pub until 1996, when they sold it to the owner of a nearby bed and breakfast, the O’Neil House.
The bed and breakfast owner, Gayle Johnson, closed the pub in late 2006 when her 10-year-lease was up and the Marion Avenue building was sold.
Mr. Labate recalled in a 1996 Beacon Journal story that the Amber Pub in its early days, was “really a political bar … [former Akron] Mayor [John] Ballard would come in all the time.
“One time when a prominent Republican was coming to town, they wanted to take him to the Portage Country Club [in West Akron], but Ballard said, ‘The Amber Pub is good enough for me; it’s good enough for him.’ ”
Ballard served as Akron mayor from 1965 to 1979.
It was not the only time the Amber Pub was compared to Portage. It was sometimes referred to as the Portage Country Club annex, with lots of attorneys and judges dining there, according to the 1996 article.
Mr. Labate is survived by his wife, Jean, and his five daughters, Jeannine Labate of Akron, Cathleen Labate of Louisiana, Brigette Sullivan of Carey, N.C., Barbara Leahy of Seattle and Margaret Labate-Naylor.
Calling hours for Mr. Labate will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Ciriello & Carr Funeral Home at 39 S. Miller Road in Fairlawn. Mass of Christian Burial will be 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Sebastian Parish at 476 Mull Ave. in West Akron.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com.