A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held this week at The Boat House Wine Company near Bloomfield. On hand for celebration were (from left) Kevin Bishop of the Dexter Chamber, Chelsey Stoverink, Hilary Pyle, Lindley Duncan, owner David Duncan, partner Tom Ryan, Kenny Pope of the chamber, and Janet Coleman, chamber executive. The Boat House offers live music on the weekends and great food, dining over the water, cocktails and nature trails. Groups and parties may be booked by calling the Boat House at 722-3760 or Hilary at 614-1667. The Boat House is located on County Road 252 between Bloomfield and Advance. (SMT photo by Annabeth Miller)

The Legendary Pizza Villa or "Terry Darcy's Secret Pizza Recipe" Lives On at Dexter Pizza Company

Many Dexter residents will be proud to know that the legacy of the Pizza Villa continues at the previous location on Business Highway 60 West. Opening last week under new ownership, the restaurant has been given a fresh renovation and was filled with customers enjoying a great salad bar, pizza buffet and orders from the menu.

The new owner, James Fowler, is a little too young to know the historical value of the Terry Darcy recipe used at his restaurant. As a DHS graduate in 2007, his memories will quickly run to Steve Comfort, Mike Reese and other previous owners that have held this tradition.

Specializing in Pizza, Pasta and Sandwiches, Dexter Pizza offers a quick, hot alternative to your noontime plans. The food and salad buffet is fully loaded with choices, including the dessert pizza of chocolate chip and apple.

The restaurants heritage dates back to the late 1970's when Terry and Nancy Darcy began to prepare pizza unlike anyone in the area. With a strong love for the local school and community, Terry and Nancy opened the restaurant much like one would open their home treating their guests like family.

The Pizza Villa was "the place" where many courtships started, many football games were watched and many friends were made. More than just a great place, the restaurant has excellent food and service. The wait staff called you by name and treated you like family.

Mr. and Mrs. Darcy raised a great family here in the Dexter community. His daughters, Ann and Elizabeth, were both very active in the Dexter Schools and his one son, Richard, was also an athlete and extremely active.

The Pizza Villa was the hang out for many of their friends "back in the day". Many times, Mr. Darcy would call a few young men by name himself, but that was to get them lined out and acting right in his restaurant.

Originally from the South, the Darcy's eventually returned home to Sheffield, Alabama near Florence.

Approximately 1997, Steve Comfort brought back the idea of that great Pizza Villa recipe. After a short conversation with Mr. Darcy, Steve graciously received the secrets of the master pizza chef.

As a celebration of a southern gentleman in Terry Darcy, we are excited that the tradition of Pizza Villa pizza continues with the work of James Fowler.

The crowds are already beginning to arrive to discover the facility renovation, great service and great food. The hours are 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM, Tuesday through Sunday.

Terry Crowley, along with his son Logan, are pictured here enjoying a great meal together on Thursday noon.

You can phone in your orders to 573.624.7499 and use their convenient drive thru window.

By Annabeth Miiler,
ShowMe Times Editor

Thailand, Mexico, Philippines, Africa, Great Britain, America, Mexico, Egypt … the youngsters at Story Hour at the Keller Public Library had an exciting, fun-filled whirlwind journey around the world Wednesday morning.

With hostess Jean “Mary Poppins” Rahm and her travel assistants. The youngsters sang songs, learned games, danced and shared an hour full of fun, books, and music.

Rahm’s energetic crew got things rolling as the youngsters arrived with lively music and dance - and set the tone for the hour.

A full house of youngsters, parents and friends filled the Community Room at the library for the annual summer reading program.

Burt Bacharach’s 1970s hit “What the World Needs Now Is Love” began the program, with the children repeating the chorus with Rahm and crew. The journey then set off around the world at a fast pace – from Africa to “high tea with the queen” in Great Britain, across the world to Thailand (Siam) with a song and dance about Siamese kittens, a dance ala Steve Martin about dancing like an Egyptian, and a song and game about the great African lion.

The youngsters listened to music, sang, listened to stories, clapped, played maracas for the Mexican Hat Dance, played games, and teamed up to transform Delisa Sitze and Rita LeBeau into “mummies.”

