A Friend Of Mine Sent Me This Email...I remember over a decade + ago we used to go out and get shite faced and end up at this place back home in Columbia, MO...I'm pretty sure everyone's got their own "Gasper's." Ahhhhhh...The very vague and blurry memories of our youth...
Missouri truck stop restaurant, famous for pie, biscuits and chicken, serves last meals
Associated Press
KINGDOM CITY, Mo., - Gasper's restaurant, a four-decade fixture for Interstate 70 truckers and travelers that served homemade pie, fluffy biscuits and fried chicken, has closed its doors.
Gasper's gas station and truck plaza will keep operating, but the restaurant served its last platters Tuesday afternoon because of increased competition that has hurt business, said owner Ron Atkinson, grandson of founders John and Lottie Gasper.
Truckers and sentimental longtime customers came by Tuesday for a last meal.
"I've been to all 48 (continental) states and all you have to say is 'Gasper's,' and people know exactly what you're talking about," said Bill Klosterman, 65, a retired trucker. Many regulars know it as "Grandma's."
The restaurant opened in 1965, and Skelly Oil. Co. hired the Gaspers to run it. They bought the place two years later, when there were only two other businesses in the pasture land at the interchange of I-70 and U.S. 54, just north of Fulton.
Today, there are multiple fast-food franchises, including a McDonald's next door. Atkinson said most younger travelers seem to prefer fast-food service.
Bill Paget, 58, a trucker who has made Gasper's a regular stop, said he remained loyal to the last.
"You don't pass Grandma's without stopping," Paget said. "We just sit here, drink coffee and aggravate the waitresses."
Missouri truck stop restaurant, famous for pie, biscuits and chicken, serves last meals
Associated Press
KINGDOM CITY, Mo., - Gasper's restaurant, a four-decade fixture for Interstate 70 truckers and travelers that served homemade pie, fluffy biscuits and fried chicken, has closed its doors.
Gasper's gas station and truck plaza will keep operating, but the restaurant served its last platters Tuesday afternoon because of increased competition that has hurt business, said owner Ron Atkinson, grandson of founders John and Lottie Gasper.
Truckers and sentimental longtime customers came by Tuesday for a last meal.
"I've been to all 48 (continental) states and all you have to say is 'Gasper's,' and people know exactly what you're talking about," said Bill Klosterman, 65, a retired trucker. Many regulars know it as "Grandma's."
The restaurant opened in 1965, and Skelly Oil. Co. hired the Gaspers to run it. They bought the place two years later, when there were only two other businesses in the pasture land at the interchange of I-70 and U.S. 54, just north of Fulton.
Today, there are multiple fast-food franchises, including a McDonald's next door. Atkinson said most younger travelers seem to prefer fast-food service.
Bill Paget, 58, a trucker who has made Gasper's a regular stop, said he remained loyal to the last.
"You don't pass Grandma's without stopping," Paget said. "We just sit here, drink coffee and aggravate the waitresses."
