One year after Reg and Louise Dlouhy bought the Arlington Hotel in Maryfield in 1976, they opened the first steak pit in Saskatchewan. It proved to be a major attraction for the town, which is located between Moosomin and the Manitoba border in the southeastern part of the province.
The Dlouhys had spent the 1950s and ‘60s on the road, touring with the Regina-based band, Gene Dlouhy and His Swingin’ Canadians. “I think it was the travelling we did, and our association with supper clubs that gave us the necessary insight into the business,” Reg told the Regina Leader-Postin July 1978. “We have seen some beautiful places, and we have taken the best of all of them and tried to mold it into our own district.”
That same month, the Dlouhys served their 5,000th steak in the eight months since they opened the steak pit. Customers could pick and cook their own steaks on a grill. The kitchen provided salad, potatoes and bread to accompany the steak.
Built in 1906, the three-story Arlington Hotel on the corner of Main Street and Assiniboine Avenue in Maryfield, featured an attractive front porch and second-floor balcony. The hotel had a ballroom, a dining room, and, of course, a bar.
Over the years, the owners of Maryfield’s Arlington Hotel did their best to make their guests comfortable. The bar was particularly hospitable. In 1910, Oluf Olson was fined $50 plus court costs for keeping the bar open after hours. When Prohibition began on July 1, 1915, the hotel managed to stay open for business under the ownership of James Anderson. All the beautiful fixtures in the barroom – the gleaming brass and the long, polished wood bar, were removed and replaced by a poolroom. In 1919, under John Dodds’ watch, the thirsty traveller was able to satisfy his wants at the Arlington. The town’s local history reports, “Mr. Dodds … was caught on at least two occasions by a [provincial] liquor inspector and paid the appropriate fines for his indiscretion.”
John James (J. J.) Harris and his wife Florence owned and operated the Arlington Hotel from 1922 to 1944. In 1935, when the Saskatchewan government finally permitted the sale of beer by the glass, Harris applied for a liquor license. A “local option vote” was held in Maryfield and the vote passed by a margin of only six votes – 79 to 73. The Arlington Hotel was able to serve beer once again.
One evening in late February 1945, Falmer and Louise Skallerup were preparing dinner for the Arlington’s guests. They had purchased the hotel in 1944 and were run off their feet. It was the first day of the biggest men’s curling bonspiel that Maryfield had ever hosted, and the hotel was full. At about 4:30 p.m., a fire broke out in the kitchen. Thanks to Mrs. Skallerup, all the hotel occupants were alerted and got out of the building safely – just as the fire swept up the stairwell, engulfing the entire building in flames. Firemen from Moosomin 30 miles away raced their pumper truck to Maryfield where townspeople had formed a bucket brigade to try to save the hotel but by the time they arrived, the building was destroyed. Despite the disaster, the men’s bonspiel went ahead, with the curlers accommodated in a temporary dormitory set up at the Maryfield auditorium.
The Arlington Hotel was rebuilt a year after the fire and still stands in Maryfield today. Chilly's Pub & Steak Pit in the hotel still features cook-your-own steaks accompanied by salad, garlic bread and baked potato. Apparently, the chicken wings and ribs are also very good.
