When I was married to my children's father we opened a business: Jeffery's Family Restaurant. We served daily specials, home-style food, garden grown vegetables, and home made desserts at very affordable prices. Between the restaurant, holiday pie orders, GM lunch deliveries, my wood craft sales, rent from the two upstairs apartments, and his job at GM, we lived very comfortably financially. Hard work? Yes, it sure was! But there were many fun times too!
This review of our restaurant was published in our local newspaper:
Jeffery's Family Restaurant is what a real family-type restaurant should be. To the editor: As I started toward our local college campus library, I watched several cars zigzag up the slippery, snow covered hill. "Not for me," I said to myself and started back home. Tonight I really needed someplace away from my two children and telephone to prop up my book in effort to understand the"mechanisms of human behavior," but that library may as well have been located on the moon. "Jeffery's Family Restaurant. On impulse, I pulled the car off the road, skidding into a parking space. A table, a cup of coffee, and a place away from home were all I sought, so why not stop here? Well, I learned more about human behavior tonight than I could get from any book. As I settled into a chair, a waitress was intently listening to a man a few tables over, responding from time to time calling him by name. "He must come here often," I thought, dismissing the gesture. Then the smiling waitress was at my side to take my order. "Just coffee,'" I replied. She made some comment about school, motioning toward my book. In a moment I realized she seemed genuinely interested in my personal endeavor, sharing that she, too, was a college student. Other customers came in, were seated, and given the same personal interest. "Rare person... these days..." The atmosphere in Jeffery's reminded me more of my grandmother's kitchen...warm, cozy. friendly, and relaxing. There was a pleasant soft buzzing of conversation in the room. A round faced, hearty sort of gentleman seated at the next table smiled and with twinkling eyes remarked, "It looks like Christmas out there, doesn't it?" Noticing my book, he excused himself by saying, "You must have a big test tomorrow." Later, as he was leaving, he stopped to wish me good luck. One young man seemed to be part of each group. First, I'd seen him chatting with some men by the door. Later he was seated with a party of three. When a gray haired lady, wrapped tightly in her winter coat shuffled booted feet through the door the young man respectfully escorted her to a table away from any draft. He sat down to visit her for a while. Off and on the waitresses took a minute to exchange news with the lady. When she finished her meal and was preparing to leave, the young man offered to warm her car. She accepted. Car warming, he slowly guided her to the exit. "Wait here." he cautioned. "I'll bring your car up to the door." The young man, I learned, was the owner- Jeffery. ow I've been in a lot of "family restaurants," but never one like this. The lady could have been Jeffery's mother and all those customers could have been Jeffery's family... he surely treated them as if they were. Jeffery's Family Restaurant is unique, indeed. If the food is half as appealing as the scene I witnessed, they have my vote. By the way, they have terrific home-made coconut cream pie. -Linda Sharp
There were the good days, and occasionally the bad days. You have to take the good with the bad, you know...
...and this photo has a story that stands on its own... ;)
Fun fact: Our restaurant was a few blocks away from Johnathon's Cafe on Main St. in Franklin, Ohio. Johnathan's made the national news several times because Johnathon's owner was Pete Rose's bookie. That was where all the illegal activity took place upstairs above the cafe. Gambling and blow flowed freely up there... We owned our restaurant during that time.
