The Red Brick Times

From the Sunday, August 27th, Chronicle:

Joyce E. Jones (nee Kostyo), 64, of Ft. Myers, Fla., and formerly of Elyria, died Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006, in Tampa, Fla., from complications following a double lung transplant. She and her late husband, Bob, owned and operated Grassie’s Wayside Inn in Elyria for many years. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Bauer-Laubenthal Funeral Home, Elyria.

During some of the schoolhouse years (i.e. rare times when we had money) a late breakfast at Grassie's was a once a week (at least) event. After the schoolhouse I kept going there and over time got to know the family pretty well. (One time Joyce's son Jeff, who lived with her and Bob, stayed with me for awhile to help get over some trouble on the home front. I don't think he knew it but, before he asked if he could stay there, Joyce had already approached me about it.) I dated the waitresses (one became my girlfriend for a time), went to their parties, got snuck so many free drinks that my one and only DUI was after leaving there one night, and was generally treated like royalty by everybody. I miss that place a lot. I miss those people more.
Posted 4:25 PM by whatley (2) comments

       Comments:

I used to eat there when I was working for the telphone company. We had a couple of holiday parties in the "Trophy Room" downstairs. I do remember that the entire staff treated customers like they were either family or long-lost friends. It just felt good to be there. After the second fire, they decided not to rebuild. I think there is now a Dollar General store on the site. My current favorite place is the Ponderosa restaurant in Vermilion. The manager (Mike Sartor) has built a great team. The young folks who work there (funny, everybody seems young to me lately) work together and treat us very well. I would rather eat there than at a place with a sommelier. It just feels good to be there.

# posted by  Andy : August 29, 2006 10:35 AM
 
All the employees referred to the "Trophy Room" as "The Room of Feathered Death".

# posted by  whatley : August 29, 2006 3:55 PM
 
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