Grand opening to highlight Houston Lodge’s new menu, atmosphere

HOUSTON — When Laura Pruett was a little girl growing up in Willow in the 1960s, she’d sit in the back of the local inn owned by her mother and pretend to be a waitress taking customer orders.

“I’d sit in the box that had all the order tickets and I had a ‘Mrs. Ketchup’ and a ‘Mr. Mustard’ that I took orders from,” Pruett, now 49, said with a laugh Friday while discussing how she and her husband, Ernie, came to be the new owners of the Houston Lodge at Mile 57 Parks Highway last October. “So, I guess it was just my destiny to be in this industry for most of my life.”

Ernie, too, expressed an interest in cooking early on when he’d make his own breakfast while growing up on a dairy farm in western Washington. His mother was a bartender and introduced him to a certified chef when he was only a teen-ager.

“That did it for me,” said Ernie, now 51. “That was enough to ignite the fire for my culinary career.”

Having studied under four well-respected chefs in Washington state and working as a chef at high-end hotels there, Ernie knew he had enough skill and experience to one day open his own restaurant.

So when he and Laura were not even 30 yet and their two children were still toddlers, they took the leap and opened their first restaurant in Washington state.

“It takes a lot of faith and tenacity — and a lot of your savings,” Laura said. “But you just jump in there and hope you don’t end up in the hole too long.”

Before they knew it, they were running two restaurants, two nightclubs and had 72 employees, working around the clock and not having much time for their family.

“We were crazy busy,” said Laura, a Wasilla High graduate. “We were pretty successful, but we knew we needed to slow down if we wanted to be there for our kids.”

So they sold those ventures and headed north to open The Bear’s Den Restaurant and Bakery in Soldotna, decorating it with antiques they’d recovered from an old barn on Ernie’s family farm.

And although they loved being back in Alaska and catering to residents and tourists on the Kenai Peninsula, Laura knew she wouldn’t be totally happy until she came back home to the Valley.

So when they heard her nephew, Bob Pevan, and his wife, Carrie, were selling the Houston Lodge last fall, they jumped on it.

“I’ve always loved this place,” she said. “Bob and Carrie had refurbished a lot of it after buying it from Rosemary Barnett about four years ago and we’re just taking it a step farther to make it even more inviting and cozy. This is where we want to retire.”

From the moment you step into the historical entryway, you’re hit with the warmth of family antiques and other personal touches, the soothing sound of two flowing fountains, the mouth-watering aroma of Ernie’s French-American cuisine, and the breathtaking sight of sparkling snowflakes floating down through sunlight hitting the expansive back deck.

“I love the ambiance and the food,” frequent customer Andy Slayden, of Willow, said Friday when stopping in for a “grizzly burger” and one of the microbrew beers. “I’ve noticed a big difference since the Pruetts took it over. The prawn dinner is one of my favorites, but I like the prime rib, too. It’s really outstanding.”

The Pruetts said their menu is full of their “best of the best” dishes from all their years of being in the restaurant business.

From Ernie’s secret fettuccini recipes and cracked pepper steaks, to a large selection of Alaska seafood, the Pruetts couldn’t be prouder of their latest — and last — business venture.

To celebrate, they’ve organized a “Grand Opening Extravaganza” Saturday night that will feature a five-course dinner, five stand-up comedians from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and a fireworks show off the back deck for $60 per person.

“It’s going to be so much fun,” Laura said. “I’m already over 50 percent booked. There are only six, four-top tables left.”

The menu that night features frog leg appetizers, peanut soup, Caesar salad, chicken cordon bleu and chef Ernie’s signature Neapolitan cheesecake.

Besides offering a variety of wines and local microbrews, Laura also loves that they have a martini bar featuring chocolate and caramel apple martinis and also make their own crème sodas, shakes, sweet teas and root beer floats.

And just for fun, they also have beer pong tournaments under black lights on the weekends.

“I just want this to be a gathering place for folks for all kind of occasions,” said Laura, adding quite a few people already have reserved the site for weddings this summer. “That’s always been my dream.”

For more information or tickets for the grand opening celebration, call 892-6802.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.