Ellis Restaurant near Shinnston, West Virginia, to close after 67 years

“Three reasons — One is increase in inflation; two is inability to get product that we need to make our specials; and the monumental reason is nobody wants to work. We can’t get anybody to work the kitchen. ... We’ve been trying for a year or longer to get somebody to work in the kitchen,” Ellis said.

The Ellis family has been operating an eatery on the site since they bought it in 1955, although it wasn’t always the restaurant that folks are familiar with today.

“We’ve been here since my dad bought this place in 1955 and the restaurant then was a street car, but it wasn’t a restaurant (yet). The street car line from West Penn closed in 1947, and the Sunset Drive-In opened in 1947, and the street car line was right across the highway from the restaurant, so what they did was get the street car, pulled it over here and made a concession stand out of it,” Ellis said.

“Then we came in 1955, and I worked with my family — my mother, my dad and my family — in the street car for five years from 1955-60, and it was just a concession. Then in 1960, my father converted the street car into a dining room,” Ellis said.

The Ellis Restaurant has always been a family business, which Ellis’ daughter, Antoinette Ellis-Casto, looks back upon fondly.

“Growing up, this is where we were, my sister and I,” Ellis-Casto said. “This is where we were brought up and we were taught good moral values and good work ethics through working with the business. Mom and dad set a good example for us.

“It was tough some days because we worked a lot of hours here, but looking back, it was the best thing mom and dad had us do,” she said.

The restaurant’s final day of business will be June 26, so there is still time for folks to pay a visit.

“Throughout the years, some incredibly profound bonds have been formed with our patrons and our staff, and we have so many cherished memories of these relationships that will always remain with us,” Ellis-Casto said.

“Instead of looking at the conclusion of our story with sadness, we choose to commemorate this final chapter cheerfully, and we invite everyone to stop by and help us celebrate what has brought us so much pleasure during these 67 years. Anyone who would like to wish my father well as this chapter ends, I will tell them that the best time to catch him is between the hours of 5 and 7 p.m.,” she said.

Some particular memories that the two reminisced about included visits from the late actor Pat Cooper, and Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who brought his fiddle and sang happy birthday to Ellis-Casto.

She also noted a curbside service in 1960 that ran for a couple years and a radio station, WHAR, from 1961-1963 that was hosted by Ellis and current Clarksburg Water Board member Al Cox.

Countless other memories that were created in the Ellis Restaurant by the family and their loyal customers have helped make the last 67 years good ones.

“It’s just come time that this era has to come to an end. At least as us being owners,” Ellis said. “What’s down the road for us, I can’t really truthfully answer that. But I know that the restaurant has been good to all of us.”

“It’s time to politely say goodbye to our wonderful customers who have followed us and been good to us all these years and given us a lot of happiness and a lot of business, and were able to get us to this point, and we’re thankful for that,” he said.

Ellis attributes much of the restaurant’s success to the home-cooking style of the specials.

“In all these years, we have been able to prepare our specialties with the same amount of ingredients that we have for 60-70 years,” Ellis said. “We’ve maintained that, and that was a big part of us being successful — that they were homemade recipes and the people couldn’t get them anywhere else.”

Although the restaurant will be closing its doors this month, the Sunset Drive-In will continue operations all summer until Labor Day.

Friday’s start is a bit later than planned, though, after the projector room was severely damaged.

“We’re opening Friday with ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Mummy,’” Ellis said. “We’ll be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

“We got a late start because somebody vandalized our projection room. ... They practically ruined our projector, which is digital, and we had difficulty trying to find parts. We were supposed to open the 7th, but we couldn’t find all of the parts that we needed and people to help us with it, but we finally did,” Ellis said.

Pending a successful projector test before this week’s screenings, The Sunset Drive-In and Ellis Restaurant will be welcoming guests this weekend.