This ‘L Do Café

In 1947, Lou and Lee Pech bought S & M Sandwich, located at 816 Franklin Street, from the Woods. The couple renamed the restaurant to the “This’L Do”, because at that time it was the only restaurant on the highway. Muriel (Pech) Owen, a daughter, recalls how her parents “forced her to labor” in the restaurant. She waited on tables, washed dishes, filled pop cases, and learned to bake delicious pies. Muriel states they served the town with the best pies in the county. People came from all over for Sunday dinner in the dining room. Semi trucks lined the highway as drivers stopped on the busy highway for coffee, good food, and conversation. Often the drivers caught “thirty winks” before resuming their travel; Lou agreed to awaken them at the requested time.

This ‘L Do Cafe began in 1947 at this location where Gary Heins lives and has his barbershop in 2004.

In the fall, they served group after group of threshers in the dining room. Bowls and platters of food passed around one group after another as they tried to keep enough food flowing out of the kitchen to feed the hungry workers and the regular lunch crowd.

The family lived upstairs and they worked downstairs. It was their duty to maintain the fire whistle and also flip the switch for the noon whistle each day, even though it was during the noon lunch rush and hard to keep an eye on the clock. They also took phone calls from farmers wanting their animals artificially inseminated. This was a service they performed for the Eastern Iowa Artificial Breeders.

Muriel said there were three phones, one for the breeders, one for the fire department and one for the café. Muriel remembers walking to the post office for mail and the locker plant for the meat for the next day. She also recalls walking to the Corner Grocery on Main Street to fill in the items her Mom had forgotten to order from Witwer Grocery.

The This ‘L Do Cafe and DX Truck Stop was built in 1954.

In 1951, Oren and Flossie Heins purchased and operated the café, living on the second floor with their children, Dale and Judy. They purchased meat from Leo Notbohm, who raised Black Angus south of Center Point. In 1954, they built a new building to house the restaurant on the southwest corner of Franklin and Iowa streets. The restaurant was combined with a DX Station Truck Stop. Flossie and Dale’s wife, Pauline, ran the café, which operated for 24-hours a day, while Oren operated the station. The truck stop was busy and many thought the business was “pretty classy” for a town the size of Center Point. Pauline continued to run the café until 1965.

Subsequent owners include Marion Chirstianson, Hally Dronebarger, and Reece until the late 1970s. Bill Rhinehart operated the station in 1958. In 1970, he moved his business to the northwest corner of Franklin and Washington streets