It became real when the 30-foot-tall neon sign was installed just twenty feet off Hwy. 40 declaring to the world "Draper's Wagon Wheel." What had once been the abandoned and dilapidated "Hunter's Inn" was being renovated and was soon to open as one of the best steak and seafood restaurants in the Bay Area.
Edna Draper's restaurant became a hit and was always busy. Her chef, Gus Sauer, had worked for the Waldorf Astoria in New York and he knew how to run a kitchen and put together a fabulous menu. Some of the customers' favorites were steak and lobster, Gus' legendary split pea soup, the ground top sirloin steak covered with a sauce of sauteed mushrooms, and the New York Steak. From it's opening in 1958, every dinner was accompanied by soup, salad, entree, baked potato or rice, side vegetable, and a basket of fresh sourdough french bread served with real butter. And there was a choice of desserts, either EdnaLee's cheese pie or sherbet. And all was had for less than $7.00 per guest.
The full bar was separated from the dining area by a lighted partition topped with plants and every patron in the bar could sit on a barstool that looked out large windows to the Jedel Arabian Horse Ranch to the north.
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When Mrs. Draper moved her Arabian horse ranch to Santa Rosa in 1963, she sold the property. No other restaurant in that location ever duplicated her success.
Kimbra St. Martin, 2011