Clay Center will host a new family restaurant, Streets, starting this spring. On the corner of 6th and Grant, owners Brent and Jessica Boyle will serve homemade, homecooked food, including a buffet and all-day breakfast.
They’ll also offer scratch-made meals like burgers, sandwiches, pork tenderloin, chicken-fried steak, and hand-cut steak fingers.
The name, Brown’s Family Restaurant, comes from ancestors on both sides. The pair also own Boyle’s Café in Gypsum, near their farm that sits south of Abilene.
The Boyles said they hope to open April 1st. With the hiring of an additional manager, they will be open seven days a week. Their buffet will be open every day, which includes salad and dessert bars. Prices will range from $9.99 to $14.99, depending what’s available on that day. Wednesdays and Sundays will be buffet-only, with the latter serving fried chicken and meatloaf, a specialty of Brent’s, who will serve as head cook.
Meanwhile, Jessica said she’ll run the books and perform duties around the restaurant as needed. Some of their kids will also be helping to bus tables and in the kitchen. In total, the pair have nine kids, one of which has taken over the cooking duties at their Gypsum location.
The Boyles decided to open up in Clay Center after being asked by locals.
“They kept bugging me to open a restaurant here,” Brent said. “Finally, I said, ‘Well find me a place.’” They said they learned about the empty building and began discussing if they could make it work.
The location also hits close to home for Brent, who worked at Gregory’s Thriftway as a kid, which sat across the parking lot in what is now Clay Center Locker.
One of the restaurant’s main goals is to keep food affordable, they said.
“Like I tell people, you can make money at it, sure,” Brent said. “But if I wanted to be a millionaire, I wouldn’t have been a farmer.”
For anyone with a larger appetite, there’s Leo’s Challenge, named for the couple’s grandson who was born at just 26 weeks. He headed home from the PICU around the time they began planning the menu, causing the massive meal to be named in his honor.
Leo’s Challenge includes a list of 17 food items and three full glasses of milk, which can be substituted for lactose-free. If completed in 90 minutes, the meal is free, and the eater is entered into a contest to win $100. The fastest time each quarter will earn the prize. Those who don’t finish the meal will pay its $31.99 price tag.
“I really want to see somebody actually complete it,” Brent said. “It can be done, you just have to pace yourself. The milk is a filler, so you don’t want to do that until the very end.”
Brown’s Family Restaurant will be open Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday 6 am to 2 pm, Tuesday and Thursday 6 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm, and Friday and Saturday 6 am t 8 pm.
