Williamstown — A bunch of local farmers may burst into tears June 30, not because of drought or problems with their crops.
That's the last day Sharon Dodds will hang her "Open" sign in the window of Sharon's Billtown Cafe on U.S. Highway 24-59 north of Lawrence, the last day she'll serve up her homemade biscuits and gravy, pies and chicken and noodles. The dozens of regular customers - a group Dodds calls "my boys" - will need to find a new place to spend their mornings.
"It's like a death in the family," said Bruce Berns of Perry, who has been farming in the area since the late 1960s.
"There'll be a lot of lost farmers around here," said Butch O'Trimble, another regular.
Arthritis in the spine, knee and foot are forcing the 63-year-old Dodds into retirement earlier than she'd like. The cafe sits on land owned by the local quarry and landfill operator Hamm Cos., and though Dodds has a lifetime contract to run the place, she said it won't continue once she retires.
Dodds said she tried to arrange with the company to keep the restaurant going without her, but it didn't happen.
"I'm selling everything out, piece by piece," she said. "That's all I can do."
As for the building itself, "it will probably be down in Hamm's dump," she said.
Chicken and ribbing
If you come to Sharon's, you should bring an empty stomach and a thick skin. One thing that isn't on the menu, but is served up constantly, is good, old-fashioned ribbing.
"They bring their lunch," O'Trimble said on a recent morning, as Dobbs' two employees, Judy Newman and Donna Stephens, walked in the door.
Neil Gantz, a Kansas State University fan, said one problem with the cafe's closing is that he won't be able to make fun of Berns about his Kansas University allegiance. Berns said that going to the cafe starts the day off with "45 minutes of B.S."
More about the cafe
"We're going to have to drive to each others' farm to pick on each other," Gantz said.
From behind the counter, Dodds doesn't just get in on the act. She sets the tone.
"How would you like to wear this?" she asked a mouthy customer as she served up a breakfast plate.
"And to think that I'm cooking your breakfast right now!" she said to another.
When Dodds says, "The customer is always right," it isn't a motto. It's a tongue-in-cheek joke that draws laughter from the table full of regulars at the middle of the room.
Sharon Dodds
Sharon Dodds, owner of Sharon's Billtown Cafe, describes her secret to running a successful restaurant. Enlarge video
"She runs it the way she wants to," regular Roscoe Keesling said.
That includes the dancing, battery-powered chicken that sits on the counter and the cow-themed clock that moos at the top of the hour.
Giving back
Dodds typically starts her day before sunrise, making gravy, biscuits and pies by hand. On Fridays, she mixes 18 eggs with flour to make the noodles for her famous chicken and noodles, which sometimes are gone before noon.
Despite her feisty attitude, she extends her hospitality to strangers, not just regulars. Every Christmas for the past 15 years, she and her husband, Leon, have prepared a free dinner for anyone who walks in the door, complete with four bone-in hams, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, fruit, juice and an assortment of quiche.
A slice of life from the cafe
The Gospel According to Sharon Dodds:
¢ On her customers:
"They're farmers, except that one over there. He don't do anything."
¢ On good customer service:
"The customer is always right - right out the door if you don't like it."
¢ To a customer who insists on paying after she's offered to pick up the tab:
"You've got a lot to learn, young man. My name is on the sign."
What customers say:
¢ "It's good eats, that's all."
-Buddy Pearson, 73.
¢ "It's like eating at home."
-Roscoe Keesling, 67.
¢ "She makes about as good a pie as anyone. ... It's kind of the old-style way of serving; a little chatter that goes along with it." -Herb Rogers, 83.
"There's nothing worse than sitting home on Christmas by yourself when you can come down here and mingle," she said.
The secret to running a restaurant, Dodds said, is "you have to be there and work."
"If you're going to hire it done, it's not going to be done the way you want it done," she said.
Part of the community
Dodds has been running Sharon's for 18 years and previously operated restaurants in McLouth and Ozawkie. There's been a diner on the site at Hamm's since the 1940s, when Norman Hamm, founder of the companies, used it as a place to serve food to his help, she said. The tiles on the floor are the signature turquoise color that decorates the fleet of Hamm trucks.
Dodds said that when she opened the restaurant, Hamm tried the food, approved of it, and told her, "I'm going to take care of you." He told her she could lease the place for as long as she wanted to stay.
Hamm died in 2003.
A series of calls to the Hamm Cos. seeking comment on the future of the diner weren't returned.
Some farmers who now are gray-haired have been eating there since they were kids. When Berns, then 23, moved to the area in the late 1960s from the Flint Hills and started farming, he was scrutinized because of his long hair and because he was an outsider.
