Shoney's flagship restaurant gets new look, menu: Boulevard fixture keeps favorites, adds specialty items

Aug 25, 2009 (Charleston Daily Mail - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SHOY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A landmark Charleston restaurant has a whole new look and a revamped menu aimed at keeping its old customers but attracting some new ones.

The Boulevard Shoney's reopened Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an updated, more contemporary design.

"I've been excited about this for about 2 months," said Rick Wildey, assistant manager at the restaurant.

The restaurant was closed for weeks as crews gave the building a makeover. Workers installed lighter-colored woods and painted walls with reds and oranges that harken back to the chain's mid-1970s heyday. New menu-related art adorns the walls advertising Shoney's specialties like the breakfast bar and burger baskets.

The restaurant also features a brand-new dessert bar, as well as a gift shop stocked with toys, West Virginia University gear and other West Virginia-related merchandise.

Wildey said he worked with Shoney's founder Alex Schoenbaum, who died in 1996, and thinks he would be pleased with the renovations.

"I think he'd be happier than all get-out with this," Wildey said.

Shoney's still features the same down-home dishes faithful customers have come to love but has added several items to attract new customers. Bacon-wrapped sirloins, salmon and barbequed ribs are now available at the buffet on certain nights, and customers can find skillets and knife-and-fork sandwiches in the updated menu.

"We have different items every day; it's not just the same thing every day," said Ray Runion, general manager at the Boulevard Shoney's. "We did all this for our customers."

David Davoudpour, who purchased Shoney's in 2007, has led a concerted effort to rebuild the company's reputation. Denise Biafore, spokesperson for ShoRest, says the facelift is part of Davoudpour's plan for the brand.

"That's been his whole goal since he bought the company, to take it back to the glory days," she said.

Biafore says that although the warm colors and light woods are a nod to decorating trends of the 1970s, they're also part of an increasingly popular contemporary look.

"If you look at the decorating trends right now, these colors are coming back," Biafore said. "It's amazing, even the young people are into the color change."

Rory Smith, co-owner of ShoRest LLC, which owns the Boulevard franchise and 23 others, says the Boulevard Shoney's is ShoRest's second renovation with "a lot more to go."

Smith said the Boulevard location looked "really tired and really old" before the redesign, but expressed his optimism about the franchise's future, calling the reopening a "pointed departure" from the way it had previously done business.

"We just made it new and more contemporary, lighter and brighter," he said.

Several special guests attended Monday's ribbon-cutting, including Betty Schoenbaum, wife of the restaurant chain's founder, Assistant Mayor Rod Blackstone, Charleston Chief of Police Brent Webster, and Charleston City Councilman Robert Sheets.

Sheets said he remembers going to the first Boulevard Shoney's with his grandparents and parents. It was torn down in the 1980s to make room for the current building. He said he's glad to see the restaurant revitalized.

"It's a historic site for Shoney's and for Charleston, because this is where Shoney's started," Sheets said. "It's always been important."

Contact writer Zack Harold at 304-348-7939 or zack.harold@dailymail.com.

To see more of the Charleston Daily Mail, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.dailymail.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index