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Dinner to go
By SHARON L. BOND, Neighborhood Times Business Editor PINELLAS PARK -- The Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q on 66th Street N is marking its 20th year as a popular supplier of smoked meats and all-you-can-eat specials, longtime employees and loyal customers. But the 20th year is when this barbecue chain that operates throughout the southeast updates or builds new. This Sonny's will be gone by the end of the year. "We built it from nothing to very successful," said Joanne Hodgdon, manager of the 156-seat restaurant at 12001 66th St. N. An employee since it opened in February 1982, she is a bit wistful as she surveys its paneled interior with picnic tables and bare benches. The old Sonny's will be replaced by a new building in the next block that will have the chain's new decor of flowered cushions on the seats, lighter walls and less cluttered spaces. But no matter what the decoration or the new site, Sonny's on 66th Street N still will be dishing out barbecued meats. Yes, it does have a salad bar and a dieter's plate. But customers come for the daily, all-you-can specials. They know that for one price, servers will keep bringing plates of meat, garlic bread, potato (fries or baked) and cole slaw, as long as they ask for refills. "Every day, 80 percent do want the all-you-can-eat specials," Hodgdon said. "Believe it or not, they are not all heavy people. It's amazing what these people can pack away," Hodgdon said. She eats smoked, sliced pork daily and is thin. Spaghetti is her second favorite meal. Hodgdon and all the employees will move to the new restaurant when it opens at the end of the year. The manager had hoped to keep the old smoker but that wasn't possible. She says that nonetheless the smoking will be just as good at the new restaurant. Many of the 35 employees at the old Pinellas Park one are longtime workers, a few with almost as many years at the restaurant as Hodgdon. She says that is one reason for its success. Customers get to know the servers. Hodgdon was a server the first three years the restaurant was open. People she waited on then still come back to the restaurant, she said. One elderly couple comes over the Sunshine Skyway twice a week and drives by other Sonny's restaurants to get to the one on 66th Street N, Hodgdon said. Another regular is a man who lives in Texas but works in Pinellas County during the week. He is a four-night-a-week Sonny's diner, Hodgdon said. Seasonal visitors from the north recently invited her to their 50th wedding anniversary. However, the 66th Street Sonny's has lost customers since its owner opened two other Sonny's restaurants in the area last year. "You always take a certain amount of business from yourself," said Rod Lincoln, who owns one Sonny's in Pasco County in addition to the three in Pinellas. "For a while, 66th Street was so busy, we couldn't handle the people coming in," Lincoln said. "You have to make a decision whether to build another unit or a bigger unit." Lincoln's newest Sonny's restaurants are at 4385 Park Blvd. in Pinellas Park and 3600 Tyrone Blvd. in St. Petersburg, both south of the one on 66th Street. Yet another Sonny's, not owned by Lincoln, also has hurt business. It is on Seminole Boulevard, just inside Largo. Hodgdon said church crowds can nearly walk to the new restaurant on Seminole Boulevard. The new Sonny's will be at 12151 66th St. N, Lincoln said. He said the new restaurant will have more seating and drive-through service. He doesn't know yet what will happen to the older restaurant once it is closed.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
