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New Airport Restaurant Honors Famous Country Singer
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 JOHN LEEPER
On March 5, 1963, the famous country singer Patsy Cline whose songs "I Fall To Pieces," "Crazy" and "Walking After Midnight" are still considered industry standards, stopped at the Dyersburg airport. She and a company of musicians had played a benefit in Kansas City and stopped for refueling on their way home. Cline made a telephone call from the phone booth in the restaurant at about 5:30 p.m., and the group decided to brave glowering skies in order to reach home. They did not. Their light general aviation aircraft went down near Camden and everyone aboard perished. Cline was only 30 years old. In 1973, Cline was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1999, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Now, the restaurant at Dyersburg Regional Airport has been dedicated to the memory of Cline. Even the telephone booth that had been walled up for years has been uncovered and furnished with a replica telephone reminiscent of the early sixties and posters honoring the renowned singer. It is appropriately named Patsy's Sky Grille. The idea is a brainchild of Robin Steinzor, owner of Stein-Low Catering, who took over the restaurant's operation and opened for business last week. Steinzor moved to Dyer County in 1989 and nine years ago started a catering business out of her home. Her reputation as a marvelous cook quickly spread, and she soon found that she had to add a commercial kitchen onto the back of her house in order to sustain the flood of orders. But even that proved to be a stop-gap measure and Steinzor decided to open a four-day-a-week Bistro at Parker Plaza. "We just ran out of room again," Steinzor said of the Bistro, whose kitchen also supplied her catering needs. "We were just stumbling all over ourselves." And then the new airport manager, Monte Warne, came to her with the idea of taking over the restaurant at the airfield, which closed in November. It had been operated for many years by Mary Lou Parker, a local cook well known for her traditional Southern cuisine. The location provided Steinzor an opportunity to separate her café business from the catering company, which will continue to be run out of the Parker Plaza location. It also gave her a chance to build a restaurant with an identity that is unlike others in the area. Her goal is to build a menu that draws from her culinary successes in catering major events throughout the state, including dinners for two of Tennessee governors. "My taste buds run a bit different than many people. I want this restaurant to have a much more diverse, high-end menu," Steinzor said. There also will be more desserts than are commonly found around the region. "I am a certified cake decorator," she pointed out, "and I have a chef working for me from Wisconsin whose forte is baking. She can whip up some wonderful desserts." The restaurant is open seven days a week. Monday through Saturday breakfast is served from 6-9 a.m. A buffet-style lunch is served Monday through Friday and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunches on Saturdays are for orders off the grill. Suppers are offered on Fridays and Saturdays. So far, Steinzor has decided to hold a seafood buffet every Friday evening, but she will tailor her menu, she said, to her customers' wishes. In keeping with the Patsy Cline theme, Steinzor and Warne are discussing the possibility of holding a small festival in the fall based around the life and songs of the famous singer. |
Originally Published In the Dyersburg State Gazette On March 22, 2005
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