Thumper
12-28-2012, 04:47 PM
... 'cause the older I get, it seems the more people I know are passing away. I know this doesn't really interest anybody here, but it helps a little bit by talking about it. When I first moved here, I was in a town where I didn't know anybody and starting a business from the ground up was a daunting task. I didn't know anybody and nobody knew me ... so I was a bit nervous. When I moved here from California, I brought with me a 4WD Toyota truck, my Cadillac Eldorado and Lynn's BMW. I bought a house, made a few improvements and furnished it. My next task was to figure out how to make a living.
I'd always wanted to own my own business, so I figured out what I wanted to do and tackled the task at hand with the little amount of money I had left over. My Toyota became my "work truck". Wow! The business took off like wildfire and in no time flat .. I needed an employee as well as another truck. I spotted a Toyota truck on a used car lot close to home and stopped in. I met the owner, Kevin Neff, and we became instant friends. The car lot was called "Winners" and had a checkered flag on the sign. Inside, the walls were covered with motorcycle racing photos and there were trophies everywhere I looked. We had a lot in common and sat talking about motorcycles (I raced before moving here). I ended up trading my Cadillac in on another truck for myself and gave my other one to an employee I'd hired. It got to the point, I had no time to work as it became a full-time job accruing accounts and physically running the business. I needed another truck and another employee in no time flat.
In the meantime, Kevin and I became good friends, hung out quite a bit and I got to know the family. His dad owned one of the hottest restaurants in town (which had a very popular lounge) and Kevin's brother (Kirk) was the General Manager. My business grew by leaps and bounds and I soon needed another truck/employee. (I eventually ended up with 5 trucks on the road and 6 employees) The problem was ... I could not afford the equipment needed for this rapid growth. I tried for a loan, but being new in town, recently buying a house and running a brand new business ... the banks wouldn't even talk to me. Jim Neff (Kevin's dad) agreed to give me a substantial loan and I agreed to let him hold the title to my house (a huge gamble, but I was confident). As it turned out, I didn't need the loan as I landed a big contract and if I turned all profit back into the company ... I could pay my bills ... I just couldn't take a paycheck for a while! I could meet payroll as long as I wasn't ON that payroll. Bummer ... but that's common with a new business.
As for Jim, he had faith in me and offered to help when nobody else believed in me. I never forgot that even though I never took advantage of it. Jim's son (Kevin's brother), Kirk was killed one early morning on the way home from the restaurant after closing the place up around 4:00 am. He'd been drinking and didn't want to risk driving home, so he caught a ride with a couple of the band members who played at the club that night (they'd been drinking also BTW). They were driving a Ryder rental truck and the front only had room for the two of them, so Kirk jumped in the back. Just before arriving home, Kirk somehow fell out the back of the truck, hit his head on the pavement and it killed him. The family was devastated, Jim lost all interest in the business and he eventually sold it.
As for my buddy Kevin ... he eventually opened a motorcycle dealership here in town and is doing very well with it.
Here's the blurb from the local paper FWIW. I see the details of the accident that killed Kirk have been changed a bit.
Famed Foxfire Inn Restaurateur James Neff Dies in Lakeland
For years the restaurant was the place to go in Lakeland.
By Suzie Schottelkotte
THE LEDGER
LAKELAND | Funeral services will be held today for Jim Neff, who owned and managed Lakeland's famed Foxfire Inn restaurant in the 1970s and 1980s.
Neff died Saturday in Lakeland, six weeks shy of his 90th birthday.
"He was quite a chef," said Harold Lehman of Lakeland, who had known Neff since the mid-1960s. "He knew his food. He knew what people liked, and he knew how to give it to them."
In the 24 years he owned and managed the Foxfire Inn restaurant, Neff's culinary talents kept the tables full.
He sold the restaurant in 1991, two years after his son, Kirk, who managed the Foxfire, died when he fell from a truck while helping band members unload their equipment. Friends said Neff never recovered from that tragedy, which led him to leave the restaurant behind.
Gene Engle, a longtime Lakeland resident, said the Foxfire Inn was the place to go in Lakeland in its day.
"Nobody knew the restaurant business better than Jim Neff," he said. "There's not a year that goes by that somebody doesn't say they wish we had the Foxfire back."
Neff opened the first Foxfire on Lakeland Hills Boulevard in 1967. When the 350 seats there became too confining, he built a larger restaurant in 1973 at 4320 U.S. 98 N. in Lakeland.
"He moved to the middle of an orange grove, and it seemed like miles away from everything," Engle said, "but that didn't stop the people from coming.
"He knew his market, and he offered a package of food and entertainment that the people liked."
Over the next two decades, Neff would garner 14 Golden Spoon awards from Florida Trend magazine as testimony to the restaurant's success.
"He knew how to make a restaurant work," said Lehman, who managed the barbecue restaurant Neff opened in Lakeland in the 1960s. "He was a money maker. He knew how to make a restaurant successful."
Shortly after Neff opened Jimbo's barbecue in Lakeland, he sold the business to Lehman, whose family continues to run the business today.
