Lone Star Eatery Grill & Bar has been a restaurant fixture in Commerce for a decade, from its beginnings as Lone Star Pizza Works, which opened in 1999 on Live Oak Street, to its current location in front of Wal-Mart, which opened on Aug. 27, 2008.
For owner Ken Moyer, the restaurant’s mission is simple.
“Our goal is to be the restaurant of choice in the community of Commerce,” Moyer said.
Lone Star offers a wide variety of menu items, including pizzas, steak, salads and many other choices, and also has a full bar.
“The food is really good,” bartender Stormie Smith said. “It’s all cooked to order. The things that are really popular are chicken fried steaks, the Texas burger and we have great shrimp.”
Though Lone Star’s menu is already extensive, they are open to new ideas.
“[For example], people have been wanting fried pickles since we opened,” Moyer said. “Well, we never had them, so we put them on the new menu, and now we sell a ton of fried pickles. So if there are other ideas out there that people would like for us to incorporate into our operation, we’re always willing to try them.”
In addition to giving residents and students a place to eat lunch or dinner, Lone Star has given many students a place to make a living.
“We do employ a lot of college students,” Moyer said. “We’ve got about 30 students who work here.”
Lone Star’s customer base is not limited to Commerce. Customer Pam Evans drives once a week from Celeste to eat at the restaurant.
“It’s worth the drive,” Evans said. “The service here is just really, really good.”
The diversity of the menu draws many customers from neighboring towns, as Lone Star offers some items diners cannot find where they live.
“I’ve heard people say they come in groups from Greenville, because [Lone Star] has tilapia,” Evans said. “They can’t get tilapia in Greenville.”
The new Lone Star location, which is next to the Holiday Inn Express at the intersection of Culver Street and Hwy. 24/50, can seat up to 150 people. This can be a little misleading when the parking spaces fill up outside.
“You can have a full parking lot out there, but that’s only 75 people,” Moyer said. “That’s only half capacity, so it doesn’t mean every seat in here is full. There’s almost always seating available.”
Lone Star is in the middle of adding technology to their menu as well. The restaurant’s website, www.lonestareatery.com, is currently being redesigned by Paul Bryan, a photographer for Marketing Communications, and will soon debut some new features.
“There will be comment pages so people can type us notes and comments,” Moyer said. “You can Twitter us; you can [find us] on Facebook. We hope to get everyone’s e-mail address eventually and do mass e-mails of our specials. We’re looking at ways to expand our marketing to a more current setting that more people are using.”
For those who are unsure whether they will be able to find something at Lone Star to their liking, Evans lays those fears to rest.
“There’s something here for everybody,” Evans said.