SONNY’S BARBECUE  



SONNY’S BARBECUE  √√√1/2 

SEMINOLE - 2250 Seminole Blvd, Largo 33788 
PINELLAS PARK - 4385 Park Blvd.  Pinellas Park, FL 33781



OBSERVATIONS — I WAS LOOKING FOR A GOOD PLACE FOR RIBS

ED:  While we strive to give every location a good rating and reality says it only takes one day in the business to ruin things.  It seems thats the day I drop in with my partner — 

  • It can be the day someone didn’t show up
  • The manager lost at the poker game last night
  • Bad paycheck moods
  • Or the truck from Sysco, Palmetto or Kissimmee location
  • Or GFS  from Plant City broke down 
  • The head waitress or front end leader gal is in a bad mood
  • The cook has a severe cough and cold 
  • The power went off on the microwaves and all the meat in the chiller is bad
  •  We’ll see if we can get it on the grill and precook everything and so forth. 
  • This is all part of the business.


HISTORY IN ABSTRACT — 

  • Sonny's BBQ is a barbecue restaurant chain founded by Floyd "Sonny" Tillman in Gainesville, Florida in 1968. Bob Yarmuth purchased the company in 1991 and continues as the company's owner and CEO today. Sonny's BBQ now has 113 restaurants across eight Southeastern states and is headquartered in Maitland, Florida.

  • A good facility has backups for almost every position and spends a lot of time cross training the help to take over in the event of a situation.  Off and on over twenty some years this chain has experienced just about everything I mentioned.  Even letters to the head honcho received no answers. I even offered to check their stores if they reimbursed me as a hidden shopper — in food — no reply —
      
  • This chain and this store in particular is living proof that a good manager can turn an establishment around. It also proved to me that a good manager can make a difference in a chain location when he puts the customer first and that store excels above the others, thus they all should rise to the chains level and raise the bar.  

  • Don’t get me wrong some Sonny’s owners or manager partners  run a good, clean, comfort food, fun place to eat with personable staffs in the locations we visited and we visited a lot. But it basically has one problem that I see which I will get too.

  • Sonny’s does not make ribs and barbecue in the way traditionalist wet and dry rub aficionados like myself appreciate it.  They use the "open pit” fire style. More fire, less slow cooked more smoke for flavor.

  • But I like to eat, I like to write about it and their location was convenient to my home.  I am both a finesse and comfort food eater.  A rib lover, Pig, Cow, Bison, Gnu, Elk, who cares.  Any kind of food with a handle ( Bone) built in has got to be good.  It the way nature intended it to be.  Ribs and their preparation are very much a culinary science, extremely diversified and regionally held sacred by fellow rib lovers. 

  • I'm not fussy, I just don't prefer their style, but when hungry, I can live with it. I have enjoyed good ribs, mark that great ribs and barbecue in places from Jackson Hole Wyoming, home to Bubba's, my favorite, wet and rubbed ribs in Memphis where we ate for three days barbecue. And don't leave out Texas Beef Ribs and Kansas City Dry Rub… at many nationally known restaurants featured on TV.

  • To be fair we visited five Sonny’s locations three times each over a period of time.  To the eye each store was clean, nice staff, quick seating, timely service, clean bathrooms and service area. No dirty or darkened ceilings, condiments on the table filled and serviceable, tables wiped clean no drippings. We saw the employees, managers helping when busy quickly resetting tables and checking the area.

  • They offer RIBS several ways in addition to many other items on the menu. Ribs were my selection for testing. We use sweet and smokey all you can eat for consistency.
    • Sweet & Smokey Ribs  (Our test preference) Our Sweet & Smokey Ribs are basted twice 
    • Sweet Bar-B-Q Sauce and slow-smoked over a real hardwood fire. 
    • Classic Dry Rub Ribs  -  This is Sonny’s version of this traditional Bar-B-Q favorite 
    • Baby Back Ribs -   A full slab marinated and smoked ’til they’re sweet and tender sometimes.

