The “Pig Stand” at Calder Avenue and Martin Luther King Parkway is scheduled to be closed down soon according to our news partners at the Beaumont Enterprise.
The Beaumont eatery used to be one of the most popular hangouts in town according to longtime manager Margaret Koncaba.
“I hate to see this building torn down,” Koncaba said.
She managed the restaurant for nearly two decades but before her, her mother managed several locations for 30 years.
Margaret said it was a place where many in the community grew up.
“It's such an iconic restaurant because you met friends here, met family here,” she said.
It was also a place for many first having invented the chicken fried steak, texas toast and onion rings according to the former manager.
She also said they were one of the first restaurants in the area to serve an African-American in the early 1960’s.
According to Koncaba a regular customer brought in one of his black friends for a meal. They sat at the counter when a worker approached him.
“He said sir I would like a cup of coffee. (The worker said) ok. He went and got the gentleman a cup of coffee and sat it in front of the gentleman. The guy who brought him in asked, where's my coffee? You know I drink coffee all of the time. The man working goes, “well the law says I have to treat this gentleman, I don't have to treat you.”
Koncaba said since the customer came in the restaurant often, he and the worker had a friendly relationship and this was a light hearted situation.
But as the former manager who dedicated much of her life to the “Pig Stand” restaurant looks at the building now, she said it’s hardly recognizable from what it used to be.
“All the kids would get in the car and drive around to each “Pig Stands,” she said.
Koncaba said whether the building is standing or rubble, the “Pig Stand” is a Beaumont fixture that can’t be replaced.