Foutch flips final burger after 45 years
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After more than 45 years in the restaurant business, with 36 at his current location on Nashville Highway, Billy ?Gator? Foutch and wife, Marie, will close Billy?s Restaurant. The eatery, famous as the ?Home of the Gator Burger,? has been a local institution for a long time, as long as some of its loyal customers can remember.
Those customers packed the building yesterday, taking advantage of one of the final days of short-order cooking and friendly hospitality that have made Billy?s so popular for so many years. Billy?s has been more than just a place to get a good meal. It?s been a place to visit with friends, catch up on gossip, and maybe even start a little romance over a Gator Burger and fries.
?My mother and dad met here,? said David Holt of his father Morris Holt and his mom Wanda. ?They met here in 1970, and I?ve been coming back here for 35 years. I decided to come back one more time and get one more Gator Burger.?
Marie, a spry 72-year-old, took time out from waiting tables to talk about the couple?s years in the food business. Marie said it?s the customers who have made the hard work worth it over the years.
?It is hard work, lots of hard work, but I enjoy the people,? she said. ?We?ve made lots of friends.?
Billy agreed the customers are king.
?We sure appreciate their business over the years,? he said. ?We really do. I?m going to miss the people.?
Billy explained how the ?Gator Burger? came about. Hint: it?s not the ingredients.
?It?s my nickname,? Billy said. ?My brother gave it to me, and everybody started calling me Gator.?
But time marches on and change is inevitable, and Marie says some recent developments have hastened their decision to close the business.
?The four-lane is coming through,? Marie said, ?and it?s going to take the building. So we?re going to retire.?
Marie and Billy have been married 48 years and have two daughters, Elaine Mathis, who currently helps at the restaurant, and Debbie Foutch, who works at Nissan.
All the years of hard work are evident when you ask Marie what she is going to do after she retires.
?Well, I?m going to rest,? she says with a laugh. ?I?ve been working since I got out of high school, so I plan on doing a lot of resting. Then we may travel a little bit.?
Though their customers don?t begrudge Billy and Marie their rest, they do say they will miss Billy?s Restaurant.
?We?re all going to starve I guess,? said Quill Briggs, a longtime post office employee who, with wife Dot, has been a faithful customer. ?I?ve known Billy for a long, long time.?
Quill says there?s a lot to like about Billy?s.
?Well I love the food,? he said. ?The thing about it is it?s fresh. It?s not cooked ahead of time. It?s cooked after they get the order. It?s clean and well kept.?
?The atmosphere is nice,? said Dot. ?Everybody?s friendly.?
?Billy always speaks to you when you come through the door,? Quill added. ?When I come in he?ll say, ?Hey Quill,? and when you start to leave, he?ll say ?Y?all come back now.??
Local Sears owner Leo Barrett says Billy?s has been a favorite eating place for him for more than three decades.
?I?ve been eating here 30 some years, as long as he?s been here,? Barrett said. ?I eat here every day. I have for years. I guess I?m their most loyal customer. Rain or shine, I don?t miss.?
Like everyone, Barrett says he will really miss the place.
?It kind of hurts,? he said. ?In fact, I?m hoping to get a settlement from the state for emotional damage,? he added with a broad grin.
One thing?s for sure, even though he is closing his business, old habits die hard for Billy. When this reporter got ready to leave, after combining an interview with a delicious Gator Burger, the last words from Billy were:
?Y?all come back now.?