Just as the program Wednesday began with the children singing “What The World Needs Now Is Love,” it ended to them listening to the high school musician Brandon Moore play the Louie Armstrong classic, “What A Wonderful World” on the tenor sax.

The Story Hour theme this summer is “One World, Many Stories.” The summer program will continue next Wednesday, June 29. The Story Hour is held from 11-12 p.m. in the Community Room at Keller Public Library, is free and open to the public.

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With much anticipation, the Robbie D’s & Ultimate Flooring Wing Wars circuit was scheduled for today in Dexter. The numbers for the cook teams had grown to over 15 master chefs ready to “pit” against each other in a BBQ wing cookoff.

However, Mother Nature had another idea for this event as strong rains and thunderstorms rolled through the area early Saturday morning creating several team cancellations.

But the morning rain was short lived and by the afternoon, the scheduled Robbie D’s & Ultimate Flooring Wing Wars was back into action. Teams from Perryville, Sikeston, Puxico and Dexter rolled into the Dexter Inn parking lot with rotisserie cookers, smokers and kettles to share their cooking skills at the third stop on the Wing Wars tour.

Dallas Buchanan brought one of the most exciting attractions of the day with his BBQ Turtle. Comments throughout the day rang out from cooks, organizers and attendees about "the turtles running around in Dallas's BBQ Pit". Well over 200 pounds of chicken wings were served to attendees of the event throughout the day. Many attendees caught the action while just traveling by the area and caught a glimpse and smell of the BBQ smoke.

Brett and Carter Dorton were able to stop by and get a great sample. “I didn’t even know that I liked chicken wings,” commented Carter Dorton. Before the day ended, Carter earned the nickname by several cook team members as “The Chicken Eater”.

The Wing Wars became the vision of two friends, Jimmy Cantrell and Darrin Johnson. “We basically wanted to get people together for a good time and good food” added Darrin Johnson, owner of Ultimate Flooring and co-sponsor.

Jimmy “Shag” Cantrell is the driving force behind the success of the event. His passion for the project and his ability to encourage participants to join in on the fun has been the key to the growth.

In its second year, the Wing Wars continues to grow in popularity. Originating on the Castor River, events have been held at business locations in Sikeston, Bloomfield and other locations.

This year Wing Wars championship will held at the 2nd Annual King of the River BBQ Cook Off at the Twin Bridges Park in Grassy, Missouri on September 16th and 17th. Proceeds from the event will go to benefit the Marble Hill Optimist, Dreampursuits.org and BA Extreme Relay for Life.

For additional information, you can reach Jimmy Cantrell at cantrelljim65@gmail.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1509223809.

The Dexter Kiwanis Club is busy today selling BBQ Tenderloins and Boston Butts on the Parking Lot of Harps Supermarket. Several club members were on hand, working to help raise funds for the many projects they support locally.

A quick look at the makeup of the Dexter Kiwanis will tell that this group is full of strong, community-minded leaders. On hand for today's for the SMT picture were Kirby Taylor, Bill Aslin, Larry Colvin, Lehman Godwin, Harold Williams.

This is only one of four major events that the Dexter Kiwanis Club is actively involved in. Besides the meat sales, you will find these members annually at the corners of Vine Street & Walnut Street - as well as Business Hwy 60 and Walnut Street - passing out peanuts and accepting donations from the community.

You will also find team members handling the cooking duties for their annual Fall Pancake Day at the Catholic Hall.

Next is the annual Easter Egg Hunt, held at the West City Park, on the Saturday before Easter. The event is filled with smiles as the kids enjoy prizes and fun.

The Dexter Kiwanis Club is a service club dedicated to improving our community with a strong focus on young people.

You will find their list of supported groups and clubs to be long and valuable to our community: the club awards college scholarships to local students, and offers support to the Boys Scouts, Girl Scouts, Project Prom and many other youth-related activities.

Meetings are held weekly at the American Steakhouse in Dexter, where the club works to increase community awareness of important issues by hosting guest speakers.

Membership in this club is encouraged, and if you wish to join the club, you can contact the Kiwanis at info@dexterkiwanis.com.

Members of the Dexter Kiwanis Club

Kiwanis International is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child, one community at a time.