For nearly 14 years, the Sunset Ellis Restaurant has been a Sunday gathering place for our family. Today, the Shinnston eatery closes its doors for good. So, on this Sunday, I want to pay tribute to what the establishment has meant to the Perine family. 

 

Owner Anthony Ellis and my dad Bill Hadorn go way back. Being in the wholesale food business, Dad called on Anthony for several years. Now, my husband Jeff services the restaurant in the same capacity. We were familiar with the restaurant and had eaten there a handful of times. So, when Jeff began pastoring Ten Mile Baptist Church back in 2008, he suggested we swing by after services to eat Sunday dinner. We did and we felt so at home there, that we made it a part of our weekly routine. Sometimes our daughters and their husbands would join us, but many times it was Jeff and our boys. In those days, we often ate in the front bar area, equipped with a TV. Jeff or Jeffrey would get the remote and find whatever game they were interested in. I would often grab the Sunday newspaper and  look over the lifestyles section, handing the sports over to one of the guys. Jacob was only 7 years old, but he would get the weekly DNR report from the same wooden caddy and study those state fishing records. 

 

The guys usually started with the salad bar - or if they felt particularly lazy that day, they might opt for a ready-made salad, always asking for pizza cheese on top. I almost always ordered a steak or chicken salad, fries and house Italian dressing on the side. Spaghetti was a staple main course for my guys. Another favorite was the Big Tony and the extra perk to that sandwich - nearly as big around as a dinner plate - was that there was usually enough left over for an evening snack. 

 

Anthony always came over to say hey and if he wasn't too busy, might pull up a chair and chat for a while. In any event, it always felt like home. And when we paid our bill at the register, he would give Jacob a candy bar of his choice. 

 

As the years went by, our family grew and grew. In recent years, we always headed to the far back section of what our first granddaughter Della had coined "The Ellison." We got to know all the servers pretty well and one would often wave us to the back when she saw how many of us there were that particular Sunday. From the time she was pretty little, Della took a liking to the bacon bits on the salad bar. We teased her that she liked a little salad with them. 

 

We often ran into town's people we knew, including Mr. Randall Hall, mine and Jeff's high school band director. He frequented the Sunset Ellis, often by himself. He's sometimes sat with us and we'd all catch up on life. Church friends would sometimes join us and very often, we ran into extended family and friends. There were Sundays that we knew everyone in the room. 

 

In recent years, there has been as many as 15 of us rolling into the restaurant after morning services. During the fall and winter months, my daughter Brittany and I start off with a hot tea. Whichever one of us gets there first, we order for the other one. The rest usually drink sweet iced tea - yearound. We don't even have to tell the server. She knows. It is also known that if fried green tomatoes are available, Britt will have an order. We never ask for menus anymore. We have the selections embedded in our minds. Our friend Lori many times waits on us and remembers what we like - or she'll suggest something and we just go with it. When our group is large, we run those poor girls to death. Someone is always needing ketchup, ranch, a to-go container - something. In fact, sometimes we just go get it ourselves. And on particularly busy Sundays, Jeff even chips in to help clear our table - and others. 

 

The back room has given the little ones room to move around. They visit table to table. They play games and even show us their dance recital moves. 

 

We have literally raised a generation of kids at the Sunset Ellis. It's been more than a restaurant to us. We thank Anthony and his family for taking such good care of us through the years. It's a part of our lives we are most grateful for. We wish the Ellis family all the best in the next chapter of their lives. 

 

Read more about the iconic Sunset Ellis in our June 8 post about its closing HERE.