LOWAKE — The name will stay the same but the location will change.
The Lowake Steak House, which has been a fixture in the small community of Lowake in Concho County for more than 60 years, will close its doors Sunday, Feb. 19.
The famous eatery, known for its Texas-sized KC steaks, onion rings and beer served up in frosty mugs, will move 7 miles down the road from its location on Farm-to-Market Road 381 to Rowena, an unincorporated community 26 miles northeast of San Angelo.
Lowake Steak House owner Kerry Goetz bought the former Turnrow Bar & Grill, which is located on the service road alongside U.S. Highway 67 North. He will keep the Lowake Steak House name.
Goetz is currently hiring staff at the new location, but said he doesn't have a firm date for its grand opening.
Lowake at one time was home to two steakhouses.

Just up the road from The Lowake Steak House was the Original Lowake Inn, which opened in 1946 when San Angelo resident, John Zentner, converted an old army barracks and small grocery store into a two-room restaurant. Five years later, he sold the establishment to Cotton Koehler, who then sold the steakhouse to Phil and Rose Lorfing in 1961. It later closed in 1982.

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The Lowake Steak House first opened in the early 1950s. One of its long-time owners was Phil Tomlinson, who took over the restaurant in 1974 and ran it for almost 30 years.
In a 2003 interview with the San Angelo Standard Times, Tomlinson said the secret to running such a successful restaurant was hardly a secret.
"It's good food, a good atmosphere and making each customer feel like they're the only person in the restaurant," he said.

The interior of the steakhouse has always had a West Texas decor. Neon beer signs and longhorn racks line the walls. When Tomlinson was there, he filled every nook, cranny and display case with his beer bottle collection.
Antsy children could play games in the front room while waiting for their food to arrive.
"That's where I learned how to play Ms. Pac-Man, pinball and Galaxy," said Katherine Jeschke, who spent part of her youth in Lowake when her late father, Mike, managed the cotton gin. "My daddy would order a burger for us whenever I stayed with him at the gin and it's where my family still chooses to visit every time we get together."
Jeschke also has a connection to the Original Lowake Inn where her late grandmother, Evelyn Jeschke, worked during the dry years of the 1950's, when farmers’ wives worked as waitresses.
Both establishments saw their share of celebrities over the years, among them Richard Boone of the "Palladin" television series, the entertainer Danny Kaye, well-known wrestlers, Dallas Cowboys players and George Strait.

late lunch in the middle of a field
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The California playwright, Del Shores, paid the Lowake Steak House a visit in 1993. His trilogy of plays, including "Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got the Will?," which later was made into a movie, were set in Lowake.
The late Rose Lorfing recalled another memorable group of customers in a 1987 interview for the San Angelo Standard Times.

"A Dyess helicopter squadron used to buzz our house early in the morning and then want breakfast, so Phil and I would get up and cook for them," she said.
A cotton field across from the restaurant often served as a landing strip.