Sandy's Evansville, Indiana was yet another powerhouse set of locations for the drive-in thanks in part to Jim Reynolds who worked his way up the corporate ladder from crew worker to owner. His legacy continues to this day still working in the area, now as owner, under the Hardees name which was built on the greatness of the Evansville Sandy's. An article discovered in the Evansville Business Journal, August 1994 gave insite into Evansville Sandy's and Mr. Reynolds in particular.
Mr. Reynolds was a senior at a local high school in 1963 when he first joined the Sandy's set as a part-time worker. Today, he is a part-owner of some twenty Hardees in the Indiana/Kentucky area which continues the Sandy's tradition as "Sandy's Associates". One of those restaurants just happens to be the Evansville original Sandy's Weinbach Avenue location!
Mr. Reynolds continued his career at Sandy's while attending the University of Evansville. During this time period, he had worked his way up to assistant manager at the Sandy's Main Street location. In 1966, he left the University for the incredible opportunity to become manager of Sandy's West Illinois Street location! This decision was certainly due to the strong high quality workforce developed by Brick Lundberg and the Sandy's headquarters. By 1969, Evansville Sandy's had grown to five restaurants and Mr. Reynolds had been named general manager for those locations!
Mr. Reynolds recalls that some changes have taken place over the past decades in the fast-food industry. When he started with Sandy's, there were only four sandwiches on the menu; hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fish and grilled cheese. There was no seating and hungry customers were presented with a walk-up and take-out atmosphere for soft drinks, fries and shakes.
True to the original concept of Sandy's, Mr. Reynolds prefers to use the term "quick service restaurant" to "fast food". Sandy's was built on the principle of quality food with great taste, a fair cost and quickly served.
Evansville, long known as a progressive city, was home not only to Sandy's but to BIFF Burger, early McDonald's locations, Burger Chef, Burger King and a myriad of other fast food restaurants. It would be interesting to know the results and effects in Evansville as these giants battled out marketshare with Sandy's. With four powerful locations, Sandy's clearly had an edge.
In the middle of August, 1973, Evansville Sandy's followed suit of its sibling locations across the United States and switched to Hardees. At the time there were four Sandy's locations. During the week of August 12th, without announcement, customers noticed the Sandy's signs coming down and being replaced by the new Hardees signage. All signs were replaced by the following Sunday. Jim Reynolds announced a press conference would be held to announce the name change. One of the last Sandy's strongholds was at its end.
Every location was forced to close for a short time during the week to bring in new ventilation systems. New equipment costing $150,000 was being installed to present the new (to the area) char-broiled burgers. Local renown attorney Mr. Joe Harrison who brought Mr. Reynolds into the business and mentored him remained the local owner. A new color scheme took place as the red and plaid was removed and the new orange and ivory combination arrived. The buildings themselves remained the same for the time being.
If you have any memorabilia, pictures or stories of Sandy's in Evansville, Indiana or elsewhere, please email me!It would be interesting to know what happened to the third location which is mentioned in local newspaper articles yet is clearly missing from the Evansville directory. Sadly, at this time, no pictures are available of these classic great Sandy's locations.