Pine Grove Inn's 'Legal Beverages' sign is a mystery
Whenever I drive down Route 5 into Batavia, I pass by the Pine Grove Inn, which always looks like an inviting roadside bar and grill.
But I've long been perplexed by the "Legal Beverages" on the sign.
I stopped in for a beer late this afternoon and chatted with owner Michele Klees.
She's friendly and quite willing to talk, but she doesn't know much about the sign either. It was there when she bought the place 10 years ago.
As far as she knows, the location has always been a bar, but she's heard that long, long ago, it was a filling station.
I'm far from the first person to stop and take a picture of the sign, she said. It generates a lot of curiosity from Route 5 travelers, but she's never been able to find anybody who can explain the history of it.
Apparently, such notification was required by the state of New York, but I didn't turn up any history in a quick Google search.
Anybody know anything about the sign?
One other curiosity about the Pine Grove Inn -- there are darn few pine trees around the location. A friend of Michele's told me there was once a grove of pines there, but disease took all but one of them.
The bar, beautifully handcrafted by the man mentioned above and another friend of Michele's, is made of a thick piece of pine. I think I'll stop in there again some time. It was a friendly visit.
