Cattleman’s Steak and Fish was open Tuesday because that’s how Steve Heinz would have wanted it.
Heinz died Monday after suffering two heart attacks. He was 57.
His sons, Colby and Brian, and ex-wife, Diane, chose to deal with the loss and honor the departed by doing what Steve loved: serving guests.
Steve Heinz bought Cattleman’s in July 2014. He owned Rubens Fish & Steakhouse in Columbus for many years. He was on the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board in the early 2000s and once served as the president of the Mississippi Restaurant Association.
He liked good food, good people and long hours. He was a true restaurateur.
“The restaurant business was no longer work for him, he loved it,” Brian Heinz said.
He taught his sons to love it, too. Colby and Brian were raised at Ruben’s. They remember standing on buckets to wash dishes as children. They got the bug for the restaurant industry, too. Brian works as a welder in Alabama during the week and runs Cattleman’s kitchen on weekends. Colby returned from Dallas, where he had been working in restaurants, to help run the family business in Columbus last Saturday. He got back in time to be with his father for two days before he died.
The brothers and their mother plan to continue running the restaurant.
Steve Heinz grew up in Battleground, Washington, but he was a Southerner at heart. He first came to Columbus during his time in the Air Force in the early 1980s. That’s when he fell in love with Diane and the South. Diane said Steve returned to Washington for a brief time, but came right back. He felt at home here.
“I know why I settled in the South, these are my people,” he told her.
Steve loved serving and interacting with his people at Ruben’s and Cattleman’s. He earned his way into the business. In 1983, Steve worked at Ruben’s for free, just to get his foot in the door.
“He told them, Just let me work for about a month, and we’ll see how it turns out,” Diane Heinz said.
It turned out he would buy the place.
When he took over the restaurant, Steve met Elliott Dismukes, a food merchant. He bought food from Dismukes for the rest of his life.
“He was by far the most loyal man I’ve ever known,” Dismukes said.
Steve balanced his love for his restaurant and his family with his passion for fishing and dogs. He raised Labrador retrievers for more than a decade. He had a lab named Ruben who he trained to fetch cigarettes.
Steve used to go tournament fishing on the weekends. He would work until the restaurant closed, drive to Arkansas and fish all morning, then drive back before the restaurant opened.
There was a time when Steve was out of the restaurant business, but it never left his mind. When the opportunity to buy Cattleman’s presented itself, Steve took it.
“That revitalized him,” Colby Heinz said. “It brought him back.”
The restaurant was Steve Heinz’s natural habitat. His family will continue to operate it in tribute to him, sons carrying on the tradition their father started.
“He wanted something to leave for his boys,” Diane Heinz said. “I think that excited him most of all.”
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