NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Not everyone needs a fairy godmother.
"Everything we wished for, (my dad) did for (my sister and I)," said Marsha Frost, owner of Kobans Restaurant in Niagara Falls.
Sometimes you just need to make a promising deal with a really great dad.
"How about I go to school and learn how to cook and (my dad) buy a restaurant," Frost said.
Frost's father Ronald Koban granted his daughter's request 42 years ago, buying the building for the restaurant for $50,000 when she was just 19.
"He worked out front and I ran the back," Frost said.
The menu grew over the years.
"When we did open up in 1980, the strip steak was $5.50," Frost said.
It became known for pierogis, French onion soup, and its fish fry, among other favorites.
Kobans Restaurant became so popular in Niagara Falls that it became more about the food than the entertainment.
"It was just magical what would happen out here," Frost said. "The middle of the dining room was a dance floor. They could dance but then we became so busy that it had to get covered up to seat more people."
Kobans also became a place for generations of families to celebrate the best of times.
But on Saturday, what would've been Ronald Koban's 88th birthday, was also the last day for the community to enjoy the magic that was Kobans.
It wasn't an easy decision to close.
"Oh very hard. This place is my life," Frost said.
The restaurant was all she wanted.
"It's just time to be the Cinderella who gets to go to the party instead of the one who stays and sweeps the floor," Frost said.
But instead of regret, she finds solace.
"(Customers) would drag me out (of the kitchen) and everybody would clap," Frost said. "I mean my dreams came true."
There's no fairy godmother in Frost's story.
But an exceptional dad?
"He was a great father. I couldn't speak more highly," Frost said.
That's a given.