T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Brittany Sanderson and Mike Davis, currently of Waterloo, are the new owners of That Place Steakhouse, the beloved restaurant located just west of Conrad. Sanderson is a Conrad native and a Class of 2007 BCLUW High School graduate.

CONRAD — When word began to spread that Conrad native Brittany Sanderson and her husband Mike Davis were in the process of buying That Place, the beloved throwback steakhouse located about a mile west of town at the Highway 14 intersection, they heard a consistent plea from both staff and customers: don’t change anything.

“The number one people are asking (is) ‘What are you gonna change?’ That’s what they want to know. We don’t want to change anything. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Sanderson said. “Obviously, we’ve made some improvements. We’ve added new beverages. We’ve got Carbliss in here. We switched out the Miller Lite keg for a Busch Light keg, just small changes.”

Sanderson graduated from BCLUW High School in 2007, went to the University of Northern Iowa and got a job with Hy-Vee in catering, where she and Davis met. When they were discussing places to go out for a great steak, she suggested That Place.

“I’m like ‘Hey, there’s this really good restaurant in my hometown. We should try it out.’ So I started taking him here,” she said. “My mom and stepdad live in Marshalltown, so we’d meet here and come here, like, once a month.”

Davis, who hails from the small town of Garner about 30 miles west of Mason City, had never heard of That Place before his future wife recommended it, and he was surprised to hear that reservations were needed several days in advance. When they arrived for the first time, he suddenly realized what all the fuss was about.

“I did when I got here because we couldn’t find a place to park. Cars were up and down the blacktop, and I’m like ‘What’s going on?’ So then you come in here, and it’s kind of the original deal,” he said. “It’s not fancy. It’s kind of a hometown type deal. I had been to smaller bar places, but never to, like, a supper club is kind of what I consider this. So it was an anomaly, really, and we started coming here once a month at least.”

Last November, both Sanderson and Davis felt a desire to do something new, and when they heard the restaurant was for sale, it piqued their interest. About a month later, another offer fell through, and they began to more seriously consider the possibility.

“We were at a point where we were wanting to do something different with our careers, and then this kind of came along and we had an opportunity to work for ourselves. We were like ‘Hey, this is perfect,'” Sanderson said. “I always loved growing up in Conrad. I always wanted to come back here, but there was never a reason to come back here (until now).”

For the time being, the couple is still commuting back and forth from their home in Waterloo, but they’ve already started working with realtors on finding a place closer to their business. As they previously mentioned, they aren’t looking to radically transform an eatery so widely revered for its nostalgic appeal, but they did introduce a new open-faced Hot Prime Rib sandwich with mashed potatoes recently.

“People went crazy over it, and it’s just something different. Like, don’t take away, but you can add, too,” Sanderson said.

Sanderson and Davis officially took over from previous owners Jeff DeNeui and Sandy Gibbs, who ran That Place for nearly two decades, about seven weeks ago, but they’ve kept DeNeui on staff to do all of the morning prep work and share the restaurant’s famed recipes.

“He’s been super helpful just showing me what he does,” Sanderson said. “Everyone’s been super supportive and (saying) ‘Oh, it’s great that it’s someone local’ because if it was somebody from the outside… you know how some people are in small towns.”

The entire staff has also stayed onboard, and the community support and feedback thus far has been nothing but positive.

“There’s people coming in that I haven’t seen in probably 20 years, and I’m just catching up with people that I haven’t seen. It’s cool,” Sanderson said.

That Place is located at 33030 G Ave., Conrad, and is open from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant has an active Facebook page and can be reached by phone at (641) 366-2911.

The new owners hope hungry customers — whether they’ve enjoyed 1,000 steaks or are coming in for their first one — will continue to patronize the revered central Iowa eatery.

“It’s a local girl done good (story), came home to roost, and now she can have this place for 25 to 30 years. That’s really what we wanted people to know is (that) she wanted to come back and support the community,” Davis said.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.