Remembering The Ancestor: Local chef teaches old-time recipes, brings back memories of revolutionary service

May 24—As a 16-year-old, Drue Brandenburg worked as a dishwasher and cook at The Ancestor, a popular restaurant in Stillwater during the 1970s and 1980s.

He has fond memories of his time working at the restaurant formerly located at the corner of 14th Street and South Main Street, and many of the recipes he cooked are still fresh in his mind today.

That's what prompted him to offer a tailored culinary class to share the recipes at Meridian Technology Center at 6 p.m. on June 8. Brandenburg taught cooking classes at MTC for the spring semester, and his classes will continue throughout the summer.

"My goal in presenting the class is to rekindle the excitement in the local community about an old-time favorite gathering place for locals," Brandenburg said.

Stillwater businessman Jon Wagner partnered with Stillwater resident Dale Anderson to create the restaurant. They already owned the former motel, El Sol, and its accompanying restaurant, La Concina, — a well-known favorite of college students and locals alike — when Anderson thought of a new plan.

Anderson was enamored with a restaurant in Oklahoma City called Sleepy Hollow, and he wanted to bring that restaurant's creative concept to Stillwater.

Wagner and Anderson bought a well-established restaurant called Cliff's Drive-In from Cliff and Edna Walters, and The Ancestor was born.

The concept was simple — family-style meals in a friendly atmosphere.

The two-item menu included steak and a baked potato or employee Willie May's pan-fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy, buttered peas, miniature homemade biscuits and a scoop of pineapple sherbet for dessert.

Anderson also had a revolutionary concept for that era: a salad bar.

The ingredients and dressings were set out on a Russian buffet in bowls, with a lift-top freezer that contained tempered glass plates. Sneeze guards had yet to be conceptualized, but guests loved the state's first salad bar.

"This presented a major obstacle because this antique buffet server had no refrigeration, and this concerned the State Health Department," Brandenburg said. "Anderson found a way to work around the code by utilizing small food vessels that required frequent replacement, so they were never out of refrigeration for more than four hours. That was deemed acceptable."

Lunch was served Monday-Friday, and dinner was served seven days a week.

Wagner and Anderson asked Maggie Glass, wife of Peyton Glass, a well-known clothier and insurance salesman in Stillwater, to decorate the restaurant.

"The interior walls were decorated in what was considered an eclectic manner, like TGI Friday's or Bennigan's," Brandenburg said.

Wagner and Anderson focused on developing a comfortable atmosphere reminiscent of Grandma's home, using a waterfall rose-pattern carpet throughout. Random lanterns, antique signage, knick-knacks and dozens of old family photographs lined the walls.

In the entryway, there was a foot-pedal pump organ and an antique gold cash register. The restaurant's signature portrait of an old gentleman with a long beard hung in a large frame, eventually becoming the restaurant's logo.

The old gentleman was not related to anyone, Brandenburg said, but it was "just a picture that Maggie Glass found."

What made The Ancestor stand out was its menu and style of service.

"Anderson embraced the operational simplicity and uniqueness of a two-item menu," Brandenburg said. "This helped keep food costs low, manage inventory levels and, most importantly, provide consistent quality."

The lack of a printed menu made for another revolutionary approach to food service interaction with the wait staff, which has become sometimes over-practiced by waiters today, Brandenburg said.

The server would approach the customers, introduce themselves, explain the menu and salad bar, take their beverage order, turn in the order and bring a plate of fresh homemade biscuits and butter to the table. The tables held dispensers of locally produced honey.

"Anderson's creation of a culture among all the young employees — often through fear and intimidation — made us all aware of the importance of doing whatever it takes to make the customer happy," Brandenburg said. "He focused on consistency and making guests feel important. He was a very thorough manager, checking every detail daily."

Over time, The Ancestor added nearly 2,500 square feet of space, giving the owners room for an area that served as a bar.

"However, liquor by the drink had yet to become legal in Oklahoma, so it ran under the guise of a side room for seating additional guests for lunch," Brandenburg said. "It just happened to have a larger mirror behind a bar lined with liquor bottles with the names of all the regular customers taped on to make it appear they were operating a "bring-your-own-beer" bar."

Brandenburg eventually became a corporate chef, managing 12 hotels with an aggregate food revenue of over $20 million. He taught classes at Johnson and Wales University in North Miami, Florida.

But what he learned from Anderson stayed with him.

"I learned so much from him about how important it was in the food business (to be) consistent," Brandenburg said. "It doesn't do you any good to be good sometimes, you have to be good all the time."

The Ancestor closed its doors in 1990, but the memories remain with Brandenburg. He moved back to Stillwater two years ago.

"In the formative stages of my life, it taught me how to work," Brandenburg said. "It taught me the importance of doing things right and doing a good job."