PARK CITY — After 30 years serving as a bastion of normalcy amid the trendy, high-end, Zagat-surveyed, cholesterol-conscious restaurants that have taken most of the high ground — a place where you could get a steak dinner for $8.95 with a slice of homemade banana cream pie for dessert; where an appetizer was another order of onion rings — the Mount Air Cafe is hanging up its deep fryers.
It's not because of a lack of business. People who know a legitimate three-egg omelette with genuine hash browns still beat a steady path to the front door George Polychronis erected back in April of 1976 when Park City was just beginning to find its legs as a resort town.
It's Polychronis, who recently celebrated his 78th birthday, who is ready for a rest. The one and only owner of the Mount Air has decided to formally retire, sell his fixtures and lease the building to his son, Jeff, the owner of Squatters brewpub in downtown Salt Lake.
If things go as planned, by July a Park City Squatters will be Mount Air's heir.
But not its replacement.
Tonight at 6, when the cafe is scheduled to serve up its last piece of pie, yet another slice of Park City's past will erode away.
"A lot of people are heartbroken about it," said a longtime Mount Air waitress named Shelley, who admitted to a bit of heartbreak herself, given that she hasn't yet secured alternative employment. "They ask, 'where will I go?' There isn't anywhere else like this."
Not close by, at any rate.
In 1976, Polychronis opened the cafe when the grocery store his Greek immigrant parents started in Park City, the Mount Air Market, closed its doors. He bought a piece of property along the main highway at the entrance to town and brought with him the family sausage recipe and his sister Catherine's mother-in-law, Jessie Macalevy, to make the pies.
"I really think he just wanted a place to smoke his cigarette and drink his cup of coffee," said Debbie Goff, George's niece and, besides being the Mount Air's longtime manager, the person who took over the pie-making from her grandmother. "Back then, there wasn't anywhere in Park City you could have a piece of pie and a cup of coffee at3 or 4 in the afternoon."
A strong and loyal local following has kept George and Debbie company for the past three decades, and Park City being Park City, there have also been the occasional recognizable faces. Everyone from Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood to Roma Downey and the Grateful Dead have sunk into the booths or sat at the Mount Air counter. During the NBA Finals in the late 1990s, the Chicago Bulls ate breakfast every morning at the Mount Air and Debbie admits she aided the enemy by bringing her special oatmeal from home for then Bulls coach Phil Jackson.
There are no celebrity autographs on the walls of the Mount Air, however. "We always told the staff not to ask for autographs," said Debbie. "They came in to eat in peace just like everyone else."
"If you're going to write something about this," said Debbie, "don't make it out like we were perfect or anything. Just say that we put out some bad meals along with some good ones."
Places like this, no one wants to see them depart.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.