High-steaks move brought the sizzle to Lowake eatery's new location

ROWENA – If you’re still thinking about flying your airplane down to the Lowake Steak House and landing on the road out front, there’s something you ought to know.

First, this isn’t 1951.

Second, the restaurant has moved.

Back in February, the 66-year-old institution opened in its new location at 12143 U.S. Highway 67 in Rowena. Before that, the steak house had been located at the intersection of farm-to-market roads 1929 and 381 since 1951. If that sounds like an address out in the country, that’s because it was. It took a six-mile drive to visit the restaurant from the highway.

But a little drive never stops a West Texan, and it certainly didn’t stop any fans of this eatery

What’s the first rule of real estate? Location, location, location – and for the Lowake’s original owner, a Mr. Butch Ummelmann, this location had a specific purpose. The community of Lowake just happened to be over the border in Concho County, not Runnels.

“That was the only county where you could sit down and have a meal and a beer at the same time,” current owner Kerry Goetz said. “Back then, if you wanted a beer you could either go to a bar or go to a restaurant, but you couldn't do both.”

Goetz said there were several restaurants up and down that road in those days, including the original 1949 Lowake Inn, from which the steak house had sprung.

“A couple of the owners got crossways. One of them moved down the road – that was us, the family-friendly Lowake Steak House; the other stayed as the Lowake Inn and remained more of a bar crowd with pool tables and all that,” Goetz said.

Most of those stories about airplanes landing to eat originated with the Lowake Inn, Goetz said. The building, which isn’t there anymore, faced a dirt airstrip across the road.

“Back then, it was anything to just fly and land wherever,” he said. “There were little air strips all over, near everybody had planes back then. It was just faster for them to fly.”

Occasionally, someone still literally would drop in.

“I've had people from Austin fly in, just bring their helicopter, and come and eat,” he said, laughing. “That is kind of cool.”

Goetz started as a dishwasher at the steak house when he was a freshman at Ballinger High School. It was sort of a family business; his mother Sharon worked there, and so had many of his aunts and his grandmother.

When an opportunity came to buy the Lowake, Goetz said Sharon couldn’t see walking away from it. She bought the restaurant with her son from by then-owner Bill Noelke.

“She always wanted the steak house,” Goetz said. “When it came available and we had the option to buy…, well, I couldn't tell her no.”

He paused, laughing gently at the memory. Sharon died August 25, 2010, four years after touching her dream.

“She just really loved being there, she liked the people and she liked the job,” Goetz said. “She started when she was right out of school waiting tables, and just kind of grew-up working there. She loved the place.”

The Lowake Steak House has built a reputation over the years as a go-to destination for steak. They do things a little bit different down there, and that’s probably one of the reasons why they’ve lasted so long.

“Most people cook their steaks on a charcoal grill or over coals,” Goetz said. “We don't, we use a griddle and the reason we do is instead of all that juice and flavor falling into the fire, it stays and the steak basically bastes itself in its own juices, keeping it juicy and tender.”

The cuts are serious in size. They serve a 35-ounce Porterhouse right out of the Flintstones, and everything else seems to follow suit.

Rick and Beth Holley were passing through on their way to Waxahachie from Kermit, which is out by Odessa. He was about a third of the way through a medium-sized sirloin covering more than half his plate.

“I don’t know what the big one is, but this is a pretty good size,” he said, pointing as his knife at the steak with a laugh. The couple are Lowake devotees, Rick has a T-shirt from the restaurant that’s recognized everywhere he goes, but they didn’ known the restaurant moved.

Consequently, they ended up driving 12 miles out of their way just to eat. Neither of them seemed to care.

“We’re West Texas oil field people, and they’re known for being steak-eaters,” Beth said. “We’ve eaten our share.”

“Perini Ranch and this place right here probably has the best steak I’ve ever eaten,” Rick declared, referencing Tom Perini’s restaurant in Buffalo Gap.

“It’s like it came out of my kitchen,” Beth added. “I cook every day and that’s the way we would eat a steak at home.

“I think they’ve got something here that’s a rarity. There’s too many fast food places, too many chains.”

Goetz made sure elements of the old steak house were incorporated into the new building. An old sign for the restaurant which had sat on the highway now lights up the dining room to provide a bit of nostalgia. It serves not only for harkening to the restaurant’s past, but to reassure its long-time customers.

“We still do everything the exact same way over here as we did over there, we’re just in a bigger, nicer building,” he said. “We do everything the exact same way; I cut meat every day, for that day. The next morning, I'm here doing it again.”

If the restaurant was going to thrive, then the time had come to move. Still, change is hard, especially to die-hard Lowake fans.

Goetz admitted it was tough to do.

“I've been in that place most of my life, but it was either do something different to keep it going, or let it go away,” he said. “ And we didn't want it to go away.”