For the final time, Larry Hawkins has closed That Sandwich Place for the winter.
When it reopens in the spring, it will be under different, but familiar ownership.
Hawkins, who will be 75 in April, is looking forward to retirement after almost 45 years as a restauranteur — sort of. He finally gets to have a life outside of running the restaurant. Yet, between interruptions for conversations or pictures with patrons, he admitted he will miss it.
“I was amazed how many people you meet throughout the years,” Hawkins said. “I love people.”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]A self-described “motormouth from the south,” Hawkins is originally from Hazard, Kentucky.
He studied at both Purdue and Indiana University. “I always said I had the best of the three rivals,” he said.
In the early 1970s, Hawkins’ brother, Bill, was doing work for Andy Rogers at the Nashville House. The space That Sandwich Place now occupies was overflow for the landmark Nashville House restaurant.
Bill told Larry he should ask Rogers about renting the space for his own small restaurant.
On April 8, 1972, Hawkins opened That Sandwich Place, having never run a restaurant before.
In fact, no one, from waitresses to cooks, had ever worked in a restaurant before that day.
“I went out on the sidewalk, and I grabbed people, then would say, ‘Come in. I’ve opened a restaurant. I just want to practice on ya, and it’s free — it won’t cost you anything,’” Hawkins said.
That direct and unabashed friendliness defined Hawkins’ four-and-a-half decades running the restaurant, said friend Ken Birkemeier.
“He just welcomes people in, and they want to come back,” Birkemeier said.
Knight’s way
About three years after That Sandwich Place opened, legendary IU basketball coach Bobby Knight walked through the door.
The first chair Knight sat in still bears his name: “The Bobby Knight Chair of Honor,” and visitors have been known to pose in the chair.
“We became friends, and he gave me — well, I paid for ‘em — but he made available to me two tickets to the ballgames there in Assembly Hall,” Hawkins said. “I sat right behind him. I was the luckiest guy in the world, ‘cause I loved IU basketball anyhow.”
Hawkins still calls Knight on his birthday, and has visited Knight at his home in Lubbock, Texas, Hawkins said. A picture of Knight standing in front of his Texas home hangs in the restaurant.
In the mid-1980s, Hawkins began decorating the restaurant in its current Bobby Knight and Indiana University theme.
“It started slowly; you don’t just gather all this stuff,” Hawkins said. “I just recently hung a couple more pictures, but only place I got left is the little small ones now on the beams.”
Some items came from Knight, Hawkins said. Others were bought at flea markets or came from visitors who wanted to add a piece to the collection.
“So, from a little bit of every place,” he said. “Any times I’d go somewhere and see a Bob Knight something, I would grab it.”
His one regret is that he never found a life-sized poster of Knight, which he would have liked to hang up for people to pose with.
Yet, in the last days of Hawkins running That Sandwich Place, it was Hawkins people wanted to pose with.
From the beginning
Several of Hawkins’ staff have been with him since the beginning, including Jeni Moberly, who he calls “A lifesaver, my best friend.”
Wendi (Woods) Gore said that Hawkins is like a second dad to her. “I pulled her out of the alley when she was 13 years old, and she’s still with me,” he said.
In 1972, Mary McGahey opened a shop across the street from That Sandwich Place. She immediately noticed a Coca-Cola light shade was hanging crooked, and she told him he should fix it, she said.
A few days before Hawkins’ last day, she stopped in to get a picture with Hawkins and the shade, which it still hangs crooked.
“I tried to fix it!” Hawkins protested. “Jeni’s husband can fix — Jay Moberly can fix anything. He couldn’t fix that.”
Hawkins used to own The Sunshine Shack — an ice cream stand next to That Sandwich Place — and the Nashville Express Tour Trains, he said.
During the height of the Little Nashville Opry, he ran a limousine service and transported stars to the stage, he said. He also owned a bus which he used to take friends to Cincinnati Reds games during the team’s “Big Red Machine” era of the 1970s.
“So, you going to get your bus back so you can take trips to the ballgames?” Birkemeier asked.
“Wasn’t that fun?” Hawkins said.
Birkemeier said it was probably for the best that the trips took place before the age of camera phones.
Hawkins will miss the people the most, he said.
“I’m a people person, and I love sittin’ here, and I can talk forever,” Hawkins said. “I’ve made a lot of friends. I don’t think I have any enemies in town — I don’t think so.”
Feel welcome
Hawkins doesn’t have any set plans for his retirement. It’s fairly likely that patrons of That Sandwich Place will see him hanging around from time to time.
“I’m not really a traveler,” he said. “I’ve got a few projects at home that I want to do.”
Cheryl Ferguson, who bought The Sunshine Shack from Hawkins several years ago, will take over That Sandwich Place.
He is leaving her all of the Bobby Knight memorabilia.
Ferguson said she doesn’t plan to change the restaurant, though she might put down a fresh coat of paint and add some lighting.
“It’s such a warm and welcoming place, and I’m hoping people feel welcome when they come in,” she said.
Most of the menu will stay the same, but Ferguson will add a few items when she opens in the spring, including salads, fresh fruit and desserts — such as the homemade ice cream already available at The Sunshine Shack.
The restaurant will stay open until around 5 p.m., serving breakfast all day, lunch and “lupper” — a light, early supper — Ferguson said.
She also plans to have some more inexpensive specials that will change each day in hopes of drawing in high-schoolers after school. There also will be a $3.50 meal for young children around preschool age, and reduced portion plates for children a little older.
“I’m just hoping people will like it, because we like the people so much,” she said.
