Posted on 02/23/2002 10:01:12 AM PST by dittomom
Western steakhouses struggle
Pinnacle Peak growth encroaches
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| Mike Rynearson/The Arizona Republic |
| Greasewood Flat owner Doc Cavalliere sits in his regular chair at the bar of his Western tavern in north Scottsdale. Old dollar bills cover the ceiling and walls of the place. |
By Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 23, 2002
In Greasewood Flat's dusty parking lot, gleaming Harleys line up along Benzes and Beemers outside the historic hideaway near Pinnacle Peak.
Only the occasional faded pickup seems to match the saloon's gritty character.
But this is north Scottsdale, where the city's barbed-wire roots hold tight against a stiff wind of upscale development. Guard-gated custom homes have stormed the landmark peak along with golf courses and resorts where rooms go for $575 a night.
Greasewood and its Western steakhouse sidekicks, Reata Pass and Pinnacle Peak Patio, face mounting pressure from growth and the wheelbarrows of cash being offered for the area's commercial land, as much $875,000 an acre.
The cowboy haunts once were all alone at the end of the trail, far from suburban Scottsdale. Now they're hemmed in.
A decade ago, 1,000 people lived with in the 72-square-mile area north and east of Bell and Pima roads. Now it's 10,000 and growing, according to the 2000 U.S. census.
Greasewood, a time-warp vestige of the West, has prospered as a favorite watering hole for weekend bikers and families. Reata Pass, which dates to 1882 when it was a stage stop between Phoenix and Fort McDowell, has soldiered on. But Pinnacle Peak Patio, a must-see tourist spot for decades, is eating some development dust.
"Scottsdale used to advertise itself as the West's Most Western Town, and now they've turned it into the West's Most Stuccoed Town," said Pinnacle Peak Patio's 71-year-old owner, Harvey McElhanon.
Sales have dwindled from $4.1 million in 1984 to about $2.4 million last year, said McElhanon, who paid $623,000 in 1970 for the sprawling, 1,800-seat restaurant and its 10-acre site.
Full of clipped neckties (shorn off unsuspecting dudes), fading business cards and cowboy relics, the patio has fallen victim to changing trends in tourism, a recent downturn in travel and years of construction interference.
Pinnacle Peak Patio started as general store in 1957, offering sandwiches and bait to fishermen. The restaurant got its start when original owner Dorothy Coppinger started weekend steak cookouts. In its first 40 years, Pinnacle Peak served an estimated 11 million steaks and clipped a million ties.
But the city's rerouting of Alma School and Jomax roads left the restaurant hidden behind a real estate office and an air-conditioned warehouse.
"Unfortunately, it has changed the experience," Rachel Sacco, Scottsdale Tourism Bureau director, said of the encroachment. "It's still a valuable experience that you're not going to get anywhere else."
Driving up an undulating two-lane road to Pinnacle Peak used to be an excursion with hardly a stop sign to slow the trip.
It really felt like you were way out in the desert, under the stars, sitting around a campfire, Sacco said.
"The more visitors feel like they're in a neighborhood, the less effective they are in delivering that cowboy experience," Sacco said, adding that the Western restaurants and bars are important to the city's heritage. "Scottsdale needs places where you can go if you want to be a cowboy for the weekend."
While Pinnacle Peak Patio isn't the bonanza it was during its heyday, not all its neighbors are complaining.
Reata Pass manager Terry Gray said her steakhouse, which caters to regulars from the area's growing neighborhoods, serves 300 dinners on a good night.
Greasewood manager Mike Branigan says his cook grilled 160 hamburgers in less than an hour on a recent Saturday afternoon. The saloon's picnic tables were topped with beer bottles. Harley riders posed in their leather chaps, cellphones holstered on their belts instead of six-shooters.
"When everybody comes in, they're in a good mood," Branigan said.
Greasewood regular Jerry Smith said most check their attitudes at the gate into the saloon's ring of outdoor fire pits. But there are exceptions.
"One woman who insisted on getting another drink after she had been cut off declared, 'I'm from Troon and you'll have to put up with me,' " Smith said. They didn't.
Greasewood shares a 53-acre site with Reata Pass. Both are owned by retired blacksmith George "Doc" Cavalliere, an 85-year-old Scottsdale native.
He bought this oasis half a century ago for about $20,000 and has lived on it ever since. He isn't planning to move despite persistent rumors that he is selling out and the probability that his land could fetch tens of millions of dollars.
For comparison, 5.72 acres of nearby commercial land is listed at $5 million.
Greasewood's saloon originally was a bunkhouse for the stage stop at Reata Pass. Cavalliere, who started Greasewood in 1975, said he doesn't know what his family will do after he's gone with his oddball creation - part ranch junkyard, part cowboy camp. He hopes his son, George, who still runs the family's 93-year-old blacksmith shop in Old Town Scottsdale, will take over.
In the meantime, he enjoys sitting around Greasewood's fire pits with the saloon's regulars.
"My joy up here is sitting out there watching the people come up here with their children," he said, looking out at a pole topped with wagon wheels that anchors Greasewood's dance floor. "All the little girls come out on the dance floor and swing around with their hands on that pipe."
Republic researcher Ryan Konig contributed to this story.
Reach the reporter at peter.corbett@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-4815.
I'll be busy with work & visitin' relatives the next three weekends. I'm lookin' at March 22-23.
Ugly Biker's date of March 23 sounds good to me. What about you? Wouldn't be a FReep meeting without him. LOL!
I haven't read through this yet. We've got a lot of pinging to do.
How does this date sound to all of you?
My husband is sitting behind me reading this thread over my shoulder - talking about some of the times he used to hang out there!!!
The fact you are planning your next FReeper meeting on the 23rd had the two of us FOFL!!!! That's his birthday!
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