Local History Book Club

A Bar in Toledo by Dominic Vaiana

Good conversation, friendly faces and great books - that's what book club is all about. We're looking forward to seeing you at our lively and engaging book discussion.

A Bar in Toledo: the Untold Story of Mafia Front Man and a Grammy-winning Song by Dominic Vaiana

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When Duane Abbajay took over his brother’s bankrupt nightclub in 1962, he promised his wife it would be a quick turnaround to protect his family’s name. Instead, he became the face of a bar that transformed Toledo's entertainment scene and inspired a Grammy-winning country song-all under the thumb of a trigger-happy mafia boss. Informed by interviews with crime historians, bartenders, and bargoers and corroborated by FBI reports, this Rust Belt psychodrama offers a new perspective into the worlds of organized crime and the music business, which were closely entwined. Emotional, theatrical, and dripping with nostalgia, "A Bar in Toledo" is a love letter to the golden age of American music-and the dark underworld that made it all possible.