SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

GOODY GOODY GOODBYE

Had something of a blog summit on Thursday. I read over at Sticks of Fire that Tommy was going to be supping at Goody Goody so I offered to invade the sanctity of his lunch and he obliged.

Goody Goody is closing in a couple weeks. Seems they've sold the land to condo developers for a pretty penny. They might reopen somewhere else, but for now, the former drive-in is planning to shut the doors on Nov. 30.

Rommie and I met up with Tommy at lunchtime and we had a nice chat over some highly greasy-yet-satisfying burgers, fries, onion rings and chocolate shakes.

(Turns out Tommy and Rommie and I have almost crossed paths before, bloggingwise, Bucswise and employmentwise. Tampa is a very, very small place.) Yes, we had the special sauce on the burgers. Why go to Goody Goody without trying it, you know?

The fries were crisp for the most part. The onion rings were not. But that was okay. We weren't really there for the food. It was more to absorb the ambience of another Tampa haunt that's going by the wayside.

We had to fight off half of the Old Lady Hat Club to get in. There were walkers with tennis balls on the legs leaning up against the walls. Seems that there are people so old in this town that it's a mood elevator for them to go to a place that's going to die before they will.

Yvonne Freeman, the 77-year-old manager who has worked there since she was a carhop in the 1940s, said there were no menus to be had. "We had a batch printed up but people have been taking them."

"I used to come here when I was younger,'' one elderly woman said as she was waiting in line to pay. I know this will be what I will say when I get to be her age. I hope people tolerate it when I do. I'm not making any bets that they will.

For more photos from the restaurant, click here.

Posted by Jeff at November 11, 2005 08:06 AM