The news came through my Facebook feed as if it was no big deal. But it was.

The last Luby’s in town had abruptly closed.

According to a sign on the door, the closing of the Tyler, Texas, Luby’s was temporary due to issues with the building, which is old. But someone else reported that the restaurant’s employees had been told otherwise. They were all let go.

If you aren’t familiar with Luby’s, it is a cafeteria. You enter and grab a tray, then a set of silverware wrapped in a cloth napkin. You place your tray on the tray slide that runs the length of the food line and move your tray as you go.

It is similar to the lunchroom setup we all grew up with in elementary and junior high, but the food isn’t even close to the same as what we endured in school.

Everything Luby’s makes is excellent. Especially their liver and onions.

If you just turned up your nose, I know that you’re not in my camp on this one. But, I will tell you that Luby’s is just about the only place that I would actually eat, much less like, liver and onions.

I have no idea how they make it so darn good, but is so tasty that when Luby’s published a cookbook in the 1990s, I sought the book out and bought it just so that I could try and make liver and onions like they do.

Even though I’ve tried more than once, it never tastes anywhere close to the liver and onions at Luby’s. Mine comes out more like the leather used to make boots.

Growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, after church on Sunday, if we kids were lucky and my parents felt like taking us, we would go to a movie at the Oaklawn Cinema in Texarkana.

The movie theater was in the shopping center of the same name, which also contained many other businesses, including Luby’s.

Before shopping malls, there were shopping centers. And in the early 70s, Oaklawn Shopping Center was a newer one with lots of great stores.

The Luby’s there shared a wall with a men’s clothing store. Wisely, the clothing store had put windows in the shared wall, so that as you made your way to get to the serving line of Luby’s you would see different items they offered for sale.

That is, most items. There was one that wasn’t.

One thing that had caught my dad’s eye for years was a gold, decorative sword that sat in one of the windows. It was a display piece. It wasn’t for sale, but my dad would go into the clothing shop on weekdays and try and by the sword anyway. The manager wouldn’t sell it.

As we made our way through the line each time, dad would tell mom that he was going to by that sword one day. When we got to the front of the line, my mom always ordered liver and onions.

I was baffled that anyone would want to eat such a thing. I always played it safe and got a beef cutlet or chicken fried steak, until one day my mom convinced me to try a bite of hers.

I did. To my surprise, I liked it.

The visits to Luby’s after that almost always included a plate of liver and onions on my tray. Every now and then, I’d get their fish almondine or chicken fried steak, but my mainstay was always liver and onions.

Eventually, the new mall in Texarkana drew away the shoppers from Oaklawn and that Luby’s closed. They relocated in Texarkana, and we followed them.

When I moved to Tyler in 1987, there were three Luby’s restaurants. One was on Rice Road, the other on the North Loop, and one, the oldest, off of Broadway. It reportedly had been there for 55 years.

A Montgomery Ward once sat across the street from that Luby’s. It had an escalator. I used to shop there for lawnmowers, household items, clothes, and many other things. Afterwards, we would often go to Luby’s.

But, that is no longer an option. The last Luby’s in in my town is gone. Someone with Luby’s corporate says they’ll be back. But, when asked about a timeline by a local reporter, they were vague about when.

That’s why I’m glad that just the week before their abrupt closing, we opted to eat there. My mom came to town and she, my wife, and I decided to spend our lunch hour there.

They had changed the layout of the checkout process so that you paid as you exited the serving line instead of after the meal. I commented on how much that improved the process and flow of getting your food and only having to stand in line once.

The good news is that my dad was able to buy that sword. He finally wore the manager down. It has hung on the wall in in my parents’ living room for many years.

And I still have my Luby’s cookbook. I’m glad that I do. Someday, I’ll make another attempt at making liver and onions. But, I know it’ll never be the same.

I’ll miss Luby’s. A lot.

 

©2019 John Moore

John’s book, Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now, is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Email John at John@TheCountryWriter.com.