Food Lookout - Sightings # 2

Since beginning my "Food Lookout" series a couple of days ago, I felt it was time to publicly announce my favorite restaurant OF ALL TIME! It is not a chain establishment, but a privately owned cafeteria in St. Clairsville, OH. All of the local "Ohio Valley Folks" already know what place I am ready to name...it's (a drum roll would be appropriate!)......Mehlman's Cafeteria.

MANY years ago, my Grandpa Forsythe and Pastor L C Porter found this small cafeteria on National Road. I had been told the condensed history of how it began as a small diner in a motel (that is how it was designed when I first ate there when I was less than 10 years old!) and grew into the current cafeteria that converted all the motel rooms to banquet rooms!

With the "wonder of the Internet", I found the full history of this great establishment on-line. The web site is: www.mehlman.com.

If you are ever traveling on Interstate 70 East from Cambridge, it is worth the trip to come on into St. Clairsville for lunch/dinner (approx. 40 miles). There is a wonderful Ohio Valley Mall and huge Wal-Mart shopping center within a couple miles of this treasure. If you continue east, the Cabela's super-store (at the Highland's in Wheeling) is only about another 20 miles away.Or if you are really an eager-shopper, the new Tanger Outlets are just a little further east at Little Washington, PA.

Their history online goes something like this:

If it is not broke, don't fix it" could be the slogan of the Mehlman's Cafeteria in St. Clairsville, where generations of families have flocked for quality, home-cooked meals for more than 40 years.

However, the actual slogan, "Good Cooking - It Never Changes" more than describes the drawing power of Mehlman's. Serving more than 2,000 meals each day during the week and 3,000 on weekends, the ownership and staff of Mehlman's apparently have palate pleasing down to a science.

But it's no scientific formula that keeps the Mehlman loyalists returning day after day, and often year after year. It is the made-from-scratch recipes that recall Sunday dinners at grandma's.

Beef stew and dumplings, baked pork chops, liver and onions, chicken pot pie, cabbage and homemade noodles, ham loaf and cabbage rolls are on the menu. As are prime rib, barbecued ribs, roast beef, baked ham, fried and broiled Canadian white fish, baked lasagna, baked Lima beans and sausage, stuffed chicken breast and fried salmon patties.

A huge favorite is the broccoli casserole and, for dessert, apple dumplings. Fred Mehlman Jr., company vice president, said the most popular desserts include coconut cream pie and tapioca pudding.

Mehlman is the son of restaurant founder Mary Mehlman Dietrich, who opened her first eatery in Wheeling at the YWCA in 1961.

Mary grew up an only child, daughter of a Lithuanian couple who moved to Glencoe, Ohio, from their home country in the early 1900s. After coal mining, Mary's father bought a house in Tar Run and started farming.

At age 14, Mary left for a housekeeping job in Pittsburgh. From there, she moved to Wheeling where she worked as a nanny and housekeeper for $5 a week. When she was 16, Mary got a job at Wheeling Corrugating. It was about that time that she moved in with a family in East Wheeling and met her future husband, Fred Mehlman.

After marriage, the couple lived on a farm with Fred's family and Mary said her mother-in-law took her under her "cooking" wing. The Mehlman family had a booth in the former Market House in downtown Wheeling where they sold produce and poultry, along with the German puddings and dishes made back at the farm.

Years later - after working for a florist shop and having three children - Mary decided to open a deli in the market, offering cooked take-out dishes. That led her to the YWCA.

One week after she opened, Fred Jr. and his wife Mary Jo went to work there. "We used to work seven days a week," said Fred Jr. We had to. Mom drove us. She'd say, 'Come on, we need to make more pies."

Soon Fred Jr. and Mary Jo opened a cafeteria at the Catholic Women's League and fans of Mary's recipes continued to grow.

In 1966, Mary Mehlman bought a former motel on U.S. 40 in St. Clairsville and moved the cafeteria. The motel already had a small coffee shop and diner.

Fred Jr. was already familiar with the motel's small restaurant. That's where he and Mary Jo had their wedding breakfast in 1955.

Today, the third generation of the Mehlmans is carrying on the family tradition. Fred Jr. and Mary Jo's son Jay has been named president and handles the day-to-day operations. But little else has changed.

"We still use all most of mom's recipes," Fred said. "We've just expanded some."

The work day starts at 4 a.m. when the more than 100 employees start arriving. Since everything is made from scratch, a lot of hours go into preparation. And little is wasted.
"We make all our own meringue, which uses only egg whites," Fred explained. "Then all the yolks are used for the noodles."

The heavy-duty bread mixer can mix enough dough for 50 loaves at a time. The kitchen also turns out 40 dozen rolls a day. In an average week, Mehlman's will go through 5,000 pounds of potatoes and 4,320 eggs.

On Fridays, it's not unusual for the cafeteria to serve 500 pounds of fish.

"We've noticed that people are more health conscious now," Fred said, glancing at the clock in his memento-filled office.

It's now 10:15 a.m. and the daily ritual outside Mehlman's Cafeteria is underway.

People are lining up to get in, so they can get in another line. At 10:30 a.m., Mehlman's will open its doors, and before the day is over, another 2,000 hungry customers will have had their home-cooked cravings fulfilled.

Though Mehlman's is an Ohio Valley institution, its loyal fans are legion and hail from nearly every state in the country.

"People plan their vacations to stop here," Fred said. "One time we had a couple from Indiana in line. They turned around and saw their neighbors! We mail gift certificates to people all over the country, including Alaska and Hawaii, and they put them in Christmas cards to send to people back here."

Mehlman's outstanding reputation, just like the wonderful aroma of the fresh-baked apple dumplings, has indeed spread far and wide.

Serving Continuously Tuesday thru Sunday 10:30a.m. to 8:00p.m.
CLOSED MONDAY.

So, since I moved to Central WV over 25 years ago, I do not get a chance to eat at Mehlman's as often as I would like...but don't you think that I don't high-tail it over there anytime I am coming through the area! Just introduced my sister-in-law to it a couple of weeks ago....would gladly do the same for you. It wins five stars from our house to yours....