The Lobby

It's always exciting when something new opens in Creston. People can be rough on new places...restaurants have come and gone. But this is a new bar! Creston has our share of boozers.

Pam and Tim Gray purchased Bernings - a well known hotel and restaurant a few years ago. Bernings was a centerpiece in Creston. It once featured a lunch buffet, and the "Red Room." I never saw the hotel rooms, but heard they were functional if not 4 star.

Paul and I enjoyed lunch at Bernings on our very first visit to Creston. We were looking for a house to buy - to make our home. Paul had accepted a job as District Conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Union County. We were living in Osage in Mitchell County where he did the same thing - but it was a flat and boring county, so had its limitations. We were 28 years old.

People at Paul's new office recommended a realtor, so Betty Brown from Stewart Realty showed us homes on our price range that day, while lil Amy G. stayed at my mom and dad's in Atlantic. She had just turned one. Mom said she spent the day climbing in and out of the little rocking chair Mom got her.

Betty dragged us through many houses. Many depressed me. But one had potential - though it was very green, inside and out. And it was at the very top of our price range. We had to think. Betty took us to lunch at Bernings. We sat in the back in the "red room".

We noticed an older woman sitting by herself who looked intriguing. Though she had to be in her 70's, she had blond hair, and she was wearing sunglasses. And a crocheted Coors beer can hat. We asked Betty about her - she said, oh that's Hollywood Susie. One of town's well-known personalities. Evidently she had been an actress at one time, but got off the train in Creston and she lived at the Iowana Motel when it was still functioning.

Bernings peaked in the 80's. Bob, Frieda and their son Nate Berning still made a go of it after that, but the place seemed to lose its luster. Super 8 built a motel on Highway 34, and restaurants featuring relish trays and chefs with hats became passe. Bob was ready to retire, so they sold the place. A Chinese restaurant tried to make a go here, but failed. Then Grays bought it.

So I couldn't enter "The Lobby", Tim and Pam's new bar without thinking of Susie. They named it The Lobby because that's the old paint job on the outside of Bernings said. When you look through the first section of seating, you see the former Red Room area.

I raised one in her honor Friday night - after Bobbie texted me to joined my homies for drinks. Paul and Jeff stopped by later. We taught the staff (Tim and Pam's daughter-in-law - Jessica Beving) how to make a perfect lemondrop martini.