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Eatery Is Riding Into The Sunset

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2007

ZEPHYRHILLS - He grew up in the mountains, surrounded by jungle, with the closest city an eight-hour walk from home.

How he ended up as Zephyrhills' best-known John Wayne fan is a journey that started in Thailand and ended in a tiny restaurant that serves $2.79 breakfast specials and all-you-can-eat fish dinners.

Kruth "Kurt" Sombutmai serves up hot, cheap meals to the legions of Northern retirees who flock every year to his landmark Hill's Grocery & Coffee Shop.

Here's the thing, though: That part of Sombutmai's story is ending. This season will be Hill's last.

Say "so long" to the "Kurtski" burger, to the lines out the door at the height of the season, to the John Wayne statuettes, mugs, posters and photographs.

Hill's, at a corner of State Road 54 and Morris Bridge Road for more than 50 years, will be knocked down to become a CVS drugstore.

When it goes, Zephyrhills will lose one of its best-known businesses - and one of its unique proprietors.

"He's kind of a transplanted icon in Zephyrhills," customer Ted Haas said on a recent weekday morning as he dug into one of the breakfast specials that made Hill's popular.

"But he is just Zephyrhills just as much as anyone."
Spiritual Roots
To hear him tell it, Sombutmai, 66, came to America because of John Wayne.

He first encountered the movie icon six decades ago as a young boy in Thailand, the fourth of 10 children and the son of rice farmers.

One night, the movie van came to town. A man pulled up, dug out a big projection screen and turned the tiny village into an outdoor movie house. Sombutmai sat on the ground watching "Angel and the Badman," the 1947 black-and-white Western starring the Duke, dubbed in Thai. The young Sombutmai, who still speaks English with a Thai flavor, was hooked.

"I said, 'I have to go see John Wayne.' But how I go?' Only one thing - education - can help you bring you up," he said.

As the son of poor farmers, there were few options for Sombutmai to pursue his education, though. So after he finished fourth grade, he joined the local Buddhist monastery.

"I have no alternative," he says.

His career as a monk led him to Bangkok, Thailand, and Delhi, India, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy and sociology. He returned to his village to become the principal of the school there.

In 1970, a friend asked if he would go to New York to help set up a Thai Buddhist Temple.

He loved New York and the United States. If you ask him, he'll even show you a photograph of himself with a shaved head, wearing his saffron robes and thick glasses, standing on a snow-covered stoop in the Bronx during his first winter.

But he craved a family. He knew that if he turned 40 and was still a monk, he'd be a monk for life. After wrestling with the decision, he returned to Thailand, gave up his robes and started life anew.

He then flew to California with $200 in his pocket.

Hard At Work

In Long Beach, he met his wife, Sa-Ang, a nurse. While she worked shifts at the hospital, he took a mind-numbing job on an assembly line, making car seats for infants.

"It was horrible," said the holder of two master's degrees.

Sombutmai wanted to be his own boss. The only way to do that, he figured, was to start a business.

"I sit down. I think: What should I do? Finally, I said, I have to do my own business, a food business."

Problem was, he had no experience. So after his shift at the factory, he would roll up his sleeves and wash dishes at an Italian restaurant.

He worked hard and got two or three raises. One day, the owner asked him if he wanted to be a cook.

"I said, OK! And I just move up," he said.

Sombutmai saved enough money to open his own restaurant and grocery store.

In America, "if you work hard, you will get it," he said. "This is the land of opportunity. This is very important to me."

The flood of Asian immigrants that came to California after the Vietnam War made his business boom, but he wasn't happy. Sombutmai wanted to own a business and the dirt it sat on, but California real estate was too expensive.

Then, while visiting friends in Plant City, Sombutmai found himself feeling at home.

In 1990, he bought Hill's Grocery, a Zephyrhills institution that had been owned by the Hill family for more than 50 years. Seven years later, Sombutmai added a restaurant.

Moving into a business owned by an established Zephyrhills family wasn't easy. It also wasn't easy being one of the few Asians in town.

Some people assumed he was Vietnamese and blamed him for the war. Others thought he was Japanese and blamed Japanese cars for destroying the American economy.

Eddie Hill, whose father, James, opened the store, had to assuage the fears of longtime customers. Sometimes, his pep talks didn't work.

"We still got a few that never came back," said Hill, who still works Hill's meat counter. "But we got new ones."

Sombutmai tried to ignore them.

"I never pay attention," he said.

He couldn't ignore it when children were mean to his sons, though. In a city where more than 90 percent of the population is white, his sons - and their family - stood out.

The boys made it through OK, though. Chut, now 29, was a valedictorian at Zephyrhills High School and is now a doctor. Shawn, 25, is a toxicologist.

Moseying On

In some ways, being a Buddhist monk made Sombutmai a good entrepreneur.

Both vocations are hard work. Sombutmai works from 5:30 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. every day, seven days a week. As a monk, he woke up at 4 a.m. and only ate two meals per day.

Buddhism's three principles - do good, avoid evil and purify your mind - keep him honest. He never wanted to be greedy, so he kept prices low. That ensured that his regular customers, many of them retirees on fixed incomes, would keep coming back.

The devotion to his customers paid off. When they found out he loved John Wayne, they brought him trinkets from around the country. Soon, the John Wayne stuff filled the joint. Though Sombutmai never met his childhood hero, he's surrounded by him every day.

Too Good An Offer

Sombutmai can't imagine retiring after he gives up the grocery store and coffee shop he first dreamed about since he was washing dishes in Long Beach.

"This is my life," he said. "I thought I'd never sell."

Three years ago, though, with Zephyrhills' population swelling, a Home Depot opened across the street. A large Publix is planned there, too.

CVS came along and offered a good deal. The company wanted a 50-year lease.

"We have to grab it," he said.

Plans for the CVS store are being reviewed by the county. The building permits were submitted in early November, and Sombutmai expects to hear by the end of the year when, exactly, he'll have to close shop.

Longtime customers don't know what to make of Hill's departure.

"We'll miss him," said Geri Gearhart, 57, who came with her sister on a recent morning for breakfast. She recalled one time when she told Sombutmai she was about to visit her family in Texas. He went into the kitchen and gave her some subs to eat on the plane - for free.

Sombutmai has no plans to leave Zephyrhills, and no plans to lounge around or play golf once Hill's shuts down. He may even open a new restaurant in Zephyrhills, he said.

"This is my hometown now," he said.

IF YOU GO:

Hill's Grocery & Coffee Shop isn't closed just yet. If you want to grab one more $2.79 Eye Opener breakfast special, Hill's is at 34506 State Road 54.

CALL: (813) 782-2943.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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