Stelly’s has served as a gathering place for 93 years

LEBEAU — An elderly man wearing a blue jean jacket and cowboy hat sits at the end of the counter and quietly eats his hot breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. The only words he utters is ‘thank you hun’ to the waitress with a warm smile who just poured him a refill of coffee.
A few feet behind him in the main seating area of the roadside diner, two men can be heard discussing, somewhat loudly, the upcoming Powerball drawing and how it only seems to them that folks from New Jersey or somewhere up north are the only ones that ever win the lottery.
Meanwhile, next door in the supermarket a pair of middle age women run into one another while looking at the meat specials and promptly strike up a conversation, consisting of families, church service and grandchildren.
This is a commonplace at Stelly’s in Lebeau which has served as the community’s gathering place for nearly 100 years.
“Not too many places can brag about being open for almost 100 years,” third-generation family owner Joel Stelly said. “If this wasn’t here where would everyone meet at? They not going to meet at the Citgo or Post Office. The community depends on us. This is the gathering place for all the locals.”
The family-owned business has survived many calamities and hardships in its 93 years of existence. There was The Flood of 1927 that saw 10 feet of water course through the streets of the unincorporated community in St. Landry Parish. The filling station-diner-supermarket didn’t shut down during the Great Depression either and has remained even after the completion of I-49 between Opelousas and Alexandria, which crippled most of roadside businesses that used to line La. Highway 71.
“It’s more of a place to catchup on all the local news,” said customer Joey Hebert, who has been coming to Stelly’s for 20 years. “It’s more of a meeting place for everyone. If there was eight days in the week I would be here all eight days.”
The original business was a roadside filling station called F.S. Stelly Service Station, which was housed in a bare-bones wooden structure, with a blacksmith shop off to the side. The family began to outgrow the original building, which did survive the flood, due to the unexpected popular food item.
“Our uncle’s mama started off just making sandwiches up in that room and they were so good that it grew and grew and grew,” Joel Stelly said.
In the 1930’s, the family built a new multi-building structure that had a diner in the center building, with two gas stations on each side, with one offering Texaco gas and the other Shell, which is the petroleum the establishment sells to the public to this day.
“I was born in that building and stayed in the back of it until I was four years old,” fellow third-generation owner 72-year-old Eddie Ray Stelly said.
Stelly’s thrived during the 1940’s and 1950’s as it became the rest stop of choice for outdoorsmen, U.S. servicemen, and tourists traveling along La. 71.
“During the war years all the buses would stop here too,” 59-year-old Joel Stelly said. “They actually used the old building which had two stories and that was used for the soldiers to sleep in.”
Added Joel’s brother Eddie Ray, “The highway was real busy back then because this was the only way between Alexandria and Baton Rouge. This served as a great meeting spot. I saw more than a few arguments between divorced couples dropping off their kids here. I have seen it all. Water being thrown in the face and everything else.”
In the early 1950’s, the Stelly family built a new large building, which costs $125,000 back then, which is what still houses the diner, gas station and supermarket to this day. In 1978, the family business was passed down to the third generation as brother Joel and Eddie Ray, along with their brother-in-law Mike Pilgreen took over the business.
It was a pretty straightforward decision for the trio.
“We really wanted to keep it in the family,” said 69-year-old Mike Pilgreen, whose wife Karen worked as a waitress and now keeps the diner’s books.
The diner, which serves American classics like hamburgers, BLTs, grilled cheese sandwiches and plate lunches, is chalked filled with Louisiana country charm. Mounted deer heads line the walls of the dining room, which also features old photographs and an original telephone booth.
The counter for the gas station, which often has the Stelly brother’s sister Denise Darbonne sitting behind it warmly greeting customers, has a mounted alligator hanging on the wall.
Back in the diner there is a pair of slot machines enclosed in a glass case that was used for decades in the two bars, which have long since closed. The souvenir shop that once sat in between the diner and supermarket in the 1970’s has long been closed and is now used as additional space for grocery stock.
A customer can also purchase a commemorative T-shirt with St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Clay Higgins on the front, which stems from the now famous Crime Stoppers TV spot Higgins did after someone broke into Stelly’s last summer.
Besides a handful of changes though, the two buildings have remained the same for the past four-plus decades. According to Pilgreen that is part of its appeal.
“People come in and it still looks the same,” Pilgreen said. “It’s not like a new thing. It has been what it has always been and I think people rather have that than a new building.”
A new tradition was started by Joel when he took over sole operation of the supermarket in 1992. He brought over his butcher Jim Vidrine of Ville Platte, and he brought over his Boudin recipe, the same one of that the store makes to this day.
A tradition that means more to the Stelly family is having someone carry on the work of the late and beloved Ledee Wyble, who waited tables at the diner for more 65 years. Wyble’s granddaughter, Penny Lyn Miller, is carrying that on as she waitresses in the same diner who grandmother did for all those years.
“I’m just carrying on the tradition,” Miller said. “I came back home and I wanted to do something fun and different about seven years ago. I joked around with my grandma that I wanted to work with her. The next day she called me to come to work.”
“You feed the same people almost every day,” Miller said. “If one of our customers passes away we will put a coffee cup at where they sat at. No one is a stranger here at Stelly’s.”