Introduction
Pinnacle Peak Patio, Front Entrance.
On June 28, 2015 Pinnacle Peak Patio will close its doors and not open them again. As a tribute to a special place and a special time, we are publishing an article that describes the early history of Pinnacle Peak Patio. This is the first of three parts. See “Related Articles,” following this part, for links to the other two parts.
Time flies when you’re having fun and Pinnacle Peak Patio has been part of the mostly happy rocket ride that I and my family have been on since moving to the Pinnacle Peak area in the early 1980s. Judy and I have visited more than our share of beautiful places, but neither of us will forget the incredible evening in 1982. We were at a corporate event at Pinnacle Peak Patio that was held outdoors on the slope of Pinnacle Peak. It was an evening aglow with a spectacular skyscape. The sun set and the moon rose, distant Scottsdale and Phoenix lights twinkled, friends, enjoyable conversations, warm air, a nice breeze, live country music, two-step dancing, great steak with cowboy beans, and libations all around. It was the kind of evening that you imagine when you page through an inspiring travel brochure. For us, at that time, it was the West at its best.
The Stragglers Band with Geoff Conklin (right) perform at Pinnacle Peak Patio.
We had no idea that our youngest son, Geoff, then finishing 8th grade in Massachusetts, would one day provide the country music at Pinnacle Peak Patio (and Greasewood Flat). Who would have guessed that after retirement I would write a book, “Pinnacle Peak – Images of America. The book includes photographs of Pinnacle Peak Patio provided by the Patio’s Big Marv for use in the book. Thank you Big Marv and Pinnacle Peak Patio for all the great stories and times, especially that memorable evening in 1982. Who knew? For the record, I took the pictures of our son performing at the landmark steakhouse. Les Conklin, Editor
Pinnacle Peak Patio Dishes Up Steaks with a Side of Local History
By Nancy Lukas and Don Schoenau
As published in A Peek at the Peak, May 2000
In his black 10-gallon hat, scuffed boots, jeans, red bandanna, bola tie and loaded six-gun strapped to his thigh, “Big Marv” Dickson looks like he just rode up on his horse and tied it to the hitchin’ post out front. Marv’s attire is right on target, because he is the manager and grill master at the Pinnacle Peak Patio, a cowboy steakhouse that is a landmark in the Pinnacle Peak area. Marv started at the “Patio” in the early 1960s when he was a teenÂager. Now a husband and father of three young men, Big Marv recollects when the Patio was surrounded by nothing more than a few rattlesnakes and saguaro and visited by rowdy cowboys out for a night of fun.
Original Pinnacle Peak Patio, 1957.
Don and I interviewed Marv at the Patio one recent morning and we got to talking about how things were “in the good old days.” The conversation meandered down many roads, revealing how Pinnacle Peak Patio got started, the Patio’s colorful ambience in the early days, and how the surrounding area has developed.
The highly recognizable Pinnacle Peak itself is visible from many parts of the Valley of the Sun and has served as a navigating point for all who have inhabited this area. It was named by the early Hohokam Indians who lived there from around 450 to 1450 A.D. After the Hohokam, came cattlemen, sheep herders, prospectors, surveyors, homesteaders and ranchers. Pinnacle Peak has been surrounded by mining claims, grazing lands, trails, stage coach routes and a military wagon road.
Original Pinnacle Peak Patio, 1959. Photo Courtesy of Marv Dickson.
The Patio existed long before the Pinnacle Peak area was a glint in a developer’s eye. Bill and Dotty DePew started the first Patio in 1957, as a little store on the road to the Verde River serving lunches, soft drinks, cold beer, wine, groceries, gas, oil, and fishing supplies. The store was just eking out a living, so the DePews were receptive when someone suggested they sell steaks to those traveling through. They bought ten, two-pound porterhouse steaks, and it took three weeks to sell them. This modest beginning, however, was just the start for this local institution that currently serves thousands of diners a week and is known throughout the world.
The original shack was located where Reata Pass is now. When it burned down in 1959, the DePews bought the current ten-acre location for $7,000. It was a tiny place with seats for only 50 diners. When Marv started in 1961, “the Patio was a screened in barroom.” Marv started in the dish room and he would watch the cooks and try to learn what they were doing. “One night nobody showed up and I had to go out there and I’ve been doing it ever since. I didn’t know what I was doing but I grilled 300 steaks and only one came back. The next week I was given the job,” said Marv.
1957 Advertisement Shows Location of Original Pinnacle Peak Patio. Photo Courtesy of Marv Dickson.
Until 1965, the only way to get to the Patio was over a 20Âmile, dusty, rut-filled, dirt road from Phoenix. There were lines of people waiting to get in, and there was no telephone. People just drove out and took their chances. It was so far out that it was often a place where you would see two people together who didn’t want to be seen, or who weren’t supposed to be seen together. Many of the early patrons were local cowboys and ranchers (before the ranches were sold for housing developments) including Goldie and Brownie who owned DC Ranch, the Cartwrights, Kemper Marley and others.
“On Saturday nights in the old days we always had fights, and sometimes a gun would be drawn. We had a lot of good times in here, the fights were just part of the western atmosphere. In the old days I would often have to drive home one of the ranchers that had too much to drink,” said Marv. “Saturday nights I’d be cooking out at the front grill and people were standing where you had to send the money across. Those were the good old days. But now it has changed, it’s quieter.”
Up until the 1980s all the cooks and managers carried loaded guns to “handle” people who walked out without paying their bills. On one occasion three men tried to walk out, and knocked down a manager and a busboy in their hurry to reach their truck. Big Marv pulled his pistol and shot out the tires. None of the patrons seemed to be alarmed, they thought it was all part of the western flavor. This atmosphere lasted a long time, a 1968 newspaper advertisement advised guests to “check their guns at the bar.”
Related Articles
Thank You Pinnacle Peak Patio! – Part 2 of 3 – Published May 17, 2015
Thank You Pinnacle Peak Patio! – Part 3 or 3 – Published May 19, 2015
Editor Note. “Pinnacle Peak, Images of America, written by Les Conklin and the Greater Pinnacle Peak Association and published by Arcadia Publishing is available on Amazon.com and other major book sellers. For a signed copy and to save postage, contact The Peak.
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