A friend of mine just put me on to your web site for Sandy's. I have a lot of memories of Sandy's.
I started with Sandy's back in 1962 at the 9th Sandy's built...St. Paul, Mn. I also worked in later years at the 17th unit in St. Anthony Village, Minneapolis, Mn. ...Manager Bert Davidson. I helped open the St. Cloud, Mn unit, managed by Ken Miyamoto. At the St.Paul and St. Anthony Village units I was assistant manager.
The St. Paul, Mn unit was managed by Jack Laugery, who later became President of Sandy's and then, Ex V. President, President, CEO & Chairman of Hardee's after the merger.
Fred Cummings was the manager of St. Paul unit after Jack Laughery. I came back to Sandy's after being gone for about a year. By this time Jack was Vice-President of Operations for Sandy's and in Kewanee, Ill. Jack asked me to be Fred's assist-manager for a while before I ended up going down and taking over the Sterling,Ill. restaurant that was about six months old and in trouble. Over the course of the next two years I took the Sterling unit from ranking #173 of a 177 up to consistently around #17 in volume (set some sales records along the way. (The group owned Sterling, Peru and Ottawa, Ill units and Clinton, Ia. - I helped them with all these restaurants.
Foot note. Fred Cummings was the first manager in California. He opened Santa Rosa, Ca. After they closed he moved into Kewanee as Personal Director. I left Sandy's at this time only to return again a couple years later. When I returned I opened the Faribault, Mn unit for a new group of franchisee's. We went on to open Fairmont, Cloquet and St. Peter, Mn. I then left this group and went to work for Hardee's Food Systems. My first position was under Jim Moore and Bill Andersen lll, Hardee's Equipment Co. I opened the Midwest Branch in Peoria (which a year or so later we moved to Kewanee). As Midwest Branch Manager, my first job was to coordinate the conversion of 217 of the Sandy's restaurants to Hardee's...required kitchen equipment changes as well as signage. I eventually went to Rock Mount, NC. I was with the equipment department 10 years. I left and went with Kan-Okla (original Franchisee, Don Crawford, operator of Wichita area and Junction City, KS and Enid & Stillwater, OK Sandy's restaurants)as his Development Director.
Also, Fred Cummings opened Santa Rosa, Ca in 1967 and Sid Whitehouse was the first manager of Lodi, Ca. When they closed them, Fred became District Manager/Personal Director and Sid a District Manager/SS.
I was the original opening manager of Emporia, Ks for Chuck Clark who was VP of Operations then. I was there until I believe it was Dick took over. I also helped open Maquoketa, Ia. with Larry(which was the first Sandy's mini building).
Pittsfield, Il was owned by Tom Daly (one of the Sandy's first franchisee - always a point of contention with Moline as number one), Quincy Illinois Group.
A little info on Peru, Ill. From it's opening it was always in the top five restaurants for volume...generally #1. I was managing Peru, IL (known as LaSalle- Peru unit) while we were training a manager, Walt Zukowski (I had two assist-managers in Sterling, IL while I was in Peru). On Good Friday 1968, we set a record for no only the highest volume day for the system but on that day we sold more fish sandwiches than any restaurant had ever sold (according to our supplier, O'Donnell-Usen Fisheries, more than any other companies restaurants also). We sold 866.2 pounds of fish was translated into 4591 fish sandwiches in a day...unreal. And that was in addition to grill cheese, which was big that day, and hamburgers.
Just an interesting note for that restaurant. Attached is a letter from O'Donnell-Usen Vice-President.
I was also the interim manager at Addison, Illinois.
Mike Gage
