Actually... she is a fictitious figure from the mid-1800’s, who ran one of the first saloon steakhouses during the Gold Rush.

You probably wouldn’t believe this, but during the height of the Rush, 1849, a glass of water cost more than a shot of liquor. In fact, some of the 49ers paid $1.00 per glass, $5.00 per glass, and as high as $100.00 per glass, while liquor was $4.00 a pint.

The miners in their quest for gold traveled long distances by covered wagon and were fully stocked with bacon and flour. Actually, they were overstocked, but very few carried much in the way of water. In fact, many of them depended solely on finding water holes.

However, when they got to the desert opening, they found that the bacon and flour did not do them any good. Businessmen from the West Coast would fill wagonloads of water and would travel east meeting the miners in the desert and began selling water.

Many miners bartered the bacon and flour, but when that ran out, supply and demand took over and the price of water became the premium.

So as the story goes, word reached back into the Midwest and a young female entrepreneur opened the first saloon steakhouse; her name was Penelope. In the Midwest, the cattle were plentiful and so was the liquor and water. As a female entrepreneur, Penelope was ahead of her time. So it seemed only appropriate to name the Deck on Conley Ward’s after Penelope, where the steaks are abundant, the liquor plentiful, and the water... still a buck a glass.