hprinze Loc: Central Florida

The Varsity is a couple of years older than me. As a high school kid, it was a special event for us to be able to go "uptown" to the Varsity. I still remember my last trip there in 1947 just before leaving for the AF. Part of the parking lot had been demolished for construction of the new expressway.

The first Varsity opened 84 years ago. You have probably eaten there at least once, maybe many times, it is an Atlanta landmark. Daily around 15,000 people eat at one of the five Varsity restaurants in and around Atlanta and when there is a Georgia Tech home game, 30,000 usually eat just at the downtown location.
Do you know the history of the Varsity Restaurants, the myths, the facts, and the food?
Founder, Frank Gordy graduated from Reinhardt University in 1925, then continued his studies at Georgia Tech. Unfortunately, he didn't do so well. One day his professor told him that he was not passing, and "maybe you should give up and open a hot dog stand." He told him "I think I'll do just that and get rich right under your nose!"
For the next two years, Gordy, who always liked challenges, saved his money and in 1927, he opened that hot dog stand with his nest egg of $2,000. He knew that cheap food and students g o together and Georgia Tech students Swarmed his restaurant, then named The Yellow Jacket Inn. The first day he made $49.50. Soon Gordy outgrew the Hemphill and Luckie Street location and opened a new restaurant at the present location of 61 North Avenue. It was now 1928.
Gordy dreamed of opening hot dog stands at college campuses all over Georgia, but he had a problem with the original name, The Yellow Jacket Inn which was highly associated with Georgia Tech. There was a popular song at the time, The Varsity D**g and he decided that would be a great name for his future chain of restaurants. The Varsity was born.
It is now 1932, the Great Depression, not many businesses were opening or expanding, but the self-made entrepreneur, Gordy, decides to gamble on his dream and open another Varsity, near the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens. Eighty years later it is still thriving. Today there are five locations, downtown Atlanta, Athens, Alpharetta, Gwinnett Town Center, and Dawsonville.
In all of its 84 years, the Varsity restaurants have only been closed one day and it was in June, 1983, the day Frank Gordy was buried. He managed his restaurants for 55 years.
Several of the famous employees of the Varsity are Erby Walker with his signature phrase, "Have your money out and your food in mind And I'll get you to the game on time." Walker worked seven days a week Up to 100 hours a week to support his large family. He retired in 2003, and three weeks later he came back to work. He also worked at the Varsity for 55 years. He started when he was 15 years old.

Another employee was Flossie Mae, their most famous curbman who would sing the menu and dance along the line of cars. He worked into his 80's and was equally famous for his headgear that changed almost daily.
Nipsey Russell also began as a Varsity curbman where he honed his future comedic sk**ls. He was simply known as curbman #46.
Coca-Cola and the Varsity have had a long history. You can see the Coke headquarters building from the parking lot of the Varsity. There Is a rumor that a pipe underneath the street brings Coca-Cola directly from the Coke head-quarters to the Varsity counter. Gordy's grandson, the manager of the downtown restaurant, said that once the Varsity was almost out of Coke and they called the headquarters. Coke employees went to their own cafeteria, got Cokes and brought them to the Varsity. When Coke's number one stockholder, Warren Buffett, visited Atlanta, the first place that Coke executives took him was the Varsity for lunch. The Varsity sells more Coke products than any other place on earth with more than 2,000,000 cups sold annually.
The first Varsity on North Avenue occupied a 70 X 190 foot lot with a white picket fence surrounding their cinder parking lot. Originally it was a drive-in only, but soon business demanded a sit-down restaurant. Today, the building, drive-in and parking lots occupy two acres. When the I-75/85 connector was built, construction took the entire west parking lot. Gordy had a multi-level parking lot built to hold up to 600 cars. The restaurant can seat 800
customers. The downtown Varsity holds the record as the largest drive-in in the world.
Here are some amazing facts about the Varsity: Each day 2 miles of hot dogs are served, just at the downtown location. The hot dogs are especially made just for the Varsity. Every day they cook two tons of onions, 15,000 hamburgers, two and a half tons of potatoes. Delivery trucks deliver 3-6 times a day and that is just for meat and buns; the last fresh buns are delivered at 1 a.m. Around 300 gallons of chili are prepared daily, 50 gallons at a time. All this food is cooked and served by 200 employees at the downtown's 145 foot counter.
It is one of Atlanta's top grossing restaurants with almost ten million in sales annually and that is made with hotdogs, hamburgers, onion rings and french fries costing less than $2 each. The piece-de-resistance at the Varsity is their marriage of peaches or apples and sugar, placed in round pieces of dough and fried to a golden brown. 5,000 of these pies are made daily.
The most popular meal ordered is the #1 which consists of two chili dogs, an order of french fries or onion rings and a regular drink. The Varsity only sells sweet tea. A unique Varsity drink is the FO, frosted orange, an orange-flavored milkshake and tastes similar to a Dreamsicle.
The Varsity Lingo is also famous, the naked dog, a hotdog on a bun, the heavyweight, a hotdog with extra chili, and if you order a hot dog, it will have chili and mustard on the bun, a bag of rags is potato chips and on and on.
According to Frank Gordy's grandson, his grandfather loved technology and bought a television for the restaurant dining room as soon as they were available to the public. Some Atlantans say the first time they ever saw a television was at the Varsity. There are five dining rooms at the Varsity with television sets on different channels. Each e******n, TV camera crews arrive to interview diners as they watch e******n coverage. Presidents to local politicians make a path to the Varsity to eat and meet v**ers.
Once, founder, Frank Gordy was asked what happened to the leftovers, he responded, "What leftovers?