ASHLAND — After 50 years of ownership of Lyn-Way Restaurant, Janet Stoops has retired at 80 years old, leaving her son, Rob Stoops, to carry on the family legacy.
Lyn-Way Restaurant opened 74 years ago under the ownership of Janet’s father, Merle Plank, but most people knew him as “Shine.”
The original restaurant transformed an old gas station into the first Lyn-Way, which was located in what is now the parking lot of the third Lyn-Way.
The second Lyn-Way was born from a remodeled apartment building. While Janet was owner, she remodeled and expanded the building in 1991 to become the third Lyn-Way, located at 1320 Cleveland Ave.
Janet started working at Lyn-Way when she was 13 as the popcorn machine operator. Then she was a car hop server. Eventually she came to work every role at the restaurant.
She always knew she would take over the business after her father retired, and in 1976, she became the heir of the restaurant.
“You can’t do this by yourself,” Janet said.
She announced her retirement on Lyn-Way’s Facebook on Sept. 3. The post has over 1,500 reactions and over 200 comments.
She attributes a lot of the restaurant’s success to her hard-working employees.
Debra Weaver has worked as a waitress at Lyn-Way for 43 years. Sherry Satterfield has worked there for 35 years.
“I’ve trained a whole bunch of nurses, doctors, teachers, you know, and they love to come back and tell me what they’re doing, and I love that they went on with their education,” Janet said.
 “One thing that we have instilled here at the Lyn-Way is we treat our employees like family,” Rob said.
Rob has been working in the restaurant for 32 years. He took over ownership seven years ago, but Janet continued to help in the restaurant.
Rob plans to continue to uphold the cleanliness and friendliness of Lyn-Way as the third-generation owner.
“After 74 years of doing the same thing and still being as successful as we are, hopefully the next 74 are the same way,” Rob said.
That includes continuing to make Lyn-Way pies from scratch every day.
Pies have been a staple in the restaurant since the beginning when Janet’s grandmother became the restaurant’s first pie baker.
“We still use her recipe for crust,” Janet said.
Rob said upholding the recipes and atmosphere at Lyn-Way has made the restaurant’s customer base so strong.
“We’ve got numerous generational families that have been coming in here. They started their kids out eating our homemade chicken noodle soup, and now their kids are eating our homemade chicken noodle soup and now their grandkids are eating our homemade chicken noodle soup.”
Rob
Janet said it has been hard saying goodbye to Lyn-Way, but she knows the restaurant is in good hands with her son and long-time employees.
Eventually, customers may see her pop into the restaurant for a meal, but for now, Janet plans to enjoy her retirement.