Since You Asked: Can I get Hal's Grubstake sauce?

Q: Do you know where we might be able to find some of Hal's Grubstake barbecue sauce?

A: Unfortunately, there is no place where you can get a taste of the famous barbecue sauce once served at Hal's Grubstake restaurant in Yuba City.

The now-legendary barbecue sauce has not been served anywhere since Hal's shut its doors in 2001, but the former owners still get questions and phone calls about the signature sauce all the time.

Opened in 1957 by Harold "Hal" and Opal Dietzel, Hal's Grubstake was one of the oldest restaurants in Yuba City when tough times forced the store to close 44 years later.

Opal Dietzel helped her husband invent the Colusa Avenue eatery's famous sauce.

"I had the original recipe and Hal doctored it up from there," she said last week.

Opal, 96, still knows the recipe, but she's not giving away any secrets.

"Oh, I'd be willing to sell it," Dietzel said.

Described by some as "kind of sweet and savory" and by others as "definitely not sweet," Hal's sauce has been discussed on food and travel websites like fodors.com.

The Dietzels sold Hal's Grubstake — and the sauce — in 1975 to Ben and Carolyn Elizalde, who ran the restaurant until 1989, when they sold it to Yuba City's Jim Harrison. A retired highway patrolman, Harrison ran the shop until it closed in 2001.

Harrison, 72, also knows the recipe, but said he's had no luck finding a buyer.

"I've tried to sell it a bunch of times, but nobody was interested," Harrison said.

Like Opal Dietzel, Harrison is keeping the recipe close and guards the knowledge cautiously.

"They're all secret ingredients," Harrison proclaimed.

Hal's Grubstake was a community fixture known for the "Dudeburger" — also invented by Opal Dietzel — which included the sauce and was originally sold for a whopping 45 cents.

Sadly, Hal passed away in 2008 at the age of 83.

Opal said she's thrilled people still think about her husband's famous sauce after all these years.

"That was his life, serving good food, well-priced," Opal said. "It's quite a legacy."

So while no place currently serves the coveted sauce, there is still hope for commercial production some day.

Neither Opal or Harrison are saying how much they'd take for the sauce that still lingers in the memories of hungry Yuba-Sutter residents, but she seems willing to negotiate.

"It should be sold commercially — that's where it needs to be," Opal said.

Q: I was curious when Yuba City plans to repave Market Street. It is getting pretty bad starting from Queens Avenue all the way to the foot of the 10th Street Bridge. It is broken in parts especially by the Yuba City Corporation Yard.

A: The plan is to repave Market Street from Queens Avenue to Sutter Street and from there to Highway 20, according to the Yuba City Public Works Department.

City planners are hoping to send the project out for bid in the spring and begin repaving the street over the summer.

The projected $850,000 project will be funded primarily from a federal grant with $11,000 in matching funds from local gas tax revenues. The project is currently in the design phase, but should go before city officials some time in the spring.

Since You Asked is published on Mondays. Send questions to reporter Rob Parsons at the Appeal-Democrat, 1530 Ellis Lake Drive, Marysville, CA 95901, email him at rparsons@appealdemocrat or call 749-4785.