Punxy Phil’s to close its doors next month
PUNXSUTAWNEY — One of the most popular restaurants in the area, Punxy Phil’s Cake and Steaks Family Restaurant in Punxsutawney, will close its doors May 12.
Diane HeLal, wife of the late owner Dean HeLal, said that they first opened their restaurant in 1972 in the Punxy Plaza as a Perkins franchise.
“We dropped the franchise, changed to Punxy Phils Cakes and Steaks,”
HeLal said, adding that they’ve become an iconic restaurant for tourists in the Weather Capital of the World.
She said back in the day, when they were Perkins, the franchise fees kept going up, so they changed the name. They were located in the Punxy Plaza, and the owners wanted to give that corner spot to another business, so they were forced to move.
“Following the Flood of ’96 we had just finished up cleaning up and we were forced to find a new location,” Diane said. “In searching for a new location, we came upon the location which was owned by Mahoning Hardware, and there was an old gas station, which had the tanks in the ground, which had to be removed at a cost of $60,000, and then designing the building, as we had blueprints, but we made a lot of changes; it took us a year to build, and then we opened in May of 1997.”
HeLal said they were very upset about having to move, but it was an opportunity as well.
“Our business doubled when we came here,” Diane said. “Everyone knows who Punxsy Phil is; I was on a plane several weeks ago and introduced myself to the passenger next to me, and I said I was from Punxsy and he said, ‘You guys have those new babies, don’t you?’”
HeLal said that Dean died in 2012 and it just seems like yesterday.
She said the closure is due to issues securing staff.
“We’ll continue to be open until 2 p.m., and then Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12, will be the final day,” she said, adding that their limited staff couldn’t handle the other big days coming up.
“I want to go out with a little bit of grace, so the people will say it was a great place instead of people waiting an hour for their meal because we have one waitress,” she added.
She said they’ve had two employees who have been there for a long time, Kay Curtis, 44 years, and Lynda Brown, 38 years.
“We have the absolute best staff you could ever ask for; they are the blood that runs through our veins,” HeLal said.
She said staff is hard to find and they’ve lost two full-time employees in the last two months.
“It’s sad, because the business is here, we’ve been trying to sell it for the last two years and we were so hoping somebody would buy it,” she said, adding that they are going to wait until September to see if anyone is interested in buying. If not, they’ll sell the contents and then the land and building separately.
HeLal wanted to thank all of their customers and employees over the years.
“I love the people, I love the business, but at one point I had two assistant managers and myself,” Diane said. “I lost both of them so now I’m here every day that we’re open.”
HeLal said she’s looking forward to seeing their customers one last time before they close for good on Mother’s Day.