The Oak

11/28/2025

If you have pictures from a Christmas holiday party at The Oak you want to share leave them in the comments below.. 😍

06/19/2025

06/19/2025

Now that things are pretty and green thought I would share some pics of the Oak from the hayfield on “Hay Day”
May was a hectic month, it just flew and June is flying by as well!!
We think of so many of you and we miss you so much! However we are staying very busy.
Terry and Alexander still keep the mowing and w**d eating up. I’m sure you know it’s been a challenge this year to keep up with!!
The hayfield got cut the first week of June. I drove the Gator around in front of the tractor because we knew there was a fawn to watch out for and yes we came upon it a few times..it stayed til the very last bit was cut, finally that evening Momma showed up!! They are still here saw them this morning!
Hope that we might see you out and about sometime too!!❤️

05/12/2025

The early days at The Oak Supper Club
Polly Anne (Cooper) Bolinger and James P. Bolinger
*Fondly referred to as Heidi B & Mr B❤️

Mr Bolinger came to Pipestem, WV in 1970 as the very first General Manager of Pipestem State Park. Mr B came from Springfield, Illinois where he had been in the Hotel Business. He lived in and managed The Leland Hotel!! It was a very prestigious Hotel where he met and took care of many well known, famous people in the day!! People from around the world actually!!
His company was being bought out by a bigger hotel chain and he nearing retirement age with a college age daughter and son he had new opportunities of four or five other locations with this new company where he could relocate until his retirement. Some of the locations were in more well known places but Mr B had met Dorothy Drapper, the fine Interior Designer of The Greenbrier and was pleased to learn that Pipestem was so close to such a magnificent Resort in WV! He thought this must be a wonderful place to retire and live on a small ranch with horses. If you knew Mr B you knew he loved those horses!! So he chose to move to Pipestem WV!!
Mr B and Heidi B lived in Cabin #1 for about about a year and they loved Pipestem. Mr B had been inquiring with folks about the possibilities of any land available for purchase nearby.
He would of course like to be as close as possible to the Park and would like a small farm as both were in love with Arabian horses and already had one at the Park stable and planned on obtaining a couple more of the beautiful Arabians. So one evening at a Holiday cocktail party with some locals he was informed of a farm right across from Pipestem!! This little house was abandoned and had seen a party or two as the windows had been broken etc.
He knew it would be a lot of work but Mr B could just visualize it all .. his little “restaurant in the woods”… until he arrived and saw this huge Oak tree right behind this abandoned white lap sided farmhouse!! He then excitedly said “THE OAK”
Mr B had a dream of having his own place in his retirement and that was his plan.. find some property, start his own little Supper Club.. like he had done for so many years before but now serving in the unexpected way.. great food in an out of sight location! Not in the city or the park but off in the woods! It would be so intimate. It would be The Oak Supper Club because he would obtain one of the first ABC licenses in Summers County and he did so before the Park obtained one.. so a Supper Club back in the day signified cocktail service and that is how we became The Oak Supper Club in 1975!!
This is the beginning of The Oak Supper Club… will share more later friends!!
-BA🩵

How about that Heidi B and Mr B… They sure were a striking couple!!!
Wait til I find more pictures of them!!😎

05/08/2025

Friends and Family of The Oak!!!
We may be retired from the night to night work but we have not retired our love of The Oak. There is history on this page and our friendships are from near and far!!
This page and the people who have followed us and supported us even before social media are very important to us!! We miss you guys!! We loved being here for your Birthday, Proposal, Wedding, Anniversary, Graduation, Prom, Date night, Family Reunion or just because you wanted that favorite dish of yours!!!
So since it is May instead of just letting this space go.. we will start sharing memories of The Oak because we havent stopped loving this place and all the memories and joy it has brought for us and many others. As my old friend
Jim Bolinger would say.. It was truly a “Labor of Love”🩷

May is a special month for many reasons..
-The Oak Supper Club began May 1975
-May has always been the beginning of “the season” a busy month after a long winter..
for us it would start with
- Wedding Anniversary
5/4/91 @ The Oak
-Derby Day Party first Sat of May
-Mother’s Day
-Proms the first two weeks of May
-Graduations, High Schools & Colleges
-Memeorial Day weekend the kickoff of summer!!!

The first photos of memories are
The old house… which would become The Oak Supper Club and Mr”B” himself

Photo by
Jim Bollinger, original owner and founder of The Oak Supper Club
(Previous old Hopkins farm/house)

05/07/2025

Celebrating The Oak’s enduring legacy while embarking on a vibrant new chapter…
Retirement!🩷

02/01/2025

***CLOSED***
FIFTY YEARS of serving Summers County, Mercer County and beyond!!
1975-1998 James P. Bolinger
1998-2025 Beth Anne, Terry and Alexander Bailey

We would like take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to all of our loyal customers, friends and family for your continued support of our small family business. It has been a privilege and an honor to serve you and your families for nearly thirty years!
We have made so many friendships over the years, we value everyone of them. It has been wonderful!!
Our many employees, work families over the years have come and gone however many of them remain our family of friends.
This comes with heavy hearts, we just had such a wonderful year that it is a bitter sweet ending to a huge chapter in our lives as a family.
Due to family illnesses, we are currently retiring.
We truly appreciate and love everyone of you!!!
-The Baileys
Beth Anne, Terry & Alexander ❤️❤️❤️