Located at 516 W. Genesee, the Anderson Steak House was a Saginaw staple for decades, spanning in operation for forty years. The venue had a notable menu, including everything from chop suey to soups to hamburgers. Anderson waitress, June Griffus recalls a discussion over her favorite burger toppings with Pauline Anderson:
‘One day we were sitting around talking about our favorite way to eat burgers. The big difference was the onions. Pauline liked hers raw, I liked mine grilled and cooked on the meat…Her folks were sitting there listening to us rattle on about it and the two burgers went on the menu that way.’ (The Saginaw News, November 25, 1980).
While burgers were undoubtedly a local favorite amongst high schoolers, The Anderson’s true specialties were steaks and spaghetti. A 1947 Saginaw News advertisement notes that the restaurant was “Home of the famous tenderloin steaks and steak sandwiches.”
Started by Nicholas Anderson and his wife, Gertrude, “The Anderson” opened in Saginaw in 1944. Nicholas T. Anderson was born on April 14, 1903, in Otsego, Michigan, later graduating from Reed City High School in 1923. A year later, he married Gertrude Hardy in Big Rapids. The couple moved to Saginaw where they started the Anderson Steak House restaurant, which they ran successfully for twenty years. Gertrude obtained a teaching certificate from Ferris Institute (today’s Ferris State University) and also taught in the Saint Charles school system, though she is listed as the restaurant bookkeeper in the 1950 Census. The Andersons had three children, Charles, Thomas and Pauline.
After retiring in 1964, the Andersons returned to their cottage on Clear Lake near Big Rapids. Nicholas Anderson died on November 13, 1969, at age 66. Gertrude survived him until 1991, at age 92.
After the Andersons retired, long-time waitress, June (Christensen) Griffus took over the operation with her husband, Bill. Griffus began working at the restaurant in 1944 at the age of 17—it was her first job, but it would become her only one:
‘I left the restaurant in their name because I’m proud of them…They taught me everything I know about the business—working the grill, cutting our own steaks—I’ve held all the jobs around here over the years,’ Griffus noted. (The Saginaw News, November 25, 1980).
The Anderson Steak House continued to serve made-from-scratch specialties, including hand-cut, charbroiled and hickory smoked steaks for the next twenty years.
Griffus died in 1988 at age 61 after a lengthy illness, but prior to this, in 1984, the Griffus’ sold the Anderson Steak House to Michael Bringer, who rechristened the establishment, “The Bringer Inn.”
The Bringer Inn retained the Anderson Steak House’s reputation for homemade food, including pies.
The Recipe: The Anderson Steak House Banana Cream Pie
This recipe appeared as part of a series of articles in The Saginaw News on area restaurants, chefs, and well-known recipes. One reader asked, “Could you please get the recipe for the Banana Cream Pie they serve at Anderson Steak House on West Genesee? It’s delicious. Thank You.” This is the recipe June Griffus pulled together. CASTLE TEST KITCHEN NOTE: This recipe has some inconsistencies that left us feeling like contestants on the Great British Bake Off fearfully trying to survive the technical challenge.
Ingredients:
1 baked 9-inch pie shell
3 eggs, separated
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups milk
4 heaping tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon butter
1 medium banana, sliced
To prepare filling:
In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks, sugar* and vanilla. Add the four and beat again.** In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter and bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat. Slowly add the sugar and egg mixture to the flour-milk** mixture and beat again. Set aside. Next line the bottom of the baked pie shell with half of the cream filling. Top with half of the sliced bananas. Add another layer of filling and top with remaining bananas. Add meringue (recipe below) and bake according to meringue instructions.
Meringue
3 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar and salt and beat two minutes more until stiff. Spoon over pie and bake in a 350-degree oven until brown.
*You may have noticed that sugar is not listed in the ingredients, although clearly sugar is supposed to be in the filling. We went to our thrush Betty Crocker cookbook and used their measurement of ⅔ cup sugar.
**Adding the flour to the egg yolk and sugar mixture seemed strange. On the first attempt, we did try that but the end result was more of a creme anglaise consistency and it never set. Noticing later instructions say the milk-flour mixture, we tried adding the flour to the milk. This helped everything thicken much better. Unfortunately for the test kitchen, we never got a proper set. Paul Hollywood and Prue would be so disappointed.
OTHER TEST KITCHEN NOTES:
Given the missing sugar and failure of the filling on the first attempt, we cracked open the ever-faithful Better Crocker cookbook (1950). Since Betty Crocker said to add a ¼ teaspoon of cream of tartar to meringue, we did. Our only issue with the meringue was that because the cream filling wasn’t fully set, spreading the meringue to the edges was a problem.
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