Jonathan Byrd's cafeteria reaches end of line

GREENWOOD — For nearly 26 years, Jonathan Byrd's has offered customers a "home away from home" off a cafeteria line.

Visitors tugged trays across the metal bars, loading them full of fried chicken, meatloaf and Oreo pie. Each slice of comfort food has been a piece of Jonathan and Ginny Byrd's dream.

On May 1, that dream will change.

The restaurant will serve its final customers off the cafeteria line on April 30. Owner Ginny Byrd announced Saturday that she will shift restaurant service into the smaller area known as "JB's Express." Customers will walk to a counter and ask for what they want.

Byrd also told The Star she had to downsize. She could not say how many employees will be let go.

"Food service has evolved, and we can't fight it," Ginny Byrd wrote in a letter posted on the restaurant's Facebook page. "We have to adapt and evolve with it if we want to survive and if we want Jonathan Byrd's to be more than a pleasant memory and a place that people used to go to eat."

The Byrd family has a long history in the restaurant business in Central Indiana.

In 1952, Jonathan Byrd's parents opened a frozen custard stand called Custard Kitchen. It eventually evolved into a drive-in restaurant, complete with waitresses on roller skates.

Then Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, asked the Byrds to carry his brand of fried chicken in their restaurant in the 1960s, Ginny Byrd told The Star.

Jonathan and Ginny Byrd married in 1973. They operated their own KFC restaurants and other businesses, but Jonathan had a lifelong dream of building his own cafeteria.

Finally, in 1988, his dream came true.

"We built that dream," Ginny Byrd said. "As any dream, it grew. It became very large. It grew, and it grew, and it grew."

Jonathan Byrd's vision expanded into a cafeteria with a 90-foot serving line featuring more than 200 items and a 400-seat dining room. They offered their own fried chicken recipe, which became the cafeteria's most popular item, along with meatloaf, broccoli salad, chicken and noodles, pot pies and desserts.

For nearly 26 years, the restaurant has offered a slice of Americana to Central Indiana — even through Jonathan's stroke in 2004 and his death in 2009. The family estimates they have served more than 5 million customers in the cafeteria and more than 13 million meals through their various endeavors, including as the official caterer of the Indianapolis Colts.

But as the restaurant remained the same, the community around it changed.

Ginny Byrd said the way people eat has changed. And while there has been tremendous growth in northern Johnson County, she said it didn't come near their location on the east side of Greenwood.

"That hurt us," Byrd said. "That really hurt us. You have to want to come here. There's no retail at this exit. ... We began to see the writing on the wall."

She began making plans to adapt the restaurant but held off through Nov. 7, 2013, the 25th anniversary of the restaurant opening under her husband's vision.

"It was my own stubborn will, but I really wanted to make that milestone," Byrd said. "It meant something to me, and it meant something to the employees."

David Byrd said he learned the value of hard work during his 11 years in his parents' business. He said he is sad to see the cafeteria line go but excited for the next chapter.

"We've been part of people's memories and making memories," David Byrd said. "We're going to keep being there for that."

Jennifer Ritchie, 37, said her time as an employee of Jonathan Byrd's played an important role in her life. Ritchie, who now lives in Louisville, Ky., worked at the restaurant throughout her teenage years and into her early 20s.

The restaurant was where she met her best friend and her first boyfriend. The Byrds gave her a $1,000 college scholarship.

Jonathan Byrd made Ritchie and other employees learn how to count change without the computer.

"It taught me how to be outgoing, how to gain my voice," she said. "It's the first job that taught me how to work with other people of different backgrounds."

Ritchie said she hopes the restaurant will survive its evolution.

Christian Maslowski, president and CEO of the Greater Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, applauded the Byrd family for making what was surely a "tough" decision.

"I think their bold decision is really staying true to the story of Jonathan Byrd," Maslowski said.

Ginny Byrd said she believes her husband would have been the first to recognize changes in the restaurant business — and likely would have made the changes to the restaurant sooner. She hopes customers will continue to view the business as "a place where food triggers happy memories and a feeling of home."

"We're not going away," Byrd said. "This is just another face of the restaurant, and we're still going to be here for them every day. And I still want them to come in and say hi and have a cup of coffee with me … and a piece of pie … and fried chicken."

Call Star reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter at @IndyMarisaK.