Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses

With this murder came two breaks in the case.

A .223 caliber bullet had been recovered from the Ponderosa Steakhouse behind her, and an eyewitness claimed that they'd seen a white box truck speeding away from the scene of the crime.

Barely an hour went by when the next call came in.

It was 9:58 AM and 12 miles away at a Shell station in Kensington, Maryland, that 25-year-old Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was shot from behind while vacuuming her daughter's car seat in the back of her minivan.

It was Friday afternoon, and an agent from Alabama would touch down in DC first thing on Monday morning.

The shooters, however, would not have the patience to lie in wait for that long.

It was the evening of October the 19th, and Jeffrey Hopper was walking through the parking lot outside of the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Ashland, Maryland, when he was shot.

Hopper survived the incident, and as law enforcement processed the scene, they came across a small plastic bag tacked to a tree.

Next question for you, Jamie, is...

What is your favorite, or really, what are your thoughts on retro sort of steakhouses? And what I mean by that are the Bonanza, the Ponderosa, the Sizzler, those type of places.

Are you a fan? Are you not a fan? If you are a fan, do you have a favorite? What are your thoughts on sort of the retro steakhouses, for lack of a better term?

I was an absolute mark for Sizzlers.

Oh, that is amazing.

Mine was Ponderosa.

I loved all of those, all of Bonanza and Sizzler.

I loved them all.

I'm trying to figure out how to make the emotion feel genuine to people who've actually experienced that stuff.

And all I really lean on is just, like, when did Bonanza become Ponderosa Steakhouse? You know, like-

[laughs]

...

Tracy was-

Ponderosa Steakhouse.

Oh, I love the Ponderosa.

Ponderosa.

I just realized, like, man, you know, we used to get away with the old, when I was a college kid, all the restaurants would always have the starving student night, you know, the thing.

And there was like the Ponderosa Steakhouse was the place.

It's like a sizzler.

Ponderosa.

We will go to Bennigan's.

I did go to Ponderosa Steakhouse.

Yes.

That was not part of my childhood.

And it's a big Qatari staple because it was very nostalgic for it.

It was big in the 90s here.

We did have one Ponderosa steakhouse.

back in Calgary when I was growing up, but I don't really remember it.

That was one of the nicer, um, steakhouses in the area.

Not that it was really super expensive, but comparatively to, like, a Ponderosa Steakhouse versus a, the Stonehaus, it was, you know, it's a jump.

So after we leave there, we go over to the Big Boy's, and we sit in the parking lot for a second there.

We're just kind of talking, and I kissed her a couple of times.