Port Cape Girardeau plans 50th anniversary celebration

Dennis "Doc" Cain, left, shakes hands with David B. Knight at Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant and Lounge in downtown Cape Girardeau. Knight opened the establishment in 1974 and Cain purchased it from him in 1988. It is one of the oldest restaurants in Cape Girardeau, and Cain is organizing its 50th anniversary celebrations.

Christopher Borro ~ cborro@semissourian.com

One of Cape Girardeau’s oldest existing restaurants is celebrating its golden anniversary. Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant and Lounge at 19 N Water St. will turn 50 in November, and its ownership is going all out to commemorate the milestone.

Though the anniversary isn’t for another few months, Port Cape Girardeau’s owner Dennis “Doc” Cain said the festivities would start now and continue until the fall, culminating in a street party. Other celebratory events include live music, performances by River City Players Community Theatre, a line of shirts and hats and various 50%-off specials.

“Some of the things are still in the planning stages, but we hope to offer these as we go along here for the rest of the year,” he said.

Cain acquired the restaurant from barbecue entrepreneur David B. Knight on Aug. 1, 1988, when it was already more than a decade along.

“Quite honestly, we were playing golf one day and I told him I wanted to get into the restaurant business and I was looking at my hometown of Caruthersville, Missouri,” Cain said. “He said that he had been entertaining selling the restaurant because he wanted to get into some other ventures, his main thing of course being Ole Hickory Pits. Seems like we had that deal done in an afternoon of golf, and the next thing you know we’re buying this restaurant.”

The building had sat vacant for 11 years before Knight bought it in the summer of 1974. Its previous owner, the late businessman Marty Hecht, had plans to turn it into a parking lot. Knight thought it would be a travesty to demolish such a fine and historic location, so he acquired it himself to turn into a barbecue restaurant, one of his favorite cuisines.

Guests dine in at Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant and Lounge. The restaurant opens for lunch and dinner seven days a week, and some of its menu items have been featured since its opening in 1974.

Christopher Borro ~ cborro@semissourian.com

The only options he had to cook barbecue at the restaurant in 1974 were to use a metal barrel or a brick pit, so he built a brick pit with a flue three stories tall. It worked perfectly, Knight said, as long as the cooks remembered to shut down the damper to control its temperature. Otherwise, it would start a fire in the pit — and in one case that happened three times in a week.

“The third time Cape Girardeau’s finest firemen showed up at the building, it dawned on me it was time to do something different,” Knight said. “… That's when Ole Hickory Pits began, and that’s when I got this hair color.”

Knight refocused on his Ole Hickory Pits wood burning barbecue pits business, starting an international company and earning a 2016 induction to the Barbecue Hall of Fame.

Cain had worked in different food industries beforehand, so he was familiar with the restaurant business when he acquired Port Cape Girardeau. He said it was an industry he wanted to be a part of.

Port Cape Girardeau has undergone numerous changes over the years. When Cain first bought it, it was not open Sundays. While some menu items have changed over the years, a few have been made the same way since 1974.

Nowadays, the restaurant is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner with a Sunday lunch buffet. Cain’s family helps him run it in various capacities. Port Cape Girardeau also has more than 35 employees.

Historically, 19 N. Water St. served as Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters in Cape Girardeau during the Civil War as well as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

“I feel like it’s a duty for me to maintain this building and keep it up,” Cain said.

Cain said he has put in significant work on renovations to the establishment over the past year and a half to get the building in better shape for the future. He tuckpointed it in its entirety, added a new roof and windows, upgraded the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and repainted the entire façade, including retouching the Coca-Cola sign on the Themis Street exterior.

“With anything you want to do, in my opinion, you have to have the passion to go along with the expertise. I still am passionate about our business today,” Cain said.

Cain said he wants to show appreciation for the customers who have supported the restaurant over the last half a century and that the celebrations will have something for everyone.

“I do think that … independent restaurateurs, they offer a great service to the community. People still like to come out and eat and have fellowship together and I think our restaurants are a big part of that,” he said.

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