Otto’s parties like it’s 1929

Women wore scalloped sequins, fringed flapper dresses and bead-and-feather headbands to a 1920s-themed party celebrating the 90th anniversary of Otto’s Seagrill on the Nautical Mile in Freeport on Aug. 16.

The restaurant’s parking lot was transformed into a speakeasy, offering the finest Prohibition-era libations, including old fashioneds and Manhattans. And no speakeasy would be complete without a live band — the Ink Spots, a rhythm-and-blues, rock and doo-wop group that had also performed at Otto’s’ 75th anniversary. Attendees danced the foxtrot and the Charleston.

As the party got into full swing, friends, family and elected officials rallied around the restaurant’s owners, Barbara Jagnow, 87, and her daughter, Ilona, 56. For many revelers, the celebration was a moment to remember the quality time they had spent with family at the eatery.

Freeporter Chris Doherty stood at the bar with his wife, Maryanne, and reminisced about coming to Otto’s for family meals when he was young. His parents were German and Irish, and Ilona Jagnow’s grandparents were German and Hungarian. At the restaurant, they connected over their cultural similarities and the food.

“I’ve been coming here since I was 5 years old,” Doherty said. “I knew [the Jagnows] very well. They’re our friends, and no matter what has ever gone on, regardless of the things that have happened, they keep persevering.”

Otto Koglin emigrated from Kaeselin, Germany, to New York City in the early 1920s, leaving a transatlantic ship on which he worked as a waiter. He decided, according to Ilona, his granddaughter, “to try to make his fortune in America.”

Koglin worked his way through the New York City restaurant scene, and when he wasn’t working, he spent evenings at local jazz bars and dances. That was where he met a Hungarian-American girl named Helen who was working as an au pair in New York City’s high society.

The two eventually married and settled in Freeport, which New Yorkers often referred to as a “summer hot spot,” known for the celebrities and socialites who came to visit regularly. In the Nautical Mile’s early days, it was called the Woodcleft Canal, and it was mostly inhabited by fishermen. The Koglins worked in restaurant concessions until they saved up enough money to buy the property at 271 Woodcleft Ave., where they eventually opened Otto’s Seagrill.

Otto and Helen’s only daughter, Barbara, grew up in the apartment above the restaurant. Her life has revolved around family and the eatery’s daily operations for as long as she can remember. Her classmates and lifelong friends Al Grover and John Mario Scopinich recalled seeing Barbara working around the restaurant while they stood across the street trying to catch her attention so they could hang out.

After Barbara graduated from Freeport High School in 1950, she attended Bryant College, now Bryant University, in Providence, R.I., where she studied accounting. She was one of the first members of her family to go to college. In a previous interview, she said she was excited to leave restaurant life for a while.

After she graduated from college, she moved back to Freeport. While her parents continued to manage the restaurant, she worked for department stores like Gertz, Abraham & Straus and Franklin Simon & Co.

In the mid-1950s, Arnim Jagnow came from Hanover, Germany, to Freeport to work at Otto’s as a waiter. He and Barbara instantly connected, and they married in 1955. Seven years later, their only daughter, Ilona, was born. Arnim eventually opened a butcher shop in the village, and often helped his in-laws with the restaurant. When Barbara’s parents died, Arnim helped her take over the restaurant’s daily operations. The Jagnows also raised Ilona in the restaurant, as Barbara’s parents had raised her. Arnim died shortly after Hurricane Sandy.

Ilona took over the family business 19 years ago, although Barbara still has a hand in it. For Ilona, preserving her family’s restaurant legacy is most important.

“We have given our heart to our restaurant,” she said. “It’s a part of Freeport.”