Stoddard County: Banken family, owners of the Hickory Log, celebrate 50 years in the barbecue business

In 1967, John Banken worked in the shop at a Chevrolet dealership in Dexter, Missouri.

He and a friend from the dealership often ate at a little diner called the Hickory Log.

When the diner's owner sought to sell, he asked the regulars if they were interested.

They didn't have any money, but convinced the bank to loan them enough to make an offer.

It was denied.

John Banken and his wife LaVeda Banken, owners of the restaurant Hickory Log, sit in the Lounge room Friday, March 17, 2017 in Dexter.Andrew J. Whitaker

A few days later the owner came back to Banken to accept it.

"We had patronized out here a while," he recalls. "His wife had told him, 'You either sell it or I'll close the door.'"

That was a Wednesday when they bought the restaurant, he says, and he started working there that night after his shift at the dealership.

For the next year, he worked both jobs, learning how to barbecue after punching his card at the shop.

In the subsequent 49, he's still the one who unlocks the front door most mornings. "Been here 50 years," he says. He and his wife LaVeda are wearing green, and just finished their St. Patrick's Day lunch of fish. Banken turns 82 this year, and at this point doesn't see why he ought to stop."It's almost like a habit," he says.

Racks of ribs are kept heated at the restaurant Hickory Log Friday, March 17, 2017 in Dexter.Andrew J. Whitaker

In the front room, their son Jason is overseeing the tail end of the lunchtime rush. One of the regulars hugs him on her way out the door. "If this place wasn't so pretty, I'd still want to come here because the atmosphere is so good," she tells him.

He tells the ladies to come back soon before heading into the main dining room. The Hickory Log, he says, takes care to create a welcoming atmosphere. Their Christmas decorations are a local attraction and the warm, sticky smell of hickory barbecue isn't bad either.

Jason and his brother Lance both help manage the restaurant -- help the elder Bankens are happy to have as the Hickory Log has undergone 14 different expansions.

They now have a six-oven smokehouse built into the back of the building, where locally-sourced hickory smolders under racks of ribs day in, day out.

"The ribs are our big thing here, of course," Jason says. They have other items on the menu as well. Rib sandwiches. Rib wraps. Rib baked potatoes. Even rib salad.

A view of inside the restaurant Hickory Log Friday, March 17, 2017 in Dexter.Andrew J. Whitaker

"The ribs are what built this place," he says.

They go through about 100 racks of ribs on an average day, and up to double that on weekends.

And now, in their 50th year, they plan to celebrate, John says.

A decade ago, they learned how not to celebrate an anniversary by rolling menu prices for the day back to what they were in '67. They forgot to exclude carryout orders. Soon, savvy customers were carrying out 60-cent barbecue sandwiches by the case.

"'Bout killed us," LaVeda says.

Headline Bold:Jason Banken, son of Hickory Log owner John Banken, stands in the smoker room where ribs and other barbecue meats are cooked at the restaurant on Friday, March 17, in Dexter.

This time around, they'll think of something different, John says. They're not sure yet, but one thing is for certain: the Bankens will be there.

And ribs.