"He was a good man," Lehman said.
A Missouri native, Neff joined the Army when he was 16 by lying about his age on his enlistment papers. He served as a chef during World War II and found his passion.
"He was a serious person and he loved his profession," Engle said. "He wanted to be the best of the best."
I'd always wanted to own my own business, so I figured out what I wanted to do and tackled the task at hand with the little amount of money I had left over. My Toyota became my "work truck". Wow! The business took off like wildfire and in no time flat .. I needed an employee as well as another truck. I spotted a Toyota truck on a used car lot close to home and stopped in. I met the owner, Kevin Neff, and we became instant friends. The car lot was called "Winners" and had a checkered flag on the sign. Inside, the walls were covered with motorcycle racing photos and there were trophies everywhere I looked. We had a lot in common and sat talking about motorcycles (I raced before moving here). I ended up trading my Cadillac in on another truck for myself and gave my other one to an employee I'd hired. It got to the point, I had no time to work as it became a full-time job accruing accounts and physically running the business. I needed another truck and another employee in no time flat.
In the meantime, Kevin and I became good friends, hung out quite a bit and I got to know the family. His dad owned one of the hottest restaurants in town (which had a very popular lounge) and Kevin's brother (Kirk) was the General Manager. My business grew by leaps and bounds and I soon needed another truck/employee. (I eventually ended up with 5 trucks on the road and 6 employees) The problem was ... I could not afford the equipment needed for this rapid growth. I tried for a loan, but being new in town, recently buying a house and running a brand new business ... the banks wouldn't even talk to me. Jim Neff (Kevin's dad) agreed to give me a substantial loan and I agreed to let him hold the title to my house (a huge gamble, but I was confident). As it turned out, I didn't need the loan as I landed a big contract and if I turned all profit back into the company ... I could pay my bills ... I just couldn't take a paycheck for a while! I could meet payroll as long as I wasn't ON that payroll. Bummer ... but that's common with a new business.
As for Jim, he had faith in me and offered to help when nobody else believed in me. I never forgot that even though I never took advantage of it. Jim's son (Kevin's brother), Kirk was killed one early morning on the way home from the restaurant after closing the place up around 4:00 am. He'd been drinking and didn't want to risk driving home, so he caught a ride with a couple of the band members who played at the club that night (they'd been drinking also BTW). They were driving a Ryder rental truck and the front only had room for the two of them, so Kirk jumped in the back. Just before arriving home, Kirk somehow fell out the back of the truck, hit his head on the pavement and it killed him. The family was devastated, Jim lost all interest in the business and he eventually sold it.
As for my buddy Kevin ... he eventually opened a motorcycle dealership here in town and is doing very well with it.
Here's the blurb from the local paper FWIW. I see the details of the accident that killed Kirk have been changed a bit.
Famed Foxfire Inn Restaurateur James Neff Dies in Lakeland
For years the restaurant was the place to go in Lakeland.
By Suzie Schottelkotte
THE LEDGER
LAKELAND | Funeral services will be held today for Jim Neff, who owned and managed Lakeland's famed Foxfire Inn restaurant in the 1970s and 1980s.
Neff died Saturday in Lakeland, six weeks shy of his 90th birthday.
"He was quite a chef," said Harold Lehman of Lakeland, who had known Neff since the mid-1960s. "He knew his food. He knew what people liked, and he knew how to give it to them."
In the 24 years he owned and managed the Foxfire Inn restaurant, Neff's culinary talents kept the tables full.
He sold the restaurant in 1991, two years after his son, Kirk, who managed the Foxfire, died when he fell from a truck while helping band members unload their equipment. Friends said Neff never recovered from that tragedy, which led him to leave the restaurant behind.
Gene Engle, a longtime Lakeland resident, said the Foxfire Inn was the place to go in Lakeland in its day.
"Nobody knew the restaurant business better than Jim Neff," he said. "There's not a year that goes by that somebody doesn't say they wish we had the Foxfire back."
Neff opened the first Foxfire on Lakeland Hills Boulevard in 1967. When the 350 seats there became too confining, he built a larger restaurant in 1973 at 4320 U.S. 98 N. in Lakeland.
"He moved to the middle of an orange grove, and it seemed like miles away from everything," Engle said, "but that didn't stop the people from coming.
"He knew his market, and he offered a package of food and entertainment that the people liked."
Over the next two decades, Neff would garner 14 Golden Spoon awards from Florida Trend magazine as testimony to the restaurant's success.
"He knew how to make a restaurant work," said Lehman, who managed the barbecue restaurant Neff opened in Lakeland in the 1960s. "He was a money maker. He knew how to make a restaurant successful."
Shortly after Neff opened Jimbo's barbecue in Lakeland, he sold the business to Lehman, whose family continues to run the business today.
"He was a good man," Lehman said.
A Missouri native, Neff joined the Army when he was 16 by lying about his age on his enlistment papers. He served as a chef during World War II and found his passion.
"He was a serious person and he loved his profession," Engle said. "He wanted to be the best of the best."