10/15/2026
Kendall’s chapter 2
1986-1990
Kendall’s started off strong six days a week in Purcell. Serving chicken fried steak on a bun with miracle whip, lettuce and tomato. Cheeseburgers with onion rings and char fries. Milkshakes and Cokes. A slice of Brenda’s coconut pie if you got there early enough.
When walking inside through the slightly rusted metal screen door you had to move quickly as it would slam you in the rear due to the lean of the building. Inside you better grab an empty chair to slow yourself down and get a seat. The 6 tables were close enough together to hear your neighbors conversation over the radio playing the only station it picked up. KEBC –Keepin everybody country.
The kitchen consisted of a flat grill you had to manually light with a rolled up napkin and a wooden match.
There was a double sink filled with boiling hot water, dish soap and bleach for washing the dishes. The back door was propped open with a trash can leaving only a thin screen door with a latch hook between you and a swarm of flies. There was a lonely box fan working as hard as it could to move some air and keep the cooks from a heat stroke and a desperate phone call to Wadley’s ambulance service.
The corner building struggled to keep up. The parking lot was a little small at lunchtime causing some heated exchanges with the neighbor at Val’s BBQ. Brenda had always had what we called the “V” on her forehead from between her eyebrows to her hairline. It was usually pink but she kept it cleverly camouflaged with a stick of pancake make up she ordered from the Sears-Roebuck catalog. But when she lost her temper the “V” got bright red and if you were smart you backed off. Let’s just say there were some discussions over boundaries in the parking lot where both the “Mantooth” in Brenda as well as her “V” were highly visible.
The problems with the little building were becoming insurmountable and some city officials even said “Dangerous”.
It looked like the end for Kendall’s.
Around the same time a few miles north in Noble, Oklahoma a local businessman named Wendell Hamilton had started to buy property downtown and renovate. He loved his town and wanted to see it come back to life. He purchased 100 S. Main and named it “Chestnut Square”. The front transformed into a small restaurant and the back had several offices, a retail shop, a dance studio and rental properties.
The building had once housed Stufflebeans General Store and later on an Otasco. The brick building backs up to the alley where Tracy Spencer had grown up with his mother F***y. Tracy was Brenda’s 3rd husband and the father of her kids. Stufflebeans had run a tab for F***y for groceries and the Otasco would display bicycles in the window and model cars for Christmas. Now the windows had tables and chairs and smelled like coffee and small town gossip.
The current restaurant was operating but had fallen on some hard times and the owners were looking for a way out. The exact scenario Brenda loved. Keys were exchanged, deposits were paid and the transition began.
The restaurant was only one dining room at the time and desperately needed Brenda’s famous touch. The shopping began. Brenda found some used booths and 3 tables. The very same booths we use today. She hung paintings of oil rigs and rough wooden framed pictures with catchy sayings on the walls. She stood on a chair to hammer the lattice up and stuff it full of plastic greenery to collect dust and hide the bathrooms. A new menu was written to add breakfast, plate lunches and a basket of warm apple fritters covered in powdered sugar for after your meal.
Start the coffee and unlock the door.
It’s 1990.
Kendall’s is 4 years old with a brand new home and a second chance.