About Us
Stevie D’s was founded by Steven Darren Long, who was called Stevie by his family and remains so to this day by his Grandmothers, Aunts, Cousins, and Uncles on both his Mothers and Fathers side of the family.
He first got into the restaurant business as a dishwasher at the age of 16 in his hometown of Oklahoma City working in a local Cafeteria. It is there where he learned the craft of creating foods, such as gravy’s, meats and vegetables from scratch, preparing enough food to serve server hundred to a couple of thousand people a day.
At the age of 21, he opened a community dry cleaner following in the footsteps of his uncle who ran a successful dry cleaner. This was all while continuing to keep his job in the restaurant. When he had to go to work his wife ran the Dry Cleaner. He continued to run the Dry Cleaners for the next 2 years until his wife became pregnant with their first Daughter. Already being a father to a toddler son, Steve decided to go to college to provide a more stable financial situation for his family. So, to build a better life for his family, he decided to go to college for Electronics Engineering Technology at the age of 23 while still holding down a job in the restaurant industry.
He worked in a wide range of restaurants through the age of 26 while also attending college to help pay for tuition and take care of his family. His experience in foods also included fine dining, hotel, your local pizzeria and sandwich shop where he first encountered the Cheesesteak. After graduating Steve left Oklahoma City to pursue a career as a Field Service Engineer in the Semiconductor industry, before returning to college to pursue and receive a degree in Computer Science, which led to his career as a Software Engineer. But even after accomplishing these goals, the thought of cooking, and food preparation never left his system. He wanted back in, but not as just a food preparer, but a restaurant owner who could provide excellent service, good food and a relaxed environment to his community. So, he started to think about all the great foods that he had tried, not just local to the area, but all around the places in the United States in which he travels. There were several foods to come to mind, but one remained, and it was the cheesesteak. You see what he noticed, is that there were little to no Cheese Steak specialty restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and none in the City of Mansfield in which he lived. So, he decided to go back to his roots and open the first Stevie D’s Cheesesteak restaurant right there in his community.