Sam's Southern Eatery, a Cajun/Southern comfort fast food place, opened its newest location in mid-September.
Yusef Kone, part of the owner partnership of the property, had been working on the old Sonic location on New Boston Road for a number of months.
"There was a major effort to get this place ready. We had a lot to do, cleaning up the building, general prepping to get it ready to serve our customers," he said. "The job was a complete one, which included tearing down walls, resurfacing the floor and re-equipping the kitchen."
Even though the place is not a Sonic anymore, the owners decided to keep the drive-up model, which is unique in the Sam's franchise.
"There is no other Sam's like it," said Kone. "The rest is customer service and the food, to keep the customers coming back."
Customers have been indeed been coming.
Pam Bradley said she had been riding by the place since the refurbishing had been going on. She was waiting it for it to open, having heard good things about Sam's food from others. And she agreed, they were right.
"The food is great and I'm going to tell my pastor about it, Phillip and First Lady Simmons of Deliverance Temple Ministries," she said.
Sam's Southern Eatery uses the Sonic model of waitstaff going out to waiting vehicles to take orders and bring customers their food. So even more, Sam's is dependent on servers leaving good impressions upon patrons.
"I love my job, my boss is good and my customers are great," said Lamisha Wilson, floor manager and customer service representative. "My job is to make people smile. We do that every day"