BrandonTimes: Come in, but leave the phone

Lunch with Ernest

Come in, but leave the phone

By ERNEST HOOPER, Times Columnist
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 21, 2003

Ben Crisler, son of a Georgia sharecropper, went from a 20-year career with Western Union to the grueling job of restaurant manager, and he's got burns on his right forearm to prove it.

In 1981, Crisler opened Ben's Family Restaurant, now Brandon's oldest restaurant. Recently, we sat down at the restaurant to talk about serving food, family support and what Brandon used to be like. Ben, who is on a strict 1,500-calorie a day diet, opted for water. Out of respect, I had a Coke.

Pull up a chair and join us.

Ernest: What restaurants were in Brandon when you started?

Ben: When we opened in Brandon in 1981, Fat Willie's was in Valrico, Brandon Townhouse was where City Limits is and there was Burger King, McDonald's, Brown's Fried Chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the old Sambo's, and further on down past Kentucky Fried Chicken, was Bonanza Steakhouse and Waffle House and Taco Bell was right there beside Steak n' Shake.

How does someone who starts working for Western Union as a 13-year-old end up in the restaurant business?

There was an ad for Denny's and I guess the benefits and excellent pay caught my eye. It also said five-day work week, but that didn't turn out to be true.

At a Denny's in Winter Park, you worked from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for a manager named Jim Costello. What did you learn from him?

He said if the restaurant wasn't clean when he came in, I would have to do it. He said in every company there has to be a bad guy, otherwise, you're not successful as a manager because they'll run over you. When Mr. Costello came across that parking lot, he would come in and check everything. If everything was clean and in order, he would say sit down and have a cup of coffee. For two weeks, it wasn't to his satisfaction. I was there until 11 a.m., recleaning the restroom, restocking the kitchen. After two weeks, I was really frustrated.

What did you do?

I was getting a little bit ill with this and my wife (Rancine) kept saying if this doesn't suit you, why don't you quit? I said, "No it's not going to beat me. I'm not going to let it beat me."

You had to be the bad guy, didn't you?

I decided I'm going to be the supervisor of these guys and they're going to get the job done and we're going to have it like Mr. Costello wants it and like the company wants it. I got busy and the next day he comes in, goes through his motions and says, "Sit down and have a cup of coffee."

Eventually you're assigned to a Denny's on Fowler Avenue and you move to Brandon in 1976. Why did you choose Brandon?

The smallness, the country feel of it. You had a lot of dairy farmers, you had the orange groves, you had vegetable farming going on out Highway 60. It was something that caught our eye because my wife and I both grew up in rural Georgia.

Tell me about going into business for yourself. You had gone from Denny's to Sambo's in Brandon. Then what happened?

Sambo's was in financial trouble. A lot of guys like me were making a lot of money and they wanted to put in cheaper managers. The old building on Kings Avenue (where the CVS Pharmacy sits today) was vacant and the owners said "if you want to lease it, we'll lease it to you for three years."

What was it like the night before you opened?

The night before we opened we had $737.19 in the checking account out of the $18,000 we had borrowed. Me and my wife, I don't think we slept a wink. We got up on April 7, 1981, and got there bright and early, opened the doors, and everybody came. Every employee I needed on opening day came to Ben's Family Restaurant on their own and gave Sambo's notice. They had to close Sambo's the day we opened until they could get employees from other Sambo's in Tampa.

Was it tough going in the beginning?

At the end of two weeks, all the snowbirds went back north and it died. I mean it died. That summer, I cooked from 2 to 11 Monday through Thursday. My wife worked in Tampa and she would get to the restaurant. We had one waitress, little Mark would wash dishes until I could get caught up and my wife would stock the salad bar and help the waitress get drinks.

Tell me about the ban on cell phones.

Back about three years ago, it got to the point where you would have nine or 10 people scattered throughout the dining rooms talking on cell phones. It got so bad that I thought to myself people don't realize they're supposed to go out and enjoy a meal for 30 minutes or 45 minutes without having to be stressed out on that cell phone. They should calm themselves and respect the people around them.

The cell phones can be mighty rude. People can be rude with them.

Is it true that a local radio guy tried to challenge the rule?

It was about four or five of them. They crank up these cell phones and start them ringing and the one guy is broadcasting back to Bubba, or whatever his name is, the Love Sponge. Mark came back and said, "Our policy is no cell phones. Please take them outside." By the time he turned and walked off, he recognized it was the radio station. He eventually called the sheriff's department. They were still here doing their thing so the deputy came in and said, "The man owns the business, he has the right to tell you to leave. Now I'm telling you get out and leave." They got up and dispersed.

We haven't had a big hassle with it. By taking the cell phones outside, we increased our volume by about 4 percent over the first six months.

Why haven't you bought the new house and the fancy cars?

We live in the same house we bought in 1977. I drive a '91 Ford pickup truck. My wife drove a 1978 Datsun station wagon until 1992. We bought her a 1992 Buick LeSabre and she cried when I sold it. We're down to earth people. We're perfectly happy. We were raised not to be stingy, but to be economical.

You've mentioned your wife several times. How important has she been in your success?

She has been more responsible than anybody for what I've accomplished in my life. If it hadn't been for her, I probably would have worked for somebody else until retirement. When we first got married, I think both of us were making about $18 a week take-home pay. Whatever we were making, she would take about 10 percent and put it in a savings account. Rancine has been the drive in me. She's been right there with me up to this day.

DESSERT: A postscript from Ernest

Ben, 65, says he has survived the onslaught of chain restaurants in Brandon by stressing four tenets: quality, consistency, service and cleanliness. He believes a lot of restaurant owners have gone awry when they lose sight of those principles and start buying $500,000 homes and Mercedes Benzes. Although his son Mark manages the restaurant, Ben still works 25 to 30 hours a week. Several employees have worked at Ben's for more than 10 years; waitress Ethel Morgan and cook David Campbell have been there since the beginning.

-- Ernest Hooper also writes a column for the Tampa & State section of the St. Petersburg Times. Lunch With Ernest is edited for brevity and clarity. To suggest lunch partners , call Ernest at 226-3406 or e-mail hooper@sptimes.com .