Elk County Forum

General Category => The Coffee Shop => Topic started by: patyrn on August 17, 2007, 05:46:14 PM

Title: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: patyrn on August 17, 2007, 05:46:14 PM
I was just reading a nice article in the Winfield Daily Courier about the Grenola Bar & Grill.  Has anyone eaten there?  I'd welcome any opinions.  Undoubtedly the people of Grenola are delighted to have another business and a place to gather.  The new owners (who are NOT Elk County natives)  sound like very interesting people and have even recruited some friends to also move there.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Mom70x7 on August 17, 2007, 06:08:11 PM
Here's a link:

http://www.winfieldcourier.com/ (http://www.winfieldcourier.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=19912&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=&S=1)
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: emptynest on August 17, 2007, 10:17:25 PM
Thanks for the link, Debbie.  We'll have to check it out sometime.  Maybe some Sunday. Wonder if they have motorcycle gangs there?   ::)  Sorry.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Rudy Taylor on August 18, 2007, 06:01:48 PM
The Courier has already delected the story. I'd like to get in touch with the owners. Does
anyone know them? I hate to drive that far without knowing what days they're open, etc.
Sounds good to me.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Mom70x7 on August 18, 2007, 06:42:48 PM
Delected?  ???    ::)    ;D 
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Mom70x7 on August 18, 2007, 06:47:17 PM
I think you meant deleted  ;D   ;D   ;D , so I'll become my Internet Sleuth and find it for you:


New eatery brings new faces to Grenola

By JEANNE RICHARDSON
Reporter

GRENOLA - It's easy to spot the new Grenola Bar & Grill. You just look for the building with a steady stream of customers going in and out. The former Bank of Grenola building on the corner of Main and Maple is now a unique family restaurant, with good, down-home cooking and a wonderful historical decor.

Owners Lyle and Debbie Watson, an exceptionally nice Baby-Boomer couple, found the historical building on eBay and decided that Grenola would be a perfect place to live. Lyle had been traveling for a long time as a commercial contractor, building restaurants. Debbie had been in the medical field for 27 years and then traveled with Lyle for the last couple of years. They both wanted to get off the road.

Lyle is a good cook, according to Debbie, and his ideas and cooking talent have been good for the town.

They opened the Grenola Bar & Grill on July 28, a day that's easy for Debbie to remember as it's also her birthday.

"We spent that whole weekend here at the restaurant," Debbie said. "I'll never forget that!"

Another reason they chose this area was Debbie's sisters in Longton and her mother in Neodesha. One of her sisters, Virginia Brown, helps out in the bar & grill.

As you walk into the place, you're initially struck by the original wide, wooden door inlaid with plate glass. The high ceilings, covered with what looks like the original decorative tin ceiling, also catch your eye. A long lunch counter with vinyl-covered stools faces the north wall, on which stands an old mirrored cabinet and other nostalgic pieces. Several ceiling fans keep the place cool, and lots of natural light streams in through the south-facing windows.
      

"We really love it here," said Debbie. "We've received a lot of help and support from the local people." A Grenola woman, Velma Conklin, supplies the homemade pies - peanut butter, pecan, chocolate, lemon - "You name it, she can make it!"

Business has been steady after being open less than a month, according to Lyle. "At first, it was just the local people who came here, but now they're coming from all around."

The food is good, the service is excellent and the atmosphere is very friendly. You get the feeling that the people who are doing the cooking and the serving are glad to be there. That makes for a pleasant meal.

An old vault used in the Bank of Grenola days now serves as Debbie's office. Its brick-lined walls enclose the barely 5 by 8 feet space. "Lyle painted it all white for me, so I wouldn't get claustrophobic," said Debbie.

The Watsons also talked some friends of theirs from Sacramento, Calif., into coming and settling in Grenola. Bill Smith and his family had never been to Kansas, but he said he loves it here. "We've bought a house here, and my son (Joe Smith) cooks here in the restaurant," Bill said.

Smith and Watson laughingly said they have probably increased the population of Grenola by five percent with just their two families. And they hope to convince more of their friends to join them.

