WEST SIDE SHOPPER-NEWS • JUNE 20, 2011 • C-3
The Lunchbox turns 30 By Wendy Smith Karen Sproles was a single mom with two kids when she opened the original location of the Lunchbox on Main Street in 1981. The lunchonly concept was designed around her daughters’ school schedule, and the downtown location was chosen to take advantage of the high concentration of business people with relatively few restaurant options. She leased a 700-squarefoot building that was visible from the City County Building. It was owned by the Roddy family and was the original Coca Cola distribution building. The restaurant seated 24, and there wasn’t enough room to cook and serve customers at the same time. She cooked from 8-11 a.m., served lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and cleaned from 2-3 p.m. before dashing home to the kids.
Karen admits that she had no restaurant experience. She’d cooked since she was a child and done some catering with a friend, but she knew little about running a business. “I didn’t know what a food distributor was. I bought my food at Kroger. I used pots and pans from my house. We washed dishes by hand.” In spite of her inexperience, the restaurant worked. Karen was determined to pay off $10,000 she’d borrowed at 20 percent interest within the first year, and she did. She had a party with her staff when they met monthly goals. “It was so great because we met our goals from the very first day and kept growing.” Her personal life was also booming. She met attorney Don Sproles the week she opened the Lunchbox, and her girls were immediately
smitten. Karen eventually came to agree with them. The couple married in 1982. Karen was able to double her space after she bought the building, but her feeling of security was dampened in 1987 when she picked up a newspaper and learned that the restaurant had been condemned by eminent domain to make way for Whittle Communications. Her quest for another small space led her to the former McDonald’s location in the First Tennessee Plaza on Gay Street. The space was 6,000 square feet. The new location was also a success. A short time later, the couple opened a second location in the Renaissance Business Center on Baum Drive. A few years later, during a bout of “middle-age crazy,” Karen decided to take advantage of a trend she was noticing. About 40 percent of daily
1999, and a store in Cherokee Mills on Sutherland Avenue opened in March. The downtown restaurant moved to the BankEast building in April, and Karen is especially excited about the space, which has an art gallery curated by her daughter, Lauren. The lunch-only schedule and the popular recipes are the only things that have been consistent over the last Karen and Don Sproles get ready for a busy day running four 30 years. The five-day worklocations of the Lunchbox Market and Café. Karen opened her week has allowed the Sproleses to retain an excellent first store downtown 30 years ago. Photo by Wendy Smith staff, some of whom have receipts were from take-out hot soups and baked goods. It been with them for more customers. People were work- took some time for customers than a decade. Karen has learned a thing ing through lunch in order to to look at packaged food and get home earlier, she says. She not think leftovers, she says. or two since she opened that began selling prepared foods The Sproleses have exper- first store. When you are the from a refrigerator in Salon imented with various con- boss, the buck stops with you, Visage at Downtown West. cepts and locations, but now she says, and you have to lisThe endeavor was successful most of their food is prepared ten to customers and respond enough that the couple gam- and transported from the to their needs. Don, who gave up his law bled on a new market-style central kitchen, which is adjastore at Centerpoint Business cent to their Cross Park Drive practice years ago, still enjoys Park off Lovell Road. store, which opened in 1998. interacting with customers. “We’ve had the same cusThe restaurant sold fresh- A location at the Atrium on ly-made prepared entrees, Weisgarber Road opened in tomers for 30 years!”
Weigel’s – an American story From page C-1
Elaine and Stan Fronczek, Bettye Sisco of the Farragut West Knox Chamber and Gene Treacy, owner of Campbell Station Wine and Spirits, sponsor of the Second Harvest event, held monthly at American Piano Gallery in Turkey Creek.
Second Harvest gains from wine tasting Erin Cope of Triple C Distributors, which donated wine for the event. Food was donated by Kroger Marketplace. Featured wines were Chandon Brut Sparking Wine, Mezzacorona Pinot Grigio, Folie A Deux Chardonnay and Kung Fu Girl Riesling.
Linda Bonds, a former Farragut High School teacher who now is a life coach, and Steven Frampton, coowner of Rhama, 9237 Middlebrook Pike, enjoy networking at the Second Saturday for Second Harvest. Info about Steven’s business: 809-7201, www. quantumselfdiscovery.com or www.ramacenter.com/.
nessee Colonization Company. Gerding was selling property for the company in Wartburg in Morgan County. After spending about five years in Wartburg, the Weigels moved to the Forks of the River area east of Knoxville. Carl Augustus Weigel’s son, Christian Frederick, was born in Germany and came to America at age 3. Christian Frederick Weigel had two sons, William Walter, born in 1882, and Arthur Wallace, born in 1885. In 1918, the brothers bought a farm in what was then known as Powell Station. William Walter had two sons, William Walter Jr., born May 1, 1911, and Lynn Burkhart, born June 21, 1917. The elder William Walter and his brother, Arthur, divided their farming operations about 1931. Arthur and his son, Wallace, established Sunny Slope Dairy. Walter established W.W. Weigel and Sons and began a dairy operation called Broadacres Dairy – forerunner of the current Weigel’s Farm Stores Inc. One might think that dairy farming would be one industry that would see little change through the years. That would be incorrect, according to Bill Weigel. The Weigel brothers enjoyed great success during the ’30s and ’40s, supplying milk to Civilian Conservation Corps camps and the secret war operation in Oak Ridge. The company’s routes for home delivery grew every year; however, by the late 1950s things changed. Women took jobs outside the home and were no longer available to accept delivery of milk. The industry was in danger. The Weigel brothers adapted. Lynn recalled seeing a drive-thru type of store in Miami. He and his wife drove through the night with measuring tape in hand to get the dimensions of the Florida store building. They returned to Powell and the brothers found and purchased their first Weigel’s Jug-O’Milk Farm Store on Sanderson Road. By using returnable milk jugs, the Weigels could pass along the savings for packaging to the consumer. The practice guaranteed loyal customers. Just as Bill Weigel was initiating changes to improve the company’s profitability in 1961, he was called up to serve in the Air
The old log cabin in which Bill Weigel was born is located in front of the Weigel’s dairy.
A Weigel’s truck sports the company’s Tombras-created slogan – “So fresh it moos.”
National Guard during the Berlin Airlift. He returned to oversee development of the current convenience store concept and in 1964, the company opened Knoxville’s first convenience store. In 1966, Weigel’s introduced the ICEE product here. In 1970, the company began the area’s first self-service gasoline sales. William Walter Weigel Jr. passed away in 1974, and Bill and Lynn continued to run the company. Through the decades, the company has evolved to a territory that reaches from Greeneville to Kingston, from Lake City to Loudon. And it owns several buildings on corner lots. “We’ll be selling something.”
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Liz McBride, Michael Croyle, Janice Mitchell and Wayne Honeycutt get reacquainted. Photos by S. Clark
BUSINESS NOTES ■ Charles R. Merriman , GRI, has joined Weichert, Realtors - Advantage Plus as an agent at the 114 Lovell Road, Suite 102, office. He is a member of the Knoxville
Merriman
Area Association of Realtors. Info: 474-7100. ■ Phil LaForge has been named chief operating officer of TDS Telecom Hosted & Managed Services LLC. He was vice president and general manager at Nimsoft (part of CA Technologies) and had a long tenure with CDW Berbee in Madison, Wis. He holds a bachelor’s in history
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a MBA in finance from Florida State University. ■ Dr. Marcia Katz memorial scholarships for $1,000 will be given to an undergraduate and a graduate student by Knoxville Association of Women Executives. Info: Deborah York at kawescholar@ gmail.com/.
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