Restaurant proprietor remembered

June 20, 2009 11:04 pm

— By Anne Hershewe
news@joplinglobe.com
The man who chose the small community of Alba as home for a five-star French restaurant, which attracted diners from across the United States, has died at age 78.
Max Givone, the founder of the Old Miners Inn, died on June 11 in Auburndale, Fla., according to family members who contacted the Globe.
Givone was born in Marseille, France, on June 15, 1930, to a large Sicilian family. He grew up in Marseille and attended school there until the start of World War II.
“He lived through the devastation of that period,” said Linda Givone in a phone interview last week.
Linda Givone said her husband became a mascot of sorts for the American troops during the war. He left home at the young age of 12 and traveled with them all the way to Germany. Because he could speak French and Italian, the Americans found him to be an asset, and after the war the troops helped him stow away on a vessel going to the U.S.
Givone arrived at Ellis Island and lived in the United States and Canada for a while before returning to France to learn culinary skills at Societe Autelier de France.
He returned to the United States after seven years of training and worked in California for 17 years, during which he met his wife, Linda. They eventually moved to Florida.
Givone worked at a hotel in Florida for a while before leaving for the Lake of the Ozarks to work at Lodge of the Four Seasons and Tan-Tar-A Resort in 1978.
“(Tan-Tar-A) thought he was over-qualified and they were talking about moving us to big cities,” said Linda Givone.
The couple, said Linda Givone, were reluctant to move their children to a large city. So when Linda’s brother visited them, he made a proposition: Buy his building in Alba and set up their own enterprise. Alba was Linda’s hometown and, at the time, had a population of about 450.
“I thought it was hilarious,” said Linda Givone. “I left Alba when I was 18 and I didn’t think I’d be going back.”
But they did return in 1979. Givone began renovations on the building, and the Old Miners Inn came to life.
“Max did all the work himself. It seemed like there wasn’t any challenge he couldn’t meet,” said his wife.
Knowing that the French cuisine was unfamiliar to residents of the small town, Linda Givone said her husband eased Southwest Missourians into loving the food. The menu grew gradually. By the time the restaurant reached its 10-year anniversary, it offered more than 100 intricate French food options.
“He loved it,” said Linda Givone. She added that he liked the small-town atmosphere and the challenge of creating a new type of restaurant for the area.
Though his cooking suggested otherwise, Givone insisted he was not a chef, but a cook, said Linda Givone. No matter what title he chose to bear, he earned renown and became Missouri Restaurateur of the Year in 1989 and was the president of the Joplin Southwest Chapter of the Missouri Restaurant Association in 1990.
Givone retired in 2001 at age 71 and handed over the 22-year-old business to his daughter, Shanen. He moved to Florida with his wife, and Shanen ran the restaurant until April 2007. By the time it closed, Old Miners Inn had been in operation for almost 30 years.
In addition to his wife, Max Givone is survived by six children.
Earlier stories from The Joplin Globe archives were used to compile this report.

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