by Mick Rhodes | editor@claremont-courier.com

My mother raised me on her own. It was just her and I. She was a lot of wonderful things, but financially secure was not one of them. There was no family nest egg to tap into, no generational wealth to speak of. Still, she did her best to keep up with the Joneses in Glendora, which was no small feat.

To her great credit, I was never aware our little family was different. Mom made holidays magical, by hook or by crook, and I lacked for nothing. Part of that effort involved allowing me to choose any restaurant for my birthday dinner. And for years, my choice was the same: the Steak Corral in West Covina.

1960s-era ad copy for Steak Corral restaurant, a chain that once had six locations in Southern California.

Bob Beyer founded the old west-themed chain in 1961 with his first restaurant in San Gabriel. At one time there were six Steak Corrals in Southern California. The West Covina location at 501 N. Azusa Ave. opened in 1970 and closed in 2007. Its distinct octagonal building is now home to a Norms.

For years I’d been telling my kids about this mythical restaurant from my youth, and had long assumed the small chain was long gone. That was until I recently came across a social media post that seemed to have been placed there via time machine, with grinning folks standing aside a life-sized statue of the restaurant’s mascot “The Corral Kid” (think Bob’s Big Boy with a 10-gallon cowboy hat instead of a giant pompadour) in the here and now. I immediately clicked and was delighted to learn the last remaining Steak Corral, in Whittier, circa 1965, was still around.

So, when I turned 62 last week, I decided to take one more birthday dinner at my old favorite spot.

Looking back, it’s easy to see why Steak Corral was my go-to. Themed like an old cowboy movie set, complete with chuck wagons arranged in a semicircle, patrons ordered their steaks then made their way through one of the first salad bars in America, then selected sides and drinks. The cooks and servers wore cowboy hats and western garb, and had nametags like “Dangerous Debbie” and “Treacherous Tim.” Kids were gifted paper Native American headbands festooned with colored feathers, and best of all was a self-service soft-serve ice cream machine where one could pile up a self-designed dessert as high as gravity would allow.

Steak Corral restaurant mascot “The Corral Kid” outside the former chain’s last remaining location in Whittier. Courier photo/Mick Rhodes

It did not get much better than that for an 8-year-old raised on Looney Tunes and baseball.

It had been nearly 50 years since I’d stepped inside a Steak Corral. Over that time it had grown to near mythical proportions among my childhood memories. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what was real, imagined, or exaggerated five decades removed from a time when everything was possible and everyone was still around.

Themed restaurants were once ubiquitous in Southern California (remember The Jolly Roger? Clifton’s?). But they lost favor, with many — like my beloved West Covina Steak Corral — now home to nondescript chains or worse yet, parking lots. I figured the last man standing among one of Southern California’s wackiest restaurant concepts ever would by now have been stripped of its old west charm and remodeled, perhaps several times. As such, I wasn’t expecting much as my kids and I crawled down the 605 Freeway in the driving rain toward Whittier.

But, as we pulled up to the restaurant there he was: “The Corral Kid” in all his cartoonish cowboy glory, just as I remembered him. A good sign! Stepping inside, I was overwhelmed by an orgy of 1970s kitsch; the chuck wagon, the western paraphernalia — rifles, lassos, posters, old-timey lamps, steer horns, horseshoes, and various farm implements — all remained. It appeared largely unchanged from its 1965 beginnings. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was the best kind of flashback.

After ordering I realized what had been a special occasion treat as a kid was actually pretty dang affordable as a so-called adult. My meal — a medium rare rib eye steak, baked potato, salad, and cheese bread — was about $20!

As we sat down I was struck by the unlikely loveliness of it all. Here I was, with my own kids, reliving a core memory from my childhood. And they were all in. They loved the place, blown away by “the vibes.”

As per always, our conversation was peppered with laughs. After a while I sat back and took it in. I heard my late mother’s laugh and smiled at the thought of how much she would have enjoyed the moment. My heart filled with gratitude. My eyes welled up. I thought maybe one day my grown children will return to this weird, wonderful little anomaly of a restaurant and remember the time they humored me on my birthday at a one-off spot with a five-foot tall plastic adolescent cowboy out front.

We headed home, where I plopped down in my favorite chair. The kids sang happy birthday. I blew out the candles and made a wish and opened their cards and gifts. We laughed some more and had some of wife Lisa’s magnificent pumpkin strudel cake. The rain had let up, and the night was winding down. I thought about the good fortune that got me to that moment, and again my eyes welled.

Western-themed decor is abundant at Steak Corral restaurant in Whittier. Courier photo/Mick Rhodes