After resurrecting Barnhill”s yet again — this time as an alternative to fast food dining — and lowering the prices, business is booming, owner Steve Barnhill said Wednesday.
“It”s basically a business model that”s really appealing to people in this economy,” he explained. “I realized what worked.”
After operating the restaurant, located on 18th Avenue North, as a Western Sizzlin” in the 1980s, Barnhill converted the restaurant to Barnhill”s Buffet in 1995.
He then sold it and operated it, for the new owners, until 2002, when he resigned and moved to Dallas, Texas.
In Dallas, he was engaged in another restaurant venture — the Furrs Family Dining chain – until he”d had enough.
“It was too corporate of an environment for me,” he said. “I left Dallas in January 2008 and tried a couple of Mama Blues buffets in Alabama. For whatever reason, they didn”t work.
“The whole time I was in Dallas, they were closing Barnhill”s stores, the chain I started,” he added. “Then, Columbus was one of them.”
Last December, he moved to Columbus to resurrect the restaurant as Barnhill”s Southern Fresh Buffet.
“We decided to get back to basics and lower the price,” he said, noting the buffet price now is $5 “day and night” Mondays through Saturdays and Sunday nights; the price is $6.95 for Sunday brunch until 5 p.m.
“We lowered the price and it just exploded,” he continued. “You will find fried catfish and eight or 10 different meats, but they”re not going to be premium meats like steak and shrimp.”
The restaurant features fare like beef livers, chicken livers, fried chicken and pot roast, Barnhill reported.
“We just tailored our menu to make it work,” he said. “Our guest count has like doubled since we moved to the $5 price. We have so many people tell us they can”t eat at home this cheap. They can”t go to the grocery store and then cook it at this price.
“It”s just incredibly good food,” he continued. “It”s in the right fast food price range. We”re now definitely competing with the fast food places. It”s all-you-can-eat, and it”s healthy for you. I call it the healthy alternative to fast food.”
Noting he”s “real happy with the performance of the Columbus” restaurant, Barnhill, who recently moved back to his hometown of Pensacola, Fla. to start another Barnhill”s restaurant, plans to further the business.
“I”d like to expand a little more and get up to four or five stores and maybe just run those and call it quits. I want to keep it to where it”s just me involved with the managers and the restaurants, directly.
“I really always liked the people of Columbus,” he added, explaining his earlier decision to move to Columbus. “I thought it was some of the friendliest people, nicest folks I have ever been around in the South. We thought we”d be there a long time, but this opportunity came up in Pensacola (which) I couldn”t refuse. It”s really the quality of the people that attracted me to (Columbus) and made me want to move there.”
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