- June 2, 2024
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Stools and tables are being unscrewed from the ground at the Hob Nob Drive In, where the landmark Sarasota restaurant closed Wednesday, May 15. It opened in 1957.
“I’ve had a great career,” said co-owner Cary Spicuzza, 67, who took over the Hob Nob when he was 34. He had been a waiter at Marina Jack in Sarasota while working on his master’s degree in business. He stopped taking classes after getting involved with the Hob Nob, and his life forever changed.
Said Spicuzza: “It’s been a great run.”
In an interview sitting at a table in the open-air restaurant on its last day, he cited several reasons for the restaurant's closure, including retirement and changes in business. “Sometimes it’s time,” Spicuzza said.
Another obstacle: The lease on the Hob Nob will be up June 30, and his lease runs in five-year increments.
“I’m 67. I’m not going to do this until I’m 75,” Spicuzza said, noting he was working the grill five days a week. The last time he renewed the lease, he said, his wife, Debora Spicuzza, was ready for him to move on. As a co-owner, she does the books for the restaurant. He credits her with finding out the Hob Nob was for sale back in 1991.
With 33 years at the helm, Spicuzza said he did not want to be in business for another summer.
“After COVID, the landscape changed in the restaurant business,” he said. “Last summer was the first summer in 33 years I lost money."
Even recently, business was slow, except Tuesday, May 14, when people responded to a social media rumor that the establishment was closing and packed the place, causing it to close early when it ran out of food and not open on Wednesday — which Spicuzza had planned on being the last day. The volume Tuesday was three times more than normal, Spicuzza said.
“We just aren’t as busy as we used to be,” he said. “We’d have a group of people for breakfast every day. People are on the run now. They don’t go to places for breakfast like this.”
As people's behavior has shifted, prices have continued to climb due to inflation. That was one more obstacle.
“It’s gotten to the point where you have to do pretty good sales, or you go down quick because your fixed costs are higher,” Spicuzza said.
Finding workers has also been a challenge.
While the eatery has six or seven steady staff members, it is a constant struggle to fill in other shifts.
“The labor market is very difficult,” said Spicuzza, adding: “Labor prices have gone up.”
The average check at the Hob Nob Drive In is $14, according to Spicuzza. With servers getting paid $9 an hour, that leaves smaller margins than when they used to make $2 an hour and the average check was $8.60.
Land occupied by the Hob Nob Drive In is owned by Peter Karras, who lives in Maryland, according to Spicuzza.
“It’s not going to be a development,” said Spicuzza, who owns eight lots around the property, so he would have to be involved in the decisions. Among the parcels he owns are the ones containing the car wash and laundromat, which he plans to continue to run in retirement.
Another project is also on the horizon.
“We talked about a food truck,” Spicuzza said. “We’ll see how much gas is left in the tank.”
Co-owner Annette Gargett, who has been with the business for 29 years, may use the Hob Nob Drive In trademarked logo to run the food truck, which will not require the hours that running a brick-and-mortar restaurant would.
“We’re tired; we need a break for a while,” Gargett said, so the food truck would not come to fruition until after the summer. But it will come. Said Gargett: “It’s not going to be the end of the Hob Nob.”
This article originally appeared on sister site BusinessObserverFL.com.