COMMENTS FROM PAST EMPLOYEES  —

I'm going to tell you straight up I worked at SONNY'S when Bobby Tillman owned it, I worked there for years everything was from scratch when John and his company bought it everything was sent in cans talking about beans, slaw etc etc
I used to come in early everyday and melt my butter and add garlic and butter many pans of fresh garlic bread now its delivered in frozen boxes    Back then it was called SONNY'S REAL PIT BBQ
I also freshly shredded my cabbage and made real SONNYS COLE SLAW now it comes in a plastic container
That's over, gone  it all (FOOD) comes pre packed all they have to do is heat it up
Anyone here old school SONNY'S WOULD TELL YOU IT'S CRAP NOW


HISTORY OVER THE YEARS — UPGRADED SOME LOCATIONS — AND PRICES — 

Surprise, surprise, last night we hit the Sonny’s BBQ on Seminole Blvd, and the experience moved up a few notches and so did the bill.  All you can Sonny’s Sweet and Smokey Memphis Ribs is now 19.95, up from 16.00 a couple years back.   

The interior looked new and fresh, unique condiment trays, new booths and this time I had the sweet and smokey ribs, all you can eat and they were perfect.  I made it thru two rounds and my partner had a smaller plate of two kinds of meat ribs and pulled pork, with a few sides, and thinner garlic bread, I think the bread was shrunk it was still filling.

Service was fast and attentive, pleasant compared to the past when service was good but the food had no consistency.Obviously they made some updates and changes... I am finding getting there earlier than the 6:30—7:30 rush has it's advantages. 

In the last three places we went earlier...the food was actually better and fresher that getting there when it’s mobbed.   Pleasant visit and bumped to a four since chains I don’t give fives to.   They did score well on the health department inspections. I suspect they either called in an expert  ( someone from another state with a briefcase and laptop) or read what people really think, the decor improved, the food improved, even the haphazard condiment setup improved... downside,  prices went up, tariffs, politics caused that, recalls on essentials, and paying the help.

Again their style is not quite any of the above. On some days the food at this location was neither wet nor dry, it was burnt, commercial and overcooked, maybe sat under the lights too long.  I have been a customer there for years.  Open fire caramelized is how I would describe it. 

Screen Shot 2022-07-04 at 7.26.03 AM


THE TASTE FIRE DEPARTMENT — Someone though they could put a taste fire out by smothering it in sauce it was terrible.   We don’t complain, we just report.  It’s my policy, but as a consumer after three trips, (and we pay our own way)  the one time the manager came over and my answer was,  “ The sweet and smoky ribs tasted like a feral pig caught running through a brush fire, ultimately dying en-route left in the woods for a week , after being burnt to death". 

So, as it is my policy to try a place three times before I pass judgement, I went back, tried it again, and the food was average good, not Bubba but not bad enough to throw the plate on the floor.  A new manager from one of the other stores was in charge and he did fine. He seemed to be more in the picture, out amongst the customers than in the office and the food and service has gotten better. The ribs tasted fresh and not laying around.  He had an eye on what was going out of the kitchen.

Alas, a few weeks later he was gone, back up at his old store and things went back to normal in this location.  It’s the ribs, the place is kept clean and has a friendly nice staff.  It’s the food that turned me off.  Simple enough to fix. The sides, corn, greens, fries, potatoes were generous in portion and fairly nicely done.  Don’t expect “ ala dente” when greens have been in the water for a while.  I call it “ ala mush”.


NO CONSISTENCY —  This is a management problem and revolves around whether the product has sat for too long and should like some hamburger joints, throw it in the three G's, the gut, let the help eat it, the garbage, or the grinder and stick it in the Chili. 

Sometimes I felt I was getting yesterdays ribs. A waitress I befriended who left them told me that was possible. Another wouldn’t say anything, just grinned and laughed  —  I did not want to hear that, her eyes told me the whole story.  Two stories and words upper “ manglement”  has a problem with, they are ‘ Shrinkage and Wastage” both affecting the bottom line of the store. 

Most folks from Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas think these things qualify as pork meat, but not true ribs. Some aficionados’ wouldn’t feed on these ribs. I know I met them at other places like Chilies eating Chili's ribs and Chillis are pure commercial ribs, not a taste of Memphis either. So I questioned them and it was more about 2 for one drinks than the ribs — So where do you get real ribs… the quest continues in Tampa Bay.


