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Goody Goody-Style Burger Patties Take The Cake At Family Eatery

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By JEFF HOUCK, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

GOODY GOODY RETURNS? If you ever had a burger at the old Goody Goody restaurant before it closed its doors on North Florida Avenue two years ago this month, you'd never forget it. There was a reason the joint stayed open for 80 years.

The burger was messy in a way all burgers should be. The ground beef was lean, but the tomato-based sauce and chunks of white onions would spill out from under a bun that had been smushed down just a little too hard.

This was no pristine, homogenized Quarter Pounder.

Two weeks ago, readers of the Recipes Lost & Found column in this section were asked if they could share recipes from the old burger joint.

A flood of readers sent recipes for the butterscotch pie and burger sauce (see this week's column on Page 7), but most sent their recollections of eating there. I read stories of afternoons spent sipping shakes and of meals with parents that they wished could be repeated.

I also got a ton of mail from readers telling me that the burgers are now being featured by the Pine Grove Family Restaurant at 8399 N. Florida Ave., Tampa.

"I've been in four times in the last week and a half to have one," reader Priscilla Atha e-mailed. "Boy! It brings back the memories!"

I had to investigate.

I dropped by on Monday to see the sign outside featuring "the original Goody Goody hamburger." Inside the menu was an insert detailing the history of the Goody Goody drive-in, the history of the burger and an offering of a burger "with POX (pickles, onions and our secret sauce)."

Theoni Alexopoulos, who has owned the Pine Grove for 15 years and whose son Greg runs the restaurant, told me that former Goody Goody owner Michael Wheeler is a customer of hers.

Although Wheeler wanted to remain retired, he suggested the idea of offering the burgers again, for a small percentage of each burger sold. The burgers debuted on the menu a month ago.

About 1,000 have been sold. One 89-year-old customer comes in sometimes four times a week. He used to go to Goody Goody as a child.

Wheeler also offered to sell her the Goody Goody name for $250,000. She said she's considering the idea, depending on how many customers the burgers attract. She also owns restaurants in Ruskin and Pinellas Park.

"We're seeing new people coming in from everywhere - even from Orlando," she said.

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING KIND OF GROSS: The holiday candy I have no intention of eating? Reindeer Licks, a push-up lollipop that simulates a tongue coming out of a reindeer's head. In case you're interested, I found mind at Walgreens.

THINGS YOU DIDN'T REALLY NEED TO KNOW: Home Shopping Network tapes its programming on Starkey Road in Clearwater. That means all kinds of big-name culinary stars are traipsing through our back yard. Wolfgang Puck. Roy Yamaguchi. You name it.

I have it on deep background that chef and restaurateur Todd English was at HSN last weekend to sell his Thermalon GreenPan line. One person who got to meet him e-mailed to say, "His hands were incredibly soft."

Another staff member tells me that "Iron Chef: America" star chef Cat Cora, who was promoting her book "Cooking From the Hip," was extremely nice and asked if she could help clean dishes after her segment finished taping at about 1 a.m. (You can hear a Table Conversations podcast I taped with Cora in July by going online to my food blog.

Hungry for more? Read Jeff Houck's multimedia food blog, The Stew, at keyword: Stew.

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