"Anytime you move into a community and you start farming, people just wait for you to fail," he said.
But the cafe, which was run back then by Lila Pearson, was the one place he felt welcome.
"I hate it" that the restaurant is closing, he said. "But there's nothing we're going to do about it."
When Dodds talks about the closing of the restaurant, the jokes and the ribbing stop.
"I love everybody that comes in here," she said. "There's going to be a lot of tears."
Comments
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audvisartist (anonymous) says…
Man that's sad! You've got to love little out of the way restaurants like that and it's a shame to see it go. :(
Centrist (anonymous) says…
Bummer that no-one could take it over!!
These types of places are the heart and soul of America.
Pywacket (anonymous) says…
If I am reading this correctly (and please correct me if I'm not), someone COULD likely take it over if it weren't for the Hamms refusing to allow it. Here's what it says:
"The cafe sits on land owned by the local quarry and landfill operator Hamm Cos., and though Dodds has a lifetime contract to run the place, she said it won't continue once she retires.
Dodds said she tried to arrange with the company to keep the restaurant going without her, but it didn't happen.
'I'm selling everything out, piece by piece," she said. "That's all I can do.' As for the building itself, 'it will probably be down in Hamm's dump,' she said."
What's that situation sound like to you? Sounds to me like she might have been able to sell her business interest so that the place could stay open, if Hamms had been flexible about the contract.
I imagine the Hamm family isn't wealthy enough yet and that little spit of land is vital to the expansion of their own operations. They're probably delighted to get out of that lifetime contract early--maybe they need another mansion in Alvamar and whatever revenue they can make on that patch of ground will help.
OldEnuf2BYurDad (anonymous) says…
Pywacket:
Interesting post, but the opposite of my thoughts. I thought "how cool is it that they gave her a lifetime lease agreement". Do you see that happening anywhere else in the business world?
You are really out of line. Hating the rich is still hate.
Pywacket (anonymous) says…
OE2BYD~ I am far from hating the rich. I look at people individually, rather than lump them together as a class. But it would be as false to ignore the fact of the Hamms' wealth as it would be to judge simply on the basis of it. It may surprise you, but I was firmly in Home Depot's corner when the local "Old Home Depot" took to the media to elicit sympathy for his plight when they took issue with his business name. HD, which is a huge, rich corporation, had every right to insist he rename his business. He should have done his research before adopting a name that was so close to one already in use by a similar (in important respects) business.
Macon--I think I made it clear that I DON'T know "all the details" and housed my thoughts to reflect that. Can you read? I made it clear that my thoughts--which are merely thoughts, not statements of FACT--are based on the information in the article. My very first sentence would make it clear to anyone not literacy challenged that I am perfectly willing to adjust my thoughts should additional facts be presented. If you don't have any to offer, why don't you go back under your rock? And do tell: who are my "merry men" supposed to be? Since I do not participate in any of the candlelight vigils around trees, and since I don't pray for anybody's sins, I suspect you have me mixed up with some hippie god freaks.
Regardless of whatever other "facts" may be in the mix, the upshot is that here is a little business that has value to customers and has served the local public for over 30 years and it will have to close because the already-rich owners of the land it's sitting on can't see fit to negotiate some way for it to continue operating there.
All I'm saying is that with all their wealth, vast land holdings, and other resources, it's a shame they couldn't work something out so that this business could continue to operate. You don't have to agree with me, naturally, but I don't think that forming an opinion (based upon what facts have been offered) is "out of line," especially when I took pains to show my flexibility, should more facts be revealed.
KsGirl (anonymous) says…
Pywacket:
Because Hamm's didn't return the calls, the JWorld couldn't print that they tried to find a replacement but couldn't. They asked several people and were turned down.
fonz73 (anonymous) says…
I used to go there all the time when gas was cheap and I could fill my tank for 11 bucks.....always went on long country drives and Sharon's was always a stop. I love greasy spoons and this really was the last one around here....sad really.
I will definately be stopping out there for some good eats before the 30th. Anyone who has never been there should go...you will not be disappointed.
C'mon --- there's nobody willing to take this over?
just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (anonymous) says…
The majority of restaurants in Lawrence are likely run by "fragile young liberals" who work their a**es off, macon.
Try my solution when you have absolutely nothing useful to say.
Just type "Filbert!" It'd probably even work in all caps.
zzgoeb (anonymous) says…
macon47 can't fool us...he/she is really a Commie pinko filthy hippie living with a "friend" in the folk's basement. Hey macon47, stick your head out the window and check the weather...
peace