Gainesville Food Options

It’s been a few hours.

 

This myth keeps showing up. Florida has limits on the number of non-Florida (domestic and international) students. There are probably more non-Florida grad students, but there are many thousands more grad students from everywhere than when I came here 40 years ago

 

If you leave the state of Florida (like we did to live in Louisiana), you will be missing Publix, Sonny’s, Mojo, Metro Diner, Gate gas stations, et al big time.

 

I lived in TX for 20 years. I miss good tex-mex, lol.

I liked that I had 10 different grocery stores to choose from within a couple miles of my house, rather than 10 publix’s, and a dirty ass hitchcocks.

Sonny’s I missed until they f’d up their beans, stopped serving sliced beef, stopped cooking in house, and changed their original sauce to something that now only comes in packs and has to be specifically asked for. All the things that made them what they were, were the first things that they removed when they sold out. And none of the servers even understand that the “original” on the table is NOT the original sauce.

I didn’t miss any of the other stuff you mentioned. I missed the springs, and being close to the coast as much as I missed anything else.

 

Loved going to a lot of those places, too. And, I also liked Snuffy's Burgers, too. That's also gone.

 

In-n-out, whataburger… I don’t think either of ours were part of the larger chains, but could be wrong.

 

I just had Sonny's last week and the beans were like they have always been and the sliced pork was very good. Sweat tea was still excellent served in a big glass Around covid things got bad because they could not get the food they normally use like even the fries. They have pretty much got back like they were now.

 

That’s disappointing about Sonny’s but am glad to know so we will bypass it on next Florida visit. I’m thinking Texas has so many more choices than La, it’s an adjustment. We live in Covington, an hour from NOLA. Not sure if it’s true here, but I believe many/most national chains, retail, restaurants steer clear of New Orleans because out of town business owners are not treated right. Plus, it’s a downright corrupt city. For just one example, there is no Longhorn Steakhouse here. I’m guessing most mid to larger cities would have one or more - not here. (Jax has about five Longhorns)
My wife laments about the paucity of certain retail stores here but it is what it is.

 

Leonardo's at MIllhopper is good and the weekday lunch special comes at a good price including the salad bar. As close as your going to get to the original these days.

 

While at UF, I loved The Hamburger Inn, a drive thru only dive on 8th NE or out that way. I’d ride my bike from campus just to go there, a pretty good distance. I also remember a restaurant off University downtown that was in a hotel. They served southern food, their fried chicken was exceptional. For the life of me, can’t recall the name.

 

It was The Pxxxxxx. Big help huh. Free chicken leg to one who recalls the name. It was slightly upscale for a college town.

 

The Primrose Inn.

 

Nope, the beans were one of the first things to change when they sold out. Followed shortly by removing the sliced beef from the menu which was always perfect, shortly after adding their horribly inconsistent brisket. Somewhere around that same time, they changed their “original” sauce and now the original sauce is called mild, and only available in packets that are available by request only. These changes were done way back in the early 2000’s shortly after i moved to TX, nothing to do with covid. My first few trips home looking forward to some sonny’s were each met by new disappointments. More recently they’ve fubar’d the ribs, which also used to be awesome and consistent, and removed the salad bar. Pretty much every change they’ve made has been for the worse, imo. I’m back home now and still eat there occasionally, but it’s a last resort place for me now. It used to be something I ate at least once a week.

 

The changes I’m bitching about happened years ago. I hold grudges. Lol. If you still enjoy it, don’t let me ruin it for you.

I’m familiar with Covington. I did a lot of duck hunting and was big into mudboats when I lived in TX. My boats and motors were all made down that way and I was part of a rather large community of fellow mudboaters. I had bunches of coonass buddies scattered down that way that we would do organized rides with.

I lived in the Dallas suburbs. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the dfw metroplex, I’m not sure it exists.

 

Ha ha!
You said enough about the new Sonnys that I won’t go. It’s too bad but it happens.
When I was at UF, I frequented the Sonny’s near the airport off 301; I usually got the chicken lunch with fries, the used to be scrumptious baked beans, and garlic toast. It all had a distinctive taste that lasted quite a while if you burped a lot.
Onward and upward.

 

That's odd because the people who own the Sonny's all over Marion and Alachua county are the original owners of the Ocala and Marion county Sonny's when they got the franchise for that area from Sonny Tillman. As far as I know Mr. Kirkpatrick was the first to get a franchise outside of Sonny's family. It was the Kirkpatrick family and the kids along with my cousin who has been with them 40 years still own all the ones they originally owned plus all of them in Gainesville, Alachua and some in the Jacksonville area. They purchased the ones in Gainesville about 10 years ago. Sonny originally sold the Gainesville ones to a man out of Jacksonville many years ago but took them back several years later. I bought three bottles of the sauce last week at the one I ate at in Ocala. Two were original and one was sweet. I am sure over the years some things have changed but the sliced pork, the beans and the bbq sauce taste just like it did to me 50 years ago.

 

The sliced pork is the same, the sliced beef was removed from the menu about 20 years ago. The ribs, sauce, and beans are not the same as they were in the 90’s. Go check out Dianne’s in Hawthorne. Sonny’s daughter’s place. She still serves the original beef, sauce, ribs, and beans. You can still get the original sauce, but you have to request it and they call it mild. The “original” sauce they put on the tables is not the original sauce.

 

My Burrito Brothers t-shirt I got right before they closed is a prized possession. I wear it sparsely so it will last forever. Maybe I shoild be cremated in it. With a side of guac of course.

 

Former Gator football player Shannon Snell is the Pitmaster at the Sonny's.

 

Yeah, this region is very swampy. There are ditches on each side of every road to catch and divert the water to rivers and ponds. It’s really a muddy quagmire. The show on HULU about killing the alligators (Swamp something) is filmed in Hammond, just down the road. I didn’t know it until recently, but Katrina just destroyed this area. People I know lost hundreds of trees and were out of power for 7-8 weeks.
We moved here to watch our 3 adorable, smart, funny, precocious grandsons grow up. No way we were living in or near NOLA. The folks out here are very nice, welcoming and unpretentious. But, they all love LSU. I’m thinking of going to Baton Rouge for the UF LSU basketball game - should I wear a flack jacket?