The Grenola Bar & Grill is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. They try to have a different special every day, and a buffet on Saturday. Everyone is encouraged to try Lyle's special spaghetti.


Here it is:
http://www.winfieldcourier.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=19912&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=&S=1

And . . . there are some of us that go out to eat regularly (not quite always) after church on Sundays. If we foray over there, we'll let you know.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Rudy Taylor on August 18, 2007, 09:11:18 PM
Hey, what's wrong with a good typo like "delected?"  At least it's better than leaving
the "n" out of "function" as I did in the Oswego paper this week.

It probably made most folks grin.  And the ones who didn't probably laughed from
inside.

Thanks for the info on the grill.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Mom70x7 on August 18, 2007, 09:48:38 PM
What's funny is that I looked in the dictionary for delected, to make sure it really wasn't a word.
Didn't find it there, so did an Internet search - and delected exists:  :o

http://www.stirsound.com/Herve_AK_Delected_stir007.html

It's the name of a song!
And, no, I did not download it or any of the songs. Not interested.  :D
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Teresa on August 19, 2007, 01:27:54 AM
Thanks Debbie for putting that in there. I also tried to find it and found that it was "delected".. (http://www.cascity.com/howard/animations/222.gif)
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Rudy Taylor on August 19, 2007, 08:17:13 AM
The most common mistake I make in writing is leaving out words. After 40 years of typing stories I'm
pretty fast on the keyboard. Problem is: My mind is already working on the next thought as I
type out a sentence.

There's hardly ever a time that I post on this forum when I don't look at it later and realize that
I left out a word or that my fingernail hit an errant key.

Of course, there's also the perfection factor.  When you're perfect, as all my family and friends
find me to be, I've got to throw in a mistake or two to convince them otherwise.

(Hey, what's all the groaning about?)

Besides, I figure this post will bring Kermit out of hybernation. The fine fuzz on his froggy
neck is bound to be standing straight up.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Mom70x7 on August 19, 2007, 08:28:41 AM
Rudy -

I used to type for a living and would sometimes find that my fingers almost took on a life of their own.
That I wouldn't be aware of what I had typed until I took a break and read it.  :D

When fiction writers sometimes talk about their characters being a separate identity,
dictating to the author what to write, I can understand that a little.

At some point you lose the "that's my thought, I'll write it down" and it becomes
a flowing, if you will, of the thought process and the ideas appear in print simultaneously
with the thinking of those same ideas.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Rudy Taylor on August 19, 2007, 09:02:15 AM
Oh, yes, I agree.

I remember many years ago waking up in the middle of the night with a thought. "I've got to write
this down," I said to myself.  "So, I grabbed a pencil and paper from the bedside table and jotted it
down, then resumed my sleep fully confident that I would have a masterpiece to read the next morning.

As the morning sunlight came streaming through the window, my wife sat on the side of the bed
and confusedly asked, "Do you have any idea who made all these scribbles?"

I looked at the pad of paper and it looked like a toddler's scribbles. It looked like a drunk wrote
it.

So, after that I've just stayed the course at night-time. My thoughts aren't all that great during waking
hours, let alone when it's 3 a.m. and I'm half asleep.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Diane Amberg on August 19, 2007, 09:55:31 AM
 Rudy, please note that I was NOT the one who commented on your "delected!" this time. I'm trying to behave....It's hard! 
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Rudy Taylor on August 19, 2007, 11:45:35 AM
C'mon, Diane.  I like you better when you're a purist pest.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Diane Amberg on August 19, 2007, 12:32:45 PM
 Pests get swatted and eliminated. I don't want to to loved like a mosquito.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Rudy Taylor on August 19, 2007, 01:59:01 PM
Too late, Diane.  We all love you anyway.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: kdfrawg on August 19, 2007, 02:44:46 PM
Yup, the cat is out of the bag.

We like you out of the bag, Diane.
Title: Re: Grenola Bar & Grill
Post by: Diane Amberg on August 19, 2007, 02:57:20 PM
  Meow, purr, purr, purr,  :-*