Hashbrowns, opera and chicken marsala complement Prashant Patel's American dream

The hashbrowns are real at Sally's Country Rose Café at the Day's Inn.

So is the Chateaubriand across the street at The Marquee, the restaurant at Mt. Pleasant's new Executive Inn.

What they have in common is Prashant Patel, the owner-manager of both properties.

At the moment, families named Patel own nine of the city's ten hotels and motels, said Prashant, whose family plunged into the picture with purchase of the Days Inn in 1999.

The first Patel in the U.S., he said, arrived from India in 1914. Today, Patel families own 70 percent of the nation's motels.

All the Patels of India are no more kin than all the Smiths of the U.S. But there is a kind of informal network.

"If you're willing to work," Prashant said, "there's help."

Growing up in a land where his family farmed with oxen, Prashant's grandfather left India for Kenya in the first half of the 20th century.

His father, Rajni, grew up and opened a plumbing supply business. In 1978, he brought the family to Houston where he went to work in a convenience store.

"That's the progression," Prashant said. "You go to work in a convenience store, buy a convenience store, sell that and buy a dry cleaning business, then sell that and buy or build a motel.

Meet Prashant Patel, a member of one of eight Patel families who now own nine of Mt. Pleasant's ten motels. While other Patels maintain a low profile, his custom-modified 800-horse Viper speaks volumes about Prashant's drive to dive headlong into a community where he feels more at home "than any other place I've been."

"The goal is always owning your own business and owning a motel is the pinnacle," said Prashant, whose family story follows that established line.

"The hardest we ever worked was when we owned a truck stop on I-10 at Baytown," he said. While owning a convenience store across the highway at the same exit, the family lived a 24-7 life running the truck stop.

After the business sold, Prashant took a detour, working for a year and a half as a computer programmer before being lured to Mt. Pleasant.

"The Days Inn had one thing going for it," Prashant said. "We could afford it."

Only half the rooms were in condition for guests. The club was closed and the restaurant had been used only for storage for years.

A California native, Sally Stalcup was leasing the restaurant across the street when Prashant first approached her.

In the next year, the Prashant's family poured $700,000 into renovation.

"That worked," observed Sally, who watched the motel trade where she was begin falling as Prashant built up business across the street. Three years ago, she struck a deal with Prashant and the Days Inn became, for a while, the town's only full service motel.

Cutting a deal with Sally to provide a free breakfast for motel guests, Prashant added a new pitch to his continually-evolving marketing schemes.

Until March of this year, the Days Inn steadily drained business from the motel across the street. Prashant bought it in March.

In October, The Marquee offered a choice of roasted prime tenderloin or fresh Alaskan salmon as pianist Neal Reynolds accompanied John Garland Jones for an event billed as "A Night at the Opera." Meanwhile, at Sally's Country Rose Café, owner Sally Stalcup joined with friend and coffee patron Larry Lancaster's parking lot cooking team and The Sugarhill Bakers to raise over $10,000 for a family facing a medical crisis. Both restaurants flavor the business of Prashant Patel as he infuses local motel trade with new energies.

Since Sally's departure, the motel's restaurant had one run that didn't work, an attempt to compete head to head with Sally's home cooked breakfasts, buffet lunches, and the evening run on chicken fried steaks and T bones.

In September, Prashant hooked up with Dr. Dickey Crooks and Lee Smith.

A native of Louisiana, Lee came of age cooking in New Orleans.

"My favorite story of Lee's is about going to work in a restaurant where he spent six months chopping vegetables before moving a notch up the ladder," Dr. Crooks said. "He spent the next six months cooking shrimp scampi."

Lee and the doctor pitched Prashant a different deal - dinner only, with entrees like Balsomo Filet of Tenderloin. Kings Rack of Lamb. Prime Rib served with White Wine Au Jus and Horseradish Sauce.

"Prashant wanted something nice," said Dr. Crooks, who wanted something different after 30 years as a practicing chiropractor.

"I like what I do, but I've always liked cooking and I've fantasized about having a place like this," he said.

Like this, includes linen and crystal, grapes, greenery and wine bottles along a draped bar creating a French bistro look in the dining room.

"It's coming together as well as we dared dream it might," said the beaming doctor, who continues his practice by day and escapes into a vision by night.

Across the street, Sally lives another agenda, smoothly juggling facilities and seating to accommodate seminar eating meetings and passing team buses, blending a hodge podge of family and business travelers with her regulars. One bunch refers to its daily gathering as "Red Neck Coffee."

Meanwhile, back in his new Executive Inn, Prashant has torn out walls, installed kitchens, created suites. Like Dusty's Bar, at his place across the street, he's opened the Borrowed Money Lounge.

"We've cleaned the place up," he said. "The Marquee is a plus for travelers looking for that image."

The motel's business had quadrupled without tapping occupancy across the street. One exit to the east on I-30, the new Holiday Inn Express continues filling up.

"We're competing, but its working for everybody because we're providing so many options," Prashant believes. "We're broadening the base of services so that Mt. Pleasant is building a reputation as a dependable stop with full-service options."

Born in the states, Prashant moves as easily in the community as he does at annual meetings of the Asian Motel Owners of America Association.

"I've never felt as welcomed anywhere as I've felt in Mt. Pleasant," said Prashant, who will soon take a seat on the board of the local chamber.