WHAT TO ORDER  —  Avoid the “ all you can eat on ribs”.  It's hit or miss on the reorder.  The last three times the re-orders were barely edible.  End cuts burnt and tougher than nails.  Again, I do not complain while in any venue until the third visit.  I suck it up and hit the keys. They do a fairly good job on chicken, if you like a red colored chicken, not me.  It's done, but the fire adds what we call in roasting,  "the red burn ring"  except the whole chicken piece turns red.  Tastes OK but not appealing to me. I like the charred burnt looking Chicken with taste and sauce.

The pork both pulled and sliced is usually quite nice, they give extra nice size portions of garlic toast, tatters, fries and the usual beans, green beans and slaw. All of which are cheaper than meat.  Beverages come in huge glasses and if you are a tea drinker ask for half sweet and half unsweetened or no sugar at all. 

The "Southern Sweet Tea" is a prelude to diabetic coma and way too sweet for me.  Tell the girl to make it half and half or put your own sugar in. They now do serve Beer and Booze, and now a mini-sports bar at this location.  


THE BABY BACK RIBS - PROMO ITEM  --
Restaurants must maintain a cost factor which does not exceed 65%. That’s the cost of labor & food per every dollar of sales. Food cost should not exceed 27-28%.  Some restaurants do not really get great deals on meat unless they are like some chains and buy futures. Futures are breaks on the food they purchase with a locked in price for the year.  

Baby backs at Sam’s might cost the same uncooked as from supplier like SYSCO. In a taste shot a rack from Sam’s was better cooked than a rack from Sonny’s.  Baby back ribs are the ribs closest to the spine while spare ribs are the rib section closest to the breast bone.  Baby back ribs are less meaty, less fatty and tenderer than spareribs.  Baby backs come with the meaty “eye” removed.  A St. Louis cut is an entire slab of spareribs with the sternum and cartilage trimmed away.    

Spare ribs and baby back ribs are best cooked low and slow, be it a dry or wet heat method.  They can be coated with a dry rub and slow cooked in the oven or even a grill.  For the latter they are seared first and then cooked on the rack above the grill at a lower temperature with the lid closed. 

Back Ribs (a.k.a. loin ribs, baby back ribs, or Canadian back ribs) – Are taken from the top of the rib cage between the spine and the spareribs, below the loin muscle. This cut has meat between and on top of the bones, and the ribs are short and curved. The rack is shorter at one end, due to the natural tapering of a pig’s rib cage. A rack of back ribs contains a minimum of eight ribs (some may be trimmed if damaged), but can include up to 13 ribs, depending on how it has been prepared by the butcher. A typical commercial rack is 10 to 13 bones. If there are fewer than 10 bones, butchers call them “ cheater racks.

Twice the baby-backs at Sonny’s were not up to par with others, they not meaty, tough, and small even for a full rack. I don’t order them anymore.

Screen Shot 2022-07-04 at 7.31.14 AM


WINGS — THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE  — Wings were very inexpensive at the bar as a special. They cost more at the table.  But at the bar you are not getting cheap booze or beer and wings with salt that make people thirsty.  That makes the difference up.

The wings I got as an appetizer were a disaster.  What I termed Kindergarden wings, 10 for 8.99.  Outrageous ! These smalls go for a dollar a pound. They were small, hardly any meat, overcooked, crisped drenched in sauce.  Actually they didn't seem to be anything close to the wings from Hooters or Ker's Wing house. These were zeros in size. 

Think all wings are created equal, you don’t know wings.  I went and researched wings. WEIKU, features HALAL, a global food importer, global since chicken wings may be imported from Poland, Germany, Cameroon, China, South Africa, and Malaysia in portions escalating into metric tonnage.  You might say most of these commercial wings already had their frequent flyer miles.

Chickens grow anywhere and China is everywhere. They do a big job raising them over ponds which are covered with mesh under which which are shrimp.  Chickens help feed the shrimp.  You figure it out.  It is so chicken processing cost effective US chickens are sent to China and then shipped back to the US in parts packaged and sold in the stores. I almost had a stroke when I heard that and it came from the Feds.

MY SEARCH FOR A GOOD RIB PLACE IN 

TAMPA BAY HAS ENDED WITH NO WINNER


STOREI Copyrighted