Bill Miller Bar-B-Q
It is difficult to open a successful restaurant today, but it was undoubtedly as tricky or more in 1950 when Bill Miller took a $500 investment (loan) from his dad and opened his first business.…
View PostMoe’s Southwest Grill
After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Martin Sprock was only in his late 20’s when he started the popular smoothie chain, Planet Smoothie in 1995. After five successful years of the smoothie business…
View PostRuth’s Chris
If you don’t know the story of the Ruth behind Ruth’s Chris, you’re simply in for a treat. Ruth Fertel, born in Happy Jack Lousiana, was an amazing woman of strong will and some good…
View PostBruster’s Ice Cream
In the 1950’s, just outside Pittsburg, PA, the small town of Bridgewater had a diner called Jerry’s Curb Service where Bruce Reed worked. He probably wasn’t given a choice considering his parents owned it. It…
View PostDunkin’ Donuts
When William Rosenberg opened his Open Kettle restaurant in Quincy, Massachusetts, he had no idea that having coffee and donuts on his menu would change the world. All restaurants have a few menu items that…
View PostChuy’s
Ebony and Ivory was the number one song, Chariots of Fire took the Acadamy Award, and if you were around, you were probably watching Cheers on TV. The year was 1982, and two friends had…
View PostPappadeaux Seafood Kitchen
When you step into a Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen restaurant, you are experiencing a higher end dining experience that originated in 1897 when H.D. Pappas immigrated to America from Greece. H.D. opened lots of restaurants in…
View PostAuntie Anne’s Pretzels
It would be hard for the majority of us to comprehend Anne Beiler’s childhood growing up in an Amish-Mennonite family. She took the values instilled in her, along with her 8th-grade education and created a pretzel, a…
View PostPanda Express
Husband and wife stories are always fun. Andrew is from Yangzhou Province in China, and his wife Peggy grew up in Hong Kong, but they met at Baker University in Kansas. Andrew first went into…
View PostMcAlister’s Deli
Don Newcomb grew up in the small town of Ridley, Mississippi in the 1950’s. As a boy, he worked at the only soda fountain the small town had. That experience impacted him significantly, and after…
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