Touching stories of friendship and good times at town’s oldest bar

Many of us have a favorite neighborhood bar we frequent often and where “everybody knows your name.” But do they all get to celebrate 80 years? "The Hot Dog Diaries" by Al Bonner and Jim Antonini is dedicated specifically to “everyone who has stepped through the front door of Gene’s Beer Garden” in Morgantown, West Virginia, over the past 80 years but will also be enjoyed by anyone anywhere who has spent time in a similar place in their own neighborhood.

Gene’s Place was originally opened in 1944 by the Perilli Family in the Greenmont neighborhood of Morgantown (home to West Virginia University) and on Feb. 1, 1985, ownership passed to Al Bonner who has owned it ever since. As Al tells it, “It was cold. It was snowing. It was a lonely place as I sat there with only two customers chatting back and forth. One said, ‘You picked a great day to buy a bar, Al!’ But shortly thereafter the front door opened and in walked Frank.”

Frank Perilli, who owned the bar up to that point, proceeded to talk to 28-year-old new owner Al for about an hour sharing his 41 years of knowledge about how to run the bar. “He genuinely wanted me to succeed, and he took it upon himself to give me every opportunity to do so.” And 39 years later, Al is still succeeding!

For the entire 80 years that Gene’s has been in existence, it has served as “a gathering place for the neighborhood and Morgantown community.” In its early days, it would open early in the morning to serve the coal miners after they got off their overnight shifts. During the time that the Perilli family owned the bar, there was a barber shop in the back where author Jim Antonini even got his hair cut as a boy (and it more recently reopened as “Gene’s Hair Garden”) and a bocce ball court. Later, pinball machines, a jukebox, pool...