RESTAURANT OFFERS VARIETY OF SERVICES

Business people and over-the-road drivers can now have a meal and call the office simultaneously at a new local restaurant.

Twelve tables at the new Milestone 101 restaurant are equipped with telephones.

The restaurant, located in the new Rhodes Travel Center across Interstate 55 from the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport, opened earlier this month.

"Truck drivers and salesmen can use the phones to call in to their clients, dispatchers and homes," said director of food services Tom Moore of Food Masters Inc., which operates the restaurant. "The callers can use their charge cards, call collect or call toll-free numbers." The telephones are styled like ordinary units, rather than pay phones that accept coins.

Moore said locating phones in restaurants which truck drivers tend to patronize is a growing trend in the industry.

Milestone 101 is the first venture in the Midwest for Food Masters Inc. Its nine existing eateries are located along the eastern seaboard in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. The company is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C.

"We cater to local people, travelers and truckers," said company president Walter Keezel. "The restaurant is geared to family trade. We feature an `all you care to eat' buffet for lunch and dinner. The buffet includes three or four entrees, six vegetables, a complete salad bar and a desert bar."

Moore estimated the restaurant can serve 205 customers. A meeting room for 70 customers can be set off separately. About 50 people are employed there.

Moore said the interior is similar to others it operates in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. It features light colors and many windows.

Company officials may expand in the Midwest but no definite plans are being formulated now. The closest existing Food Masters restaurant is east of Knoxville, Tenn.

The 14-year-old company is leasing space in the Rhodes Travel Center from owner Gene Rhodes. The center replaces the truck stop Rhodes built 25 years ago. It was razed recently and the site was paved for additional parking space.

Keezel said they decided to locate the new restaurant at the travel center since it is "one of the most up-to-date centers of its kinds in the country."

A variety of services including the latest electronic technologies are available to drivers stopping at the travel center. They can tap into fax and copy machines, automatic teller machines, computer hookups and complete mailing services.

Drivers can refresh in five shower/bath combinations, and relax in a game room or watch satellite-feed television in a lounge.

Drivers staying there can park their rigs and plug into cords for electrical, telephone and cable television hookups.