By JIM RUNKLE

jrunkle@lockhaven.com

MILL HALL – You better place your order for a home-style dinner before 9 p.m Aug. 30, 2014.

That’s when Aungst Family Restaurant, 3169 East Valley Road, Mill Hall, closes it’s doors – for the final time.

Owner Darla Aungst says the family is hanging up the pots and pans and turning off the dishwasher and stove, after 22 and a half years of service in the community.

“It’s time,” she said. “I want to spend more time with my family, and I want to relax and enjoy life.”

Darla also said an illness in the family played a part in the decision, and she wanted to place more emphasis on family because of that situation.

“They’ve been long years, but they’ve been good years,” she said.

Since the beginning in 1992, the restaurant has been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week (minus the rare holiday), 365 days a year… 168,630 meal times, roughly, in two decades.

That doesn’t include the uncounted numbers of banquets, special functions, wedding receptions, special meetings, social gatherings and such.

Back in the day and just starting out, Darla said, she and her husband Butch looked at the 10-acre property as a promising enterprise, despite the fact that neither of them had any experience in the culinary industry.

“We would have never gotten it off the ground if not for my dad (the late Calvin Allen),” Darla said. “He worked at Champion for 30 or 40 years, and then he helped us build the place.”

According to the story, much of that work was in the form of hands-on toil, as Calvin and others measured, sawed, nailed and sweated to transform a couple of large porches to incorporate them into the main facility. In the end, the small restaurant grew to include four dining rooms, including a large banquet area.

Also over those years, the clientele grew, as organizations like the Kiwanis Club of Mill Hall, the Women’s Christian Group, Lock Haven University, a number of college sororities and the local political parties did their part.

“The community made us grow,” Darla said.

The dining areas have seen the presence of just about every local elected official in those 22 years. To this day, Rep. Mike Hanna and family are almost weekly, frequent customers for Sunday dinner.

The facility has also seen a lot of Aungst family members, Darla said. She boasts four children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

All her four kids have done a tour or two at the restaurant, and daughter Patty still accepts the paperwork duties. Her grandchild Jessica works as a restaurant.

Really, the entire staff is considered family, Darla said.

General Manager Billie Evers agrees with that sentiment. She says she’s worked there for nearly 19 years and over that time, Darla and Billie have come to consider one another more a mother-daughter pair than employer-employee.

“She’s been a wonderful boss,” Billy said. “It’s going to be hard to leave on the last day.”

Both have only kind words to say about the staff, and the relationship with these workers is clearly a close one. While bowing to the inevitability of retirement, Darla still worries about what will become of her 43 to 50 employees.

“We have a relationship,” she said. “I consider them my family and along with the customers, I’ve been graced with a great many friendships.”

Darla said she has received some interest in the facility, but no firm offers. “I was hoping somebody could continue the business, but if not, I’ll try to lease the building… The property is above flood stage and there’s plenty of room to expand.”