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Sirros Restaurant was opened in March 1989 at 261 Merchant Street.  It opened under the ownership of Richard Greminger and the management of Susie Tatham, with Ruthie Flieg as Assistant Manager.  While the restaurant opened with samiches and pasta, pizza was added in September 1990.  Along with its large menu, Sirros is known among the locals for its homemade onion rings, Ribley soup and a fresh salad bar.


After research it was found that Sirros almost returned to its roots.  In 1934 the Orris Café was opened in our current location.  It is said to have served delicious home cooking with all the modern conveniences of the time.  Various advertisements show that a 3 course Chicken Dinner was sold for 75 cents and a Fried Duck Dinner was 65 cents.  It was operated by Mrs. A. H. Scheppele of Farmington, MO and her family.

In the late 1930’s Elmer Donze and his brothers acquired the property and it became the “Donze Cut Rate Drug Store”.  It continued to offer food along with a soda fountain, sundries and packaged liquor.  In the 1940’s the Cut Rate became the only bus stop on the bus line between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau.  In the late 1950’s “Cap” Donze acquired the business and continued to operate it as the Cut Rate Drug Store.  We have heard many stories that The Cut Rate was a popular place for the school kids to meet after their day was done.  In 1969 Cap sold the business and it became “Big T’s Long House” and it was converted to a pizza parlor.  Later the building was used as a T.V. repair business.  It remained vacant for many years after that.


The building was purchased in 1984 by the owners of the adjacent Orris Theatre, which was undergoing renovations.  They opened Sirros, Orris spelled backwards, in 1989 offering samiches and pasta.  It has undergone several minor updates and was remodeled in 2008 adding a new kitchen and a larger dining area to accommodate our customers.