The Ponderosa Steakhouse at 1120 East High Street in Bryan opened for business with much anticipation. According to a Bryan Times article published at the time, Ponderosa operated seven days a week and initially offered a family-priced menu featuring eight beef entrées and three seafood entrées.
Dinners included a baked potato or French fries, a warm roll with butter, and a choice of condiments and dressings available at a self-service salad bar. Ponderosa also offered a selection of beverages, desserts, potato toppings, hot buttered mushrooms, and cottage cheese.
Customers placed their entrée orders at the register and received a dessert and beverage. After seating themselves, they could visit the salad bar, while entrées were delivered to tables by a server.
The Bryan Ponderosa could seat 202 people and was owned by Joseph Brennan of Sandusky. Brennan, who started Bryan’s first chain fast-food restaurant with Burger Chef in 1973, also owned Ponderosa restaurants in Fremont, Norwalk, and Sandusky, Ohio.
The executive manager of the new Ponderosa was Craig Heflinger. Jim Hoffman served as manager, and John Lewis was the assistant manager. The restaurant employed between 60 and 70 people.
The former Ponderosa building was razed in 1999 to make way for the construction of the existing Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers. This colorized January 1980 vintage image of the Bryan Ponderosa is from the Williams County Public Library Huffman Photographic Archives. The first Bryan McDonald’s restaurant can be seen on the right in this 1980 nighttime photograph.
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Email: publisher@thevillagereporter.com.