Pilot House still offers up barbecue, unique eats after six decades

The sign in front of the Pilot House restaurant says it was established in 1962 and the menus say it opened in 1961, but owner Jim Byrd says both those dates are wrong.

Byrd has owned Pilot House since 1986 and, until recently, he also believed it opened in the early '60s. But a couple of weeks ago, he ran into a man who, as a teenager, worked at the Jaycee Golf Course just up the hill from the restaurant on Perryville Road north of the Cape Girardeau city limits.

"He told me that every day at noon, he would come down and get two barbecue sandwiches from the Pilot House," Byrd said. "That was in 1959, so I know that's when the place opened."

Assuming that's true, it means this year marks Pilot House's 60th anniversary.

But regardless of when it was founded -- 1959, 1961 or 1962 -- Byrd is certain of how the popular eatery was founded and by whom.

The Pilot House restaurant is seen Thursday at 3532 Perryville Road in Cape Girardeau.Jay Wolz

"Their names were Ralph Brockmire and his wife, Luella," Byrd said. "He was a riverboat captain, which is where the name 'Pilot House' came from. Back then, he worked 30 days on and 30 days off. He and a bunch of his buddies got together and built this place, and it's where he spent his time when he was off the river."

The ship's wheel above the bar came from the Mississippi River towboat Spraque and serves as a reminder of the restaurant's origin.

Pilot House quickly gained popularity as an unpretentious place to go for barbecue sandwiches and cold beer. With the exception of an expansion in the early 1960s, a new ceiling and an occasional fresh coat of paint, the restaurant looks pretty much like it did when it opened.

"We've tried to keep the place pretty much the same," Byrd noted. "Oh, we rewired and replumbed the building and put in new air conditioning and new heating, but I really never changed anything as far as the ambiance of the place. It's unique, and we want to keep it that way. That's why people come here. It's comfortable and family friendly. A lot of people have met their wives and boyfriends and girlfriends here over the years."

Byrd bought Pilot House from Bill Parker, who ran it for three years after the Brockmires retired.

"I had worked in the pharmaceutical industry 22 years and I wanted to get out of the corporate world, and boy did I ever when I got into this," Byrd said, laughing.

"I was a big golfer back in those days and thought I'd have a place where I could hang my hat and go play golf every day, but it didn't work out like that at all," Byrd said. "It was quite a shock, a totally different world. Everybody wants to own a bar to have fun, but it's a lot of work!"

Byrd admits he was "never excited" about beer and liquor sales at Pilot House.

"I was more interested in food sales. It was mostly liquor sales when I bought it, but now it's about 20% liquor and 80% food," he said.

Over the years, Pilot House has built a reputation for having some of the area's best barbecue as well as farm-raised catfish and several unique menu items.

"Some of our specialty sandwiches were invented here with the help of our customers," Byrd said. "The Big Hot Cheese is one of them. That was invented one night when we were sitting here with David Cheesebrough, who was defensive coordinator of the SEMO football team in the early '90s. We kept piling stuff on this jumbo sandwich ... hot sauce, peppers and all kinds of things. He ate it and thought it was the greatest sandwich he ever had. So another person wanted one and then somebody else wanted one. We made about five of them that night and decided to call it the 'Big Hot Cheese.' It's still on the menu today."

Another customer, Dennis Stockard, left his mark on Pilot House in another way.

"We were sitting at the bar one night and we had a bunch of pennies on the bar," Byrd recalled. "Dennis started putting them together and said, 'You ought to do this on the whole bar and glue 'em down,' so we glued every penny we had in the house on here. More than 5,600. It took about three weeks to do the whole thing and I have to give Dennis credit for it."

Speaking of credit, Byrd said Pilot House's staff deserves a lot of it for the restaurant's success.

"I've been very fortunate in all the years I've been here to have really, really good people. It's a very cohesive team and we don't have a lot of employee turnover," he said,and specifically mentioned one of his day-shift employees, Carletta Bohnert. "She was one of the first employees who ever worked here and has been working here forever."

Byrd, who is 77 years old, said he doesn't often come into the restaurant during the busiest hours of the day, preferring instead to spend time there early in the morning before staff or customers arrive.

As for retirement, Byrd said, "I know it's coming, but I'm not in any hurry. I've got two managers here who are excellent. They run this place like it's their own. And someday, it may very well be."

By that time, Pilot House will have new menus that will say the place opened in 1959.

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