There are tons of high quality steel road bike frames from this era available cheap, since a lot were sold and most people consider them obsolete. If you want to ride on gravel the thing you'll need to watch for is that they have enough room to run wider tires in the 32mm to 38mm range. Many do but many don't. You have to look at all three places where the tires need to fit (two in back and one in front) because many times it is only one of the three that is too small.
Some mid-80s mountain bike frames are also suitable for conversion to drop bars depending on your height (hard to find really tall ones). You can run 1.5" tires on the 26" wheels.