No Elk, No Creek, Now, No Restaurant

Elk Creek In

A Restaurant Review

Okay, here™s a new one: Reviewing a restaurant (well, actually a bar & grill), that just closed.

Yep, the Elk Creek Inn located outside of McKean/Fairview, just off I-79, closed recently.

How recently? The first week of February I went there to dine and write a review. By the time I sat down to write it during the third week of this month, it shuttered its doors. At least according to Google.

But this intrepid reporter wasn™t satisfied with what that know-it-all search engine said. I had to see it for myself. So on a Saturday afternoon while heading towards Erie, I stopped in to see the place. No cars in the lot, no lights on, no activity”except that it looked like someone was trying to remove its business sign and gave up.

Consider this a public service announcement.

I had talked to the owner whenever I visited there. A friendly guy named Ron, who was always our server. To be honest, I™m a little hurt he didn™t mention the place was closing. After all, I have fond memories of the place: In the early 1990™s, I worked there as a waiter before deciding to incur more student debt and attend Slippery Rock University.

I can only hazard a guess that the reason it closed was economic. The few times I ate there since I returned to the area, there was no one there, except a few locals having a brew. Quiet as a morgue. Much unlike when I worked there: the place was packed in the evenings. They held wedding receptions and birthday parties there. It was jumpin™.

For me, it™s sad to see it go.

It doesn™t make sense to review the food; however, I™ll mention the liver and onions in passing: probably the best I ever had. Thin slices of liver with thick slices of onion rings and tiny chopped pieces of bacon atop the meat. ,l][Not Bac-os, actual bacon. Yum!

The only other time something like this happened was when I pitched reviewing Hooch & Blotto™s on Peach Street, a sports bar with an eight-lane bowling alley and weekly mustache discounts, whatever that was. Anyhow, but the time the GURU okayed it, the place was shuttered.

And I even started growing a mustache!

All said, goodbye, Elk Creek Inn. At least I™ll miss you.

***Tony B

If you missed the point of this review, allow me to reiterate: The Elk Creek Inn is closed. Don™t call. You™ll just get a disconnected message.