‘It’s hard to walk away.’ Spencer Grill and RV Park is up for sale
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SPENCER — A popular stop for eating and sleeping a night or two is up for sale after the owner says it’s time to take care of his wife.
Spencer Grill and RV Park is just off Interstate 15 near the Montana state line. Its proximity to many recreational sites, including Stoddard Creek Campground and Camas National Wildlife Refuge, makes it a tourist attraction for people around the world.
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Paul Williams, the owner, has been in business for seven years. He opened on Father’s Day weekend of 2016 and has met people from France, Australia, China, Japan, Germany, Sweden and just about everywhere.
The grill serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“It’s doing extremely well. It’s still growing. We are still getting 60% growth on a daily basis and it’s really, really hard to walk away from that to shut it down and just quit,” said Williams.
There are several factors why Williams is closing up shop, like the cost of groceries and gas is up, but his biggest reason of all is for his wife Christine. Her health started to decline just about three months ago.
“My wife’s health has deteriorated from a vehicle accident she was in about 11 and a half years ago,” Williams said. “I don’t know if dementia is setting in with her or if she’s just tired or a combination of both. But with the brain injury, that’s one of the things they (doctors) told me to watch for. She’s lost. She doesn’t know who she is.”
Her injury in February 2011 caused bleeding on her brain, broken ribs, a lacerated liver and other injuries. She was in a coma in the hospital for two months. She has been through a lot and Williams said she is amazing.
Williams is proud of his business and says he has put a lot of work into it with his family. He’s worked with his three kids at the grill, Britney, Justin and Courtney and even his grandkids.
“The grandkids have done a great job,” Williams said. “I wanted better quality food than what a lot of restaurants carry. Everything is as fresh as possible. I wanted it that way. It takes longer but that’s what the customers that we’ve dealt with for the seven years — that’s what they want.”
He is sad that he has to shut the business down and explained it is up for sale. He was hoping someone would buy the business beforehand, but that hasn’t been the case.
“I just feel bad because there are no outlets up there. There are no other restaurants, there’s nothing there for them to do. We do have it for sale. We have some people looking at it. I am hoping it will sell and that somebody can continue on and take on what we started,” he said.
The restaurant’s last day of operation will be Aug. 21.
As for the RV park, he’s thinking it will close officially in November. He will just operate the park over the phone.
“We got 20 spots in the RV park—sewer, power and water to everything. We’ve been about 85% capacity throughout the years that we’ve been open. This year is down because of the cost of fuel and people just not taking their RVs out. They are still traveling but they are not camping,” Williams said.
He said he would miss the people he’s seen throughout the years and that he loved the opportunity to meet them.
“You get to interact with them, find out a little bit about them and what brings them through the area and it’s pretty cool. It’s kind of one of the things I focused on when I first started, where you can sit down and talk to them when you have time and just find out a little bit about them,” he said.
