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Much like the establishment itself, former Vienna Inn owner Mollie Abraham, 83, is simultaneously gruff and endearing.

The Vienna Inn restaurant and bar will celebrate its 50-year anniversary in February and is every bit as much an iconic neighborhood watering hole as it was in 1960, when Abraham and her husband, Mike, took over what was then Freddy's Café from Freddy Reeves.

"It had character back then and nothing has changed," Abraham mused briefly -- between arguing politics with patrons -- during a recent visit back to the institution she ran for more than 40 years.

Current owner Marty Volk, 47, has been part of the restaurant for about as long, having first gone there as a six-year-old after football games. He took over in 2000, just after Mike Abraham died and the Abrahams' son, Philip, moved to Connecticut.

"We sold it to Marty because we knew he wouldn't change anything and he knew something of its history," Mollie Abraham said.

Ironically, the place did change a little under Abraham's tenure, according to Volk. "It used to be a little rougher and not too many women set foot in there," he said. "Today, it has more of a family atmosphere."

Abraham agreed.

Calling herself a "staunch, liberal feminist," she said she battled the "boys' club" reputation the neighborhood bar had in the early days. "I tried to make it a little more accessible to women, and not let men think they could 'make time' here if they were married," she said with a wink.

Today, the Vienna Inn attracts all kinds, said manager Katie Herron, 25, who has worked there for seven years. "You might see some corporate guys in suits at the bar along with blue-collar workers, and there might be a youth baseball team eating chili dogs with their coach across the room," she said.

Vienna native Ken "Huck" Baker, an HVAC technician, has frequented the restaurant for 45 of his 46 years. "I think there's a picture in here of Mike [Abraham] holding me up when I was a one-year-old," he said.

To newcomers, the Vienna Inn could easily make them believe they had traveled both geographically and chronologically to a steel town bar, circa 1939. The walls, saturated with the smell and color of smoke, are covered with old black-and-white photos, sports keepsakes and other oddities.

"We always welcomed roofers, bricklayers and other blue-collar guys," Abraham said. "Good guys who were a little loud, a little rough."

If the Inn's décor isn't enough to take you back decades, the prices might. "When I took over, both the chili dogs and the beers were $1.45 each," said Volk. "Today, they are still both under $2, before taxes."

The "fully loaded" chili dog with mustard, onions, chili and cheese is the Vienna Inn's claim to fame. "We sell 10,000 hot dogs a month," Volk said. "The delivery trucks have to show up very early just to be able to unload all those dogs before we open."

Tom and Llana Hatter have been coming to the Inn since 1963, just for those loaded chili dogs. "I have mine without onions," Tom said. "I like them, but they don't return the favor."

Part of the secret of the hot dogs isn't really a secret at all, Abraham said. "We used turkey hot dogs even before they were popular," she explained.

Then, of course, there is the beer. "In 1979, when the drinking age in Virginia was still 18, the Vienna Inn sold more Budweiser beer that year than any other bar or sports stadium in the United States, except Yankee Stadium -- over 10,000 kegs," Volk claims.

"We never tried to be anything more than a place people could go for a good, inexpensive meal and a beer," said Abraham. "Over time, we became a place where people enjoyed spending more time than money -- and it's still that way today."