Mae’s Shack

By EVELYN ELLISON – Statesman Correspondent

WEISER – “Come On In. Everything Else Has Gone Wrong.” says the sign hanging over the antique back bar of Mae’s Shack on Highway 95 north of Weiser.

The restaurant has changed hands and for the first time in 27 years Mae and Steve Karmos or The Old Greek as Steve is more commonly known, will not be opening up.

Mae, originally from Kentucky, and Steve, a Greek immigrant boy who landed in New York when he was 16 were not amateurs in the restaurant business when they bought the Shack in 1946.

They met while both were working at Kelly’s Cafe in Boise in 1931. They also worked at the Idanha Hotel. Later, after they were married they moved to Weiser to run the Washington Hotel restaurant.

Most restaurants throw away much of the profits.” Steve says. They peel the potatoes, throw away good bones and vegetables that we would have thrown in the soup stock kettle always kept on the stove. In the depression days the difference between making it or going broke was using whatever you could.”

When they had the Idaho Club in Weiser, Christmas Eve was a joyous occasion. A little man named Jeff Ross used to furnish the whiskey for free drinks all evening.

“He’d had polio and was confined to a wheelchair,” Mae said, “but he had a lot of fun mixing the drinks and dispensing them. I always suspicioned that the whiskey was bootleg, but everyone had a great time.”

They bought the Shack from Steve’s brother. Old-timers will remember it as Joe’s Club –  (the brother, Joe Karmos, also owned Joe’s Club, as well as Bancroft Hotel in Payette.) They recall that there was a bar in the back, a dance floor, and that slot machines were a great attraction in the 40s.

The Shack was remodeled and opened as a restaurant in December, 1950. Mae and Steve don’t remember ever taking a vacation.

When pheasant hunting was at its best and the greats in show business used to come for a week or two of hunting, Mae’s Shack was a favorite eating place for such stars as Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, Walter Brennan, Wallace Beery and others.

“Their favorite food was prime rib steaks,” Steve recalls. and there were some roaring good times when these stars and their friends took over the house, ate and drank with great merriment, sang songs, and left generous tips for all the help.

“The thing that sticks in my mind about Gary Cooper.” Mae said. “is the day he came in with someone else’s jacket on. The sleeves struck him just below his elbows, and his long arms stuck out like Ichabod Crane’s.” “He was so tall he had to stoop to come in the door.” Steve added.

A specialty of the house was Steve’s inimitable Greek sauce a savory garlic sauce which enhanced the flavor of many things besides steaks, and became in known simply as “Steve’s Sauce,” equally popular with some regulars was Mae’s French dressing. Although other salad dressings were available, when diners asked for “Mae’s Dressing” waitresses knew exactly what they meant.

The Shack is an unpretentious building, but the mirrored back bar left over from nightclub days lends an interesting note, and black horses lighted by orange lights prancing around the walls give the place a western atmosphere. It has been taken over by Howard and Stella Smallwood, and will still be called Mae’s Shack. The Greek sauce recipe has been handed down to the Smallwoods.

Mae and Steve plan to stay in Weiser. When good weather comes they hope to play some golf, a sport they’ve always loved. Another thing will stay the same . . . travelers and hunters stopping in who may not have been by for 20 years or more are still going to be asking how Mae and “The Old Greek” are getting along.

From The Idaho Statesman – Boise, Idaho – December 17,1973