Fondren, 60, is confident in his success due to his 33 years of restaurant experience. This is his first time owning a restaurant.
“This has always been my dream to do something I like,” the Middletown native said Tuesday after cooking for another busy lunch crowd.
Fondren, who is married and has a 2-year-old son and his wife is pregnant, called business the first six days “very good,” though he’s having trouble hiring help, a theme throughout the restaurant industry.
He was drawn to Red’s due to its atmosphere and loyal customers. He called Red’s “a little old fashioned diner.”
Red’s Hamburger Shop traces its roots back to the early 1960s. It was briefly Mel’s Diner last decade before reopening in 2020 under its old moniker.
Red’s was supposed to reopen in September until the potential owner, Walley Estes, 50, a 1991 Fairfield High School graduate, said he was derailed by unexpected expenses.
Estes said during health inspections he was told the restaurant, for the first time in its history, needed a mop sink that cost $2,400. That expense, and others, he said, made opening impossible.
“That put a dent in the pocket,” he said. “We couldn’t keep bleeding. So it won’t work out.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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