Rush Valley » Penney's Grill squats down on lonely State Highway 36 just 15 miles south of Tooele --- but it feels a half-century removed from the hustle and bustle of 2009.

For Salt Lakers Jeannine Farrington and Laurie Ford, their re-birthing of the way station built in 1948 is more than a nod to tradition --- it's Chapter Two in their new lives.

A couple of years ago, the pair ditched professional careers in the city and restored a 125-year-old polygamist house just down the road in this farming community nestled south of rugged Deseret Peak.

They took residence upstairs and on the ground floor opened the Clover Creek General Store.

By then, Penney's --- a one-time filling station and cafe along this wild stretch of blacktop -- sat empty and wanting. For decades, the little cinder-block landmark had been a rendezvous point and watering hole in Tooele County's outback.

Farrington, who spent her childhood in Tooele, remembers stopping at Penney's with her parents on forays to horse shows.

"When we were kids, it was a cafe that served beer --- and that's what we wanted to get back to."

"These days, passers-by come in, look around and reflect on old times," Ford noted.

"Everybody has a memory of Penney's, whether it was the scary bathrooms or the pool tables."

Warren and Gertrude Penney built the place and offered gas, soda pop and beer to travelers. In 1953, they expanded, opening a cafe and bar on the site. The couple added an auto-repair garage in 1955, and continued to operate it until 1977.

For vacationers, bikers and military folks commuting to the Army's Dugway Proving Ground, it was an oasis. For the ranchers and residents of Rush Valley, Penney's was at the center of things.

A half-dozen operators followed Warren and Gertrude Penney, and over the years the place morphed from a cafe to a pool hall, until its eventual slide into mothballs.

But through its various incarnations, the name remained the same.

Late last year, Farrington and Ford -- bitten by the renovation bug and the success of their Clover Creek General Store -- began to daydream of a new life for Penney's: It would be a family restaurant where sojourners and locals alike could belly up for breakfast with coffee or lunch or dinner complemented by a glass of beer or wine.

With the help of family and friends, they gutted the place and wrestled through an extreme makeover -- although it still features the original jukebox, which can let you hear Billy Joe Royal crooning "Down In the Boondocks."

Farrington and Ford added copper-topped tables and a hearth. But the most notable aspect of the place is the counter that is now inlaid with 12,800 pennies --- most of them donated by one-time regulars and brand new patrons.

"We had hundreds of people come in with their own pennies -- families, moms and kids," Ford recalled.

They sorted the shiny copper from the dull ones and arranged the coins to spell out "Penney's" across the countertop.

Today the place sparkles perhaps more than it ever has. But to keep customers coming back, one has to have more than a dizzying countertop and a vintage jukebox.

Since April, Penney's has featured killer sandwiches, including garlic burgers. They even have elk burgers and bison burgers. And, yes, the fries are homemade.

Occasional offerings include such things as gator kabobs and rattlesnake chili that "comes with a bite," Farrington joked.

The big hitter on the menu, however, is Kris Quarnberg's smothered chili verde burrito.

Jon Shields navigated down from Tooele in search of her specialty for lunch.

"Kris puts out the best burrito you ever had," Shields said. "She's running the kitchen here, so this is where I come."

Rush Valley resident Holly Harding stopped in with her daughter Whitnee, 8, and her son, Wyatt, 11. They usually get cheeseburgers.

"We really like it here," Holly said. "It's got a good hometown feel. It's nice."

And that's the upside. The downside is that Farrington and Ford found that -- at least for now -- they can't operate both the Clover Creek General Store and Penney's Grill.

Last week, they loaded aspects of the general store --- including the ice cream freezer and the drink cooler -- into pickups and squeezed them into Penney's.

Already, locals miss hanging out on the big front porch of the old two-story brick house at Clover Creek.

"We probably did too much too soon," Ford said. "But what can you do?"

And the country's economic faceplant didn't help either, Farrington added.

"The economy kind of caught up with us ... it was just too much."

But the dining room on the first floor of the historic house at Clover Creek can still be rented for group occasions. Farrington and Ford still live upstairs.

And who knows? When the economy comes back, the Clover Creek General Store could open once again.

Until then, for breakfast burritos, box lunches ---or just to chew the fat --- it's four miles back up the road to good old Penney's.

csmart@sltrib.com