Did Your Favorite Make the List? SWLA Picked the Restaurant It Wants Back Most

KNGT | Lake Charles, LA — Last week, me and Mike started something new on the Gator 99.5 Facebook page called Biscuits & Banter Question of the Day. We figured it'd be a fun way to get folks talking before they headed off to work. Well... y'all showed up. We asked one simple question: "If you could bring back one Southwest Louisiana restaurant that has closed, what would it be?"

Now we got a ton of answers from Pizza places to Seafood restaurants. Alot of these places were even before my time and I had to go look up to see where some of them were even located. But out of all the restaurants named, one made the top of the list.

Bonanza Steakhouse.

Man... that one hit me right in the feels. For me, Bonanza wasn't just another restaurant. It was my very first job back in the late 1990s when I was in high school.

I can still remember going in for an interview for my first job ever. Mr. Phillip Crater was the Manager at the Sulphur location. He asked if I had a red or white polo shirt and made sure I didnt mind getting wet, because I was gonna start as a dish washer. I worked my way up to a prep cook and then into becoming a fry cook while working at Bonanza. I made a ton of friends and honestly I'm still friends with some of those people to this day.

I know everybody remembers the food. The steaks. The baked potatoes. That salad bar. And don't even get me started on those rolls. Seems like every family around here had a Bonanza story.

We were lucky enough to have two around Southwest Louisiana. One sat on Prien Lake Road in Lake Charles, and another was over on Ruth Street in Sulphur. Both places stayed busy, especially after church on Sundays and on Friday nights. You'd usually see somebody you knew before you even made it to the front door. It got me wondering whatever happened to Bonanza.

After doing a little digging, I found out the chain once had around 600 restaurants across the country. Today, only three original Bonanza Steakhouses are still open in the United States. That's hard to believe when you think about how popular they once were.

Sometimes it ain't really about the restaurant. It's about birthdays with your grandparents. Friday night dinners after football games. Your first date. Your first job. The people you worked with. The memories made around those tables. That's something no restaurant can ever replace.

So now I gotta ask y'all again... If someone handed you the keys and said you could reopen ONE closed Southwest Louisiana restaurant tomorrow morning... which one would it be?

I'm pretty sure Bonanza is gonna be hard to beat. But knowing Southwest Louisiana, I bet y'all have a few more good ones hiding up your sleeve.