In the years since Spur’s Gulf service station was the popular place for cars “making the drag” to do a one-eighty and head north up the main street again — or in the earlier era when the train had to turn back south on the track to Swenson — the intersection of South Harris Street and Burlington has been known as “the turnaround.”
Over more recent years it’s been a diner by that name, starting as Sue’s Gulf Café when it still had an auto shop operating out of the far end.
And now the popular eatery is changing once again, while keeping the local-history identity patrons have come to associate with it.
Ashley Stelzer, a Patton Springs graduate and Spur native who earlier worked at the diner as far back as Beverly Brazee’s Turnaround Café, has purchased the property from Shawna Little and Kevin Walkup, who have operated it since 2023 as the Turnaround Top Café.
“We want to take it back to the small-town café atmosphere,” Stelzer said. She plans to focus on homestyle cooking, including entrees such as meat loaf and chicken fried steak in addition to the burgers she’s become known for, and hand-cut fries.
Stelzer, who has operated a food trailer in Jayton for the past couple of years, already knows what it’s like to feed a crowd. Not only did she pat out forty to fifty burgers a day in the small space with the help of her mother, Patti Hagar of Spur, she recently served up 100 for a school event in Jayton, where kids Ethan and Emily are students at JGISD.
Stelzer has previously also dished up meals at the Spur’s Dixie Dog, and helped feed hunters on the ranchsheandherhusband, J.C., lease out in Kent County. She learned to cook as a kid at home, “standing on a kitchen chair” when her mom worked long hours as a nurse. As for her most important influence in the restaurant business, though, Stelzer credits Kathy Green of the former Espuela Steakhouse in Dickens.
Ashley’s Turnaround, as she plans to style it, will offer potato soup and spaghetti some days, and they plan to offer steak nights with Randy Trull at the grill. The restaurant’s combined dining areas will seat 40.
The new establishment, l keep the same phone number, (806) 271-3983 but will set up a few Facebook page. They hope to open sometime in February—and they’ll be looking for dishwasher and wait staff in the coming weeks, too.
“I want everybody to feel welcome,” she said, “and I am excited about the new opportunity.”
