Rob Davis wanted to propose to his girlfriend in a special place.

So he turned back the clock and continued a tradition in her family.

Davis proposed to Rachel Eve Ginter on Thanksgiving morning inside the Liberty Restaurant on Central Avenue, the same place where her parents and grandparents had experienced wedding memories.

“I wanted it to be special and surprise her,” Davis said of his proposal.

Mission accomplished. Twice.

Davis said he contacted Sally Hollon, the new owner of the restaurant, about proposing there even though the restaurant wasn’t scheduled to open until Dec. 17. Hollon said she’d be cleaning in the restaurant.

Hollon called the proposal “a neat idea.”

So Davis had some of his friends prepare a breakfast, and as he and Ginter walked downtown, he asked her if she thought the Liberty was open.

The lights were on, so he pulled on the door and it opened. He had to convince Ginter to walk inside.

They sat in a booth, and Davis dropped to one knee and proposed as close friends Katy Malcolm and Sarah Jo Lewis took pictures from outside.

Ginter said she was “very surprised.”

Ginter called the Liberty “a special place in our family.”

On Sept. 12, 1941, her grandfather, Robert Fay, took his bride-to-be, Eva Mail, to the Liberty to exchange their wedding gifts. To carry on the tradition, her parents, John Ginter and Roslyn Fay, exchanged gifts at the Liberty on Nov. 4, 1983, the day before their wedding.

Davis chose the Liberty over some other special places for the couple. He thought of taking her back to Italy, where they had traveled, or the streets of Columbus, where she watched him run his first marathon, or the former Obama campaign office, where they volunteered, or one of a dozen places where they played trivia during the first summer they dated, or Pyramid Hill, where they had volunteered at Halloween, dressed in costume and read stories to children.

But the Liberty won out.

Davis said his girlfriend of two years had mentioned her family’s connection to the Liberty.

“I wanted it to be somewhere that had a lot of meaning to the both of us,” he said.

The couple is planning to be married in spring 2014.

They already have survived a long-distance relationship. Shortly after they began dating, Ginter left for London to complete her graduate studies in human rights at University College London. For an entire year, they spoke every day via Skype or the Internet.

Davis said dating a woman who lived thousands of miles away “was a real good experience for us.” He said they had to be “more committed” to each other.

“It made our relationship stronger,” he said.

Ginter, 26, graduated from Middletown High School in 2004, then graduated from Vanderbilt University with a triple major in European studies, Russian language and music. She earned her master’s degree in London. She works at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Davis, 26, a 2004 graduate of Monroe High School, earned a sociology degree from Miami University in 2010. He works as a teller at Chase bank in Cincinnati.