Old Fashioned Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Ogden Utah

Prairie Schooner a tasty Former West retreat during pandemic

By Valerie Phillips special To The Standard-Examiner - | Mar 11, 2021

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The Prairie Schooner offers a taste of the Quondam West, with diners sitting in covered wagons amidst mounted wild animals, campfires and cactuses.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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The Prairie Schooner offers a gustatory modality of the One-time West, with diners sitting in covered wagons amid mounted wild animals, campfires and cactus.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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The Schooner Burger ($ten.99) is smothered in barbecue sauce, topped with cheddar, bacon, onion strings, lettuce, lycopersicon esculentum, pickles and mayo.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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The Schooner Combo ($30.99) features an eight-ounce, salary-wrapped filet mignon with three batter-fried jumbo shrimp.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Julie Johnson, Prairie Schooner partner, sits in one of the restaurant's covered wagon tables.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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The Cattleman's Catch ($19.99) includes an 8-ounce cutting of baked salmon served with tender broccoli and au gratin potatoes at the Prairie Schooner.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Deep-fried mushrooms ($7.99) are a longtime favorite appetizer at the Prairie Schooner.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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The Prairie Schooner's patio, built final year, volition open when the weather gets warmer.

Valerie Phillips, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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The Prairie Schooner harks dorsum to the Erstwhile West, when social distancing out on the lone borderland was the norm.

Patrons sit down in individual tables resembling covered wagons, overlooking a starry sky, campfires, sagebrush, cactuses and heart-stopping mounts of wild fauna. By lantern light, they chomp on USDA choice steaks, broiled salmon, half-pound burgers and other firm specialties.

The Ogden dining landmark was named for the wagon used by settlers trekking West. From a distance, the wagon's white canvas bonnet looked like a schooner sailing ship. Hence, the term, "prairie schooner."

Years afterward, the billowing canvas covers were a boon during the pandemic, as they count as a barrier to the coronavirus, according to Weber/Morgan Health Department's public data officer Lori Buttars.

"Yous are pretty much sitting inside a big mask," said Michelle Llewellyn, the eating place's managing director. "That was a saving grace for us, so that we can use all of our wagons. A eating place is hard enough to make a profit with 100% occupancy. Bring information technology down to thirty% and I don't know how you lot could do it."

Co-ordinate to old-timers, the Prairie Schooner was opened around 1976 by Neil Rasmussen on Washington Boulevard, where The Junction sits today. It had covered wagon seating and a simple carte of high-end steaks.

In 1978, structure of the Ogden Urban center Mall forced Rasmussen and his partners, Dean and Karen Hill, to movement to the current site on 445 Park Blvd., near the Ogden River.

An avid hunter, Rasmussen created a taxidermist'southward wild game paradise, along with old ranch tools, wagon wheels and outdoor artifacts. At the time, themed restaurants, such equally the Hard Rock Café, were catching on. People wanted more than only a meal.

Llewellyn noted that many themed restaurants take died out, "considering usually the nutrient wasn't that corking. But the Prairie Schooner has actually good food and service, non just a theme. In that location's something to be said for sitting in a wagon side by side to a campfire, with a delicious steak."

In fact, the eatery became so pop that some other dining area was added to the back of the building, to avoid the two-hour waits for a table on Saturday nights.

Then tragedy struck. Rasmussen was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig'south illness and passed away in 1982. Dean and Karen Colina left and founded the Timbermine, another premiere Ogden steakhouse still in business today. Somewhen, the Rasmussen family sold the Prairie Schooner to Rasmussen'south hunting buddy, Jim Koertge, who had helped with the initial décor and taxidermy mounts. Koertge ran the restaurant until 2009, when it inverse hands again.

In 2015, it was bought past Norm George and Julie Johnson. In a Standard-Examiner article at the time, Johnson noted that the restaurant had recently struggled with food quality and service, and vowed to bring it "dorsum to the way information technology used to be."

New dishes, such as ribs ($22.99) were added. But signature specialties remain, including the ever-pop deep-fried mushrooms ($7.99). The Cowgirl — a salary-wrapped filet mignon ($29.99) — and the Wagonmaster ($34.99), a Porterhouse steak, are two of the favorite steaks.

Nobody counted on COVID-19 shutting downwardly in-restaurant dining from March to May 2020.

"It was a very scary time, when we were unsure of the future," Llewellyn said. There weren't many takeout meals, since the majority of Prairie Schooner customers preferred eating their steaks hot and juicy in the restaurant's unique atmosphere, instead of lukewarm in a takeout box at home.

Johnson and George used the closure to make renovations. They pulled upward carpeting and added a tin can-type roofing to the antechamber ceiling and stairs. They spiffed upward the bar and added swinging, saloon-type doors.

They as well took steps to comply with pandemic health guidelines, removing the traditional red-and-white checked tablecloths to more than hands sanitize the tables.

They congenital a patio, a welcome addition since outdoor seating helps avert transmission of the virus. Although it's not open up now, "In September, information technology was nice to sit down out there with a squeamish breeze and you lot tin can hear the river across the street in the groundwork," Llewellyn said.

Although business was slow last year, "For January, overall, we were up in sales," Llewellyn said. "People want to get back to normal, but at a safe altitude."

It'southward known for high-terminate steaks and seafood. Only in that location are less expensive options on the carte du jour, particularly during luncheon when you can gild smaller steaks, every bit well as sandwiches and salads. Llewellyn maintains that the burgers ($ix.99 to $11.99) are the eating house's best-kept secret.

"They are absolutely astonishing, and they don't get enough love," she said. "All our burgers are fabricated from the trimmings of our steaks. So you're getting a choice chopped steak. They're a one-half-pound, and so delicious with all the fresh-cut toppings on a brioche bun."

The prime rib ($22.99) is slow-roasted 4 hours to get a seasoned crust. It's served with au jus and horseradish on the side.

"On Fridays and Saturdays, people who desire prime number rib know to come early, considering information technology's and then pop that there'southward a great take chances that nosotros might run out," Llewellyn said.

The children's carte runs from $5.95 to $9.95.

Hours are Monday-Thursday from 11 a.chiliad. to 3 p.m. for dejeuner and 3-9:30 p.k. for dinner; Fridays, 11 a.1000. to 10 p.thou.; Saturdays, 3-10 p.g.; and closed Lord's day.