The Dexter Lake Club is open again, and this time with an Oakridge connection. Gregg and Shannon Stewart have been getting the place ready and opened a couple weeks ago with help from friends and musicians you could have seen play here in the past. The restaurant and lounge located 20 miles from Oakridge on Highway 58 on the way to Eugene was made famous by the scenes from the movie Animal House filmed there in 1977. “In the early 70s I remember quite vividly passing the huge Dexter Lake Club sign on Hwy. 58,” said Gregg Stewart, “My father Ray Stewart was a musician and when I would visit him in Oakridge, all of the local players would come over to his house and play until the wee hours of the morning. My dad would take me around when I was 11 to local roadhouses like Binks, the Moose Lodge and the Jaycee Hall to get me up on stage to play with the local bands for a few tunes.” Fast forward 34 years, 25 bands, 500 plus gigs and a lot of miles, and Stewart and his wife Shannon began renovating the Dexter Lake Club. Their plan is to not only reclaim its former historical significance, but also cement its legacy as an iconic piece of Americana. They recruited family and some best friends from Oakridge, Eugene and Springfield to help tackle the big job. “If you want to find out who your friends are, ask them to help you renovate an old roadhouse,” adds Stewart. “Scott and Julie Cramer and family of Oakridge should have a plaque on the wall for their hard work and ingenuity. Dawn and Ashleigh Luken, John Nichols, Ken Carmichael, Bo Stewart, Randi and Jared Barrett, Alice Smith, Scott Thilke and more offered up their elbow grease to help us get the Dexter Lake Club dream open.

Currently, the club has four nights of live music – including Songwriter’s Night on Wednesdays and a hosted Jam Night on Sundays. The house band is made up of owner Gregg Stewart, legendary local bass player Greg Hepner who lives across the lake in Lowell and Oakridge’s own John Troute playing drums. You may have seen and heard them before if you attended the annual Just Us Festivals over the years here in Oakridge.Shannon Stewart brought not only 35 years of restaurant and bar career experience into the venture, but also her tasteful palette for amazingly good food and flare for rich interior decor. The cooks prepare hearty meals made from scratch. Menu items include omelets, biscuits and gravy and other breakfast items. Deli sandwiches made to order and a special selection of burgers top the lunch menu. Check out their array of salads and dinner specials, too. Oh, don’t miss the pizzas and appetizers, too. You won’t want to miss Shannon’s homemade spinach artichoke dip, a rich mixture of cheeses, spinach, roasted garlic and artichoke hearts served with toasted French bread. The stew has been a popular winter warmup meal. “The Dexter Lake Club is a dream come true for my wife and I on many levels and we have poured our hearts into it,” said Gregg after having been open for two weeks, “All is running smooth and the reviews are outstanding so far. This week should be a biggy for us with New Year’s weekend fast approaching.” They have a prime rib dinner special New Year’s Eve and a New Year’s Day brunch is planned. “We have lots of music and smiles to celebrate the reopening of a place that means so much to so many,” said Stewart. Back to the younger years. When Stewart started spending more time in Oakridge he met the then little Johnny Troute who he would end up playing music with on and off his whole life.

Stewart entered the Tree Planting Festival’s Talent Show held at the high school around 1977 and won the high school category after playing a few of his original songs on acoustic guitar. “Talk about being thrilled to see your own picture in the Dead Mountain Echo, ”Stewart said of the Talent Show win. “I was asked to play my first professiona; club gig when I was 13,” Stewart said, “It was just to fill in for an absent bass player but it was at the legendary Dexter Lake Club the same year scenes from the movie Animal House were filmed there. That gig changed my life. I played with local boys Doug Carroll and John Baldwin and it was my first experience playing with such accomplished musicians. I didn’t know playing music could sound and feel that good until then. “It scared me to death,” Stewart recalls, “but looking back, I’m glad my dad pushed me out of my comfort zone.”The Stewarts opened and operated the teanage dance club City Lights with Julie and Scott Cramer in 1989 and 1990 in the building now occupied by Brewer’s Union Local 180 in uptown Oakridge, but moved on after the mill closure slowed the economy.

The cafe is open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The club is open 11:00 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Tuesday and 11:00 to 1:00 a.m. Wednesday though saturday. Live bands play Friday and Saturday nights starting at 9:00 p.m. and they have a Sunday live Jam Nite from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m.The Dexter Lake Club is located just off Hwy. 58 at 39128 Dexter Rd. Their big neon sign is visible from the highway. The place first opened in 1949 and made world famous after the movie Animal House was released in 1978. Stop by and see all the changes the Stewarts have made. The couple’s boundless energy shows in the dramatic changes to the appearance of the roadhouse that in some past lives looked like Find out more about their venture and menu on their Web site www.dexterlakeclub.com and/or on their Facebook
page at https://www.facebook.com/DEXTERLAKECLUB

On highway 58, half way between Eugene and Oakridge Oregon, stands an old roadhouse bar and cafe called the Dexter Lake Club, established in 1949. As a child growing up, I bounced between my mother in Eugene and my father in Oakridge and I always looked over to that side of the road when we passed by to see all the cars parked around the building with that large, bright neon sign adorning the top of the high roof line. They always had live bands playing there and as a budding musician myself, I dreamed of one day playing on that stage. As fate would have it, some older guys, (by my standards at the time), needed a fill in bass player quick, and the drummer knew this 13 year old kid that just might pull it off; it was me he had in mind and the year was 1977.

Excited and nervous, I took the gig. I was to play Thursday, Friday and Saturday night with them for $33 per night. I remember being amazed at how the music sounded. Talk about a far cry from the high school musicians I was used to; the songs sounded big, powerful and tight. I didn’t know playing music could sound and feel like that until then. I remember my mom and dad sitting at the back of the room proudly watching their son’s first club gig while the crowd danced the night away. I played two weekends with them before their regular bass player stepped back in. Over the next few years, I played there for a couple of events and a few invited jams, but I moved on, playing in prominent cover bands across the northwest for many years. The Dexter Lake Club has always occupied a very special place in my heart and over the years when I would pass by, I’d smile and my heart would warm seeing that old sign still lighting up the night sky.

It has passed through a lot of hands over the years at the mercy of each new occupant’s spin, ideas, décor preferences and management style. Fortunately, the last owner saw the old, beat down building as it used to be and restored it as close as he could to its former glory. To me, this 62 year old building is the epitome of Roadhouse Americana. Hanging out on Saturday night, singing along as the band plays some great tunes, laugh with your friends and tease your bar waitress.

My wife Shannon and I are very proud and privileged to be the new stewards of The Dexter Lake Club and play a part in its resurrection as an American icon. Come visit us!