Almost like home
Tee Jaye's Country Place marks 40 years since that first 'Howdy'

Dayna Sokol, right, president of Tee Jaye's Country Place restaurants, chats with longtime customer Don Gooch. Sokol, the second generation to run the small chain, says the family feeling at the current nine locations has been the key to the restaurants' success the past 40 years.

 

 In 1970, Jules and Nita Sokol opened a restaurant on Parsons Avenue and greeted their first guests with a friendly "howdy, folks." The menu was simple, consisting mostly of burgers, fries and chili.

This year, the next generation of the family continues the tradition - albeit with a broader menu of comfort foods - marking the chain's 40th anniversary.

Guests are still greeted with a "howdy," but these days there are nine Tee Jaye's Country Place restaurants, all in central Ohio, serving up Barnyard Buster breakfasts, peanut butter pie and the like 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The founders' daughter Dayna Sokol is now president of Tee Jaye's and has been in charge since 2000. She credits the chain's longevity to its focus on family. Tee Jaye's is family-owned, she explained, and employees take their cue from Nita Sokol, who treated every customer like a guest in her own home.

"Family-owned is so important. When you are a big chain, the bottom line is all that matters, but in a family business it's all about relationships," she said. "I love our customers. Sometimes, I go into one of our restaurants and I see people I used to wait on when I was a teenager."

Over the years, the restaurant has become a favorite with the blue-collar crowd, as well as students, in part because of low prices.

The restaurant's top seller is the Barnyard Buster: two biscuits, two eggs and country fries all covered in sausage gravy for $4.95. A ribeye steak is $8.95, and a breaded veal cutlet dinner with two sides and a biscuit is $7.60.

"I won't say we're cheap, but our prices are lower than most places," Sokol said.

Price isn't the only thing that matters in creating longevity for this industry.

"Successful restaurants know they aren't selling food, they're selling a feeling," said Jeff Joiner, a restaurant consultant with Midwest Venture Partners in Cincinnati. "For 40 years, Tee Jaye's Country Place has been selling down-home cooking and a friendly atmosphere. When people crave those feelings, Tee Jaye's is the place to go."

The at-home feeling that Tee Jaye's has created may have served it well through the years, especially in tough economic times.

"When times are tough and people in your market are miserable, they need more than ever a place they can go to feel good," he said.

Despite Tee Jaye's loyal following, the 40-year journey hasn't been without challenges.

At one point, there were 13 Tee Jaye's in Columbus. Since 2000, four have closed.

"You're only as good as your worst location," Sokol said. "We had to close the underperforming stores and the ones that were all of a sudden in bad locations. Columbus was changing so rapidly."

There's been change within the family as well. Nita Sokol died in 1989, a blow to the family and the restaurant. "She was the face and the voice of Tee Jaye's," Sokol said. "When she passed away, we kept going as best we could."

Jules died in 2003, and Dayna's brother, Randy, stepped down as Tee Jaye's president in 2006 to join Restaurant Consultants Inc. Randy Sokol, along with Dayna and their two sisters, is still an owner of Tee Jaye's.

Tee Jaye's has swum against the broader economic stream since its opening as well. There have been six recessions in the U.S. since 1970, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, including two that have been deemed the worst since World War II - the current recession and one ending in 1982.

"Some times are tougher than others," Sokol said. "Right now is a trying time, but you just have to work through it and hope and pray."

When the economy does turn around, Sokol is hoping Tee Jaye's will be able to expand once again. "There are parts of town I would really like to be in," she said. "I know what's out there and I know we have something to offer."