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History
IT'S A FAMILY TRADITION
Our family of restaurants has lasted through five generations. It all started ninety years ago, in the little town of Opp, Alabama, where Elton Johnson was born on April 28th. As the oldest son among 8 children, he quickly learned the value of hard work. By the time he was 7 or 8, old enough to hold a plow, his days were spent in the fields with his father. Elton still smiles as he remembers shouting, “haw” and “gee” at the mule, and laughs as he remarks that kids today don’t know what those words mean.Elton’s father was a musical man and he saw to it that every child played an instrument. Sunday afternoons were spent practicing together. This was especially hard for Elton, who – like most boys – would have rather been running and playing games with his friends. Even so, those Sunday afternoons instilled a strong family bond in the Johnson clan.
At the height of the great depression at the age of 17 Elton moved South from Opp, Alabama with his family. They heard, “there is work,” in Central Florida. They settled in the Springhead area, just outside Plant City, and worked together picking strawberries to make a living. Over the next few years, Elton spent time at a CCC Camp (Civilian Conservation Corp) just South of Tallahassee cutting fire lanes. He also worked with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) repairing many of the roads in and around Plant City. “Those were hard times.” Elton worked with he WPA for three or four years, bringing home $7.00 a day, which was a lot of money for someone whose family depended on him for support.
By the time he was 22, Elton had found a new line of promising work. He learned that there was more money to be made packing tomatoes than any other crop. He began working at a tomato packing plant and before long he and two friends were traveling the country from one plant to the next following the work. They traveled as far north as New York, as far west as Texas and many places between.
As a young entrepreneur, Elton started his own trucking business hauling oranges to the juice plant. Soon he had so much work that he needed a new truck to handle the load. That sparked the most important event in his life. At the Chevrolet dealership he met a lovely lady that really caught his eye. Evelyn Ruis was much younger than Elton and was seeing someone else, but that did not put him off. “We’ll just have to see about this,” he determined.
At first, Evelyn believed that Elton was married, and turned him down flat when he asked her out. After a little investigation, however, Evelyn learned that he was not married, and since he persisted in asking, she finally agreed to go out with him. After a few months of “going steady” Elton began to talk about marriage but Evelyn thought he was rushing things and refused to see him for a month or two. Of course, they did get back together and were married on April 10, 1951.By this time, Elton’s trucking business had grown and changed. He was now hauling produce from Homestead, Florida to Atlanta, Georgia. He was on the road a lot but it was a living.
In May 1952, Elton and Evelyn gave birth to their first son, Phillip Elton Johnson. When Elton was out of town overnight, he would call to check on his wife and son. It was on one of those calls that his son said, “Dada” for the first time. It was music to Elton’s ears and pain to his heart; he was missing his son’s childhood. He decided then and there to get home and stay home. Which is exactly what he did. Elton quit hauling produce and, in 1954, built a Supertest gas station on Highway 39, South of Plant City. In June that same year, Elton and Evelyn welcomed their second son, Fred Owen Johnson.
Where it all started, the first Johnson's Restaurant added on to the Supertest Gas Station
Elton was always looking for ways to branch out and expand his business. Eventually, he started selling pre-made sandwiches out of a side room of the gas station for a dime a piece. The idea was so popular that he added a small kitchen and eventually a dining room to make it a full-service restaurant. He got his family involved by asking his sisters to cook. So the first Johnson’s Restaurant was established. Folks began to gather there and enjoy the good home cooking and hospitality. After a change in locations in the early sixties to Haines Street (presently W. MLK Blvd.) Elton began to work on a plan to add a barbeque pit to one end of the kitchen. Slow-smoked ribs, pork, beef, and chicken were paired with classic Southern side dishes.. it’s no wonder they were, “as busy as they could handle.”
Again looking for ways to branch out, Elton started catering. He built a barbeque stand for
the Florida Strawberry Festival and from 1972 until the present, it has been in the same spot. During the ‘70s and ‘80s Johnson’s Catering served their delicious food to thousands at a time. Elton engineered the buildings of several catering trailers to haul their smokers, grills, and fryers across the state. In 1977 they sold the restaurant on Haines Street to focus their energy on the catering business. Grandpa Johnson and Catering Trailer
Elton’s sons followed after their father’s footsteps and opened some restaurants of their own. One of which was BuddyFreddy’s which they sold in 1998. Another was Grandpa Johnson’s Barbeque, named after Elton of course. Elton’s son, Fred, is keeping the restaurant tradition alive. He now owns all the the Fred’s Southern Kitchen restaurants, Johnson Barbeque, and Southern Gourmet Catering. They all use the same home-cooking and recipes that Elton started over 50 years ago.
Fred runs the restaurants with his wife, Tammy. Fred first saw Tammy when they were children in Sunday School. Fred said it was then that Tammy caught his eye. Today they have been married for 29 years and have three children and three grandchildren. Owen, their oldest son, manages Johnson Barbeque in Plant City as a fourth generation restraunteur. Their second son, Caleb, has served as a Marine Corps platoon sergeant at Camp David Presidential Retreat. Michael, their youngest, has finished at The Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, NY and hopes to one day have a restaurant concept of his own.
Elton was thrilled to watch his sons and grandsons succeed as they follow in his footsteps and pursue their own dreams. Looking back over all these years there are two things that Elton has to say. First, is that the greatest blessing of his life has been the jewel he found in Evelyn, who has been by his side for 55 years and still going strong. And finally, that, “God has been good to this ole boy. He sure has.”
