Idle Spurs celebrates 35 years

BARSTOW • Idle Spurs may have gone through a lot of transformations since Donna and Morgan Ray bought it, making it the landmark it is today, but after 35 years many things haven’t changed.

About three and a half decades after Chuck and Jeannie O’Hare owned and lived at Idle Spurs Ranch, restaurant staff still use the O’Hare kitchen to cook soups and sauces. Patrons can be served by staff members who have worked at the restaurant for more than 20 years, and they can still eat using calico table cloths and napkins Donna made herself.

Friday marks the 35th anniversary of Idle Spurs’ opening night under the Rays’ ownership. Champagne and cake will be served starting at 11 a.m. to anyone who wants to take in the restaurant’s atmosphere and remember a time when $6.75 bought a prime rib dinner.

“We’re a restaurant of many moods,” Donna said. “And what makes it successful is good management and good employees.”

After 35 years, Idle Spurs is as much a fixture in the community as the O’Hare kitchen is to the restaurant. Over the years business people have wined and dined clients at Idle Spurs, Donna said. People have celebrated their weddings at Idle Spurs. Awards banquets, political dinners and fundraisers have also be held there.

To Bob McGinnis, Idle Spurs is a second home. He’s been a regular since the O’Hares owned it, he said, and can remember coming into the restaurant every Thursday after Kiwanis meetings for a few cocktails. McGinnis used to go to school with Morgan and Donna, he said, and when they took over the operation of the restaurant, they just continued a good thing.

“My favorite meal is the steak and lobster,” he said. “But the camaraderie of everybody here, that was what was so much fun.”

Camaraderie is the reason Gail Rogers has worked at Idle Spurs for 23 years. She started waitressing in January 1986 because she wanted a day job, but one of the things she came to love about her job is that people came to the restaurant not only to eat, but to enjoy themselves.

“A lot of my customers make a point of stopping here on their trips,” she said, adding that she serves regulars from as far away as Europe. “It’s nice for first timers to be surprised at what a nice restaurant we have here. And some customers we have today are the same customers we’ve had 23 years ago.”

Over 23 years, Rogers has served all kinds of folks, including celebrities. When Erin Brokovich was being filmed in nearby Hinkley, she said actor Albert Finney would come to the restaurant every night, sit at the bar and have dinner. There was also the time when PBS star Huel Howser called Rogers’ husband on her cell phone because she told him what a great fan her husband was.

“This is a very unique place,” she said. “That’s what I enjoy about it.”
 
Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com