Goody Goody in 1932

Although most longtime Tampa residents associate the Goody Goody with the Stayer family and its Florida Ave. location, the restaurant actually started on what is now Kennedy Blvd, with an earlier owner.  Ralph A. Stevens began the drive-in as a barbecue stand in 1925 at 1629 Grand Central Avenue at Rome Avenue. 

             Above and below:  The original Goody Goody on Grand Central Ave (now Kennedy Blvd)

All the carhops back then were male.  Stevens had another unit going within a year or two on North Florida Avenue, near Hillsborough Avenue.  But in 1929, he and his wife apparently had the roving spirit, because he answered a classified ad.  The ad was placed by William Bechtel Stayer, who had been a successful lumber insurance man as well as executive director of a lumber dealers association in Pittsburgh. 

This Goody Goody in Whitehall, Michigan, was owned by Ralph Stevens, but was not a drive-in restaurant.

When William Stayer's second marriage, he bought a grove and spent a winter in Winter Haven.  After a move back to Lakeland, he felt the itch to get back into business.  As son Carl Stayer wrote in a reminiscence years later, "Dad didn't have enough to do.  He traveled over to Tampa frequently to eat dinner in the great Spanish restaurants and drink in the bars.."  

W. B. Stayer's ad read:  "Have $10,000 to invest, would like to buy a small business."  He got lots of replies, many came from barbeque stands caught in the economic collapse of the late 1920's.  Daughter Betty Stayer Hendryson, who lives in Albuquerque, NM, said her father had vowed not to buy a barbeque stand, but did anyway.  The Goody Goody appealed to him.  Married by then to a former nurse in Lakeland, Stayer moved his family to Tampa and became a restaurant operator.  "He could not do short-order cooking, run the cash register or wash the dishes," Carl Stayer wrote.  

     William B. Stayer

 Carl Stayer          

Click to enlarge images

                       Circa 1960s                    June 1995                   

Sons Bill and Bob Stayer got involved n the business--with Bob, the youngest, becoming his father's mainstay in the day-to-day operation.  Another son, Glenn, became a doctor in Birmingham, Alabama.  But Bob Stayer, a popular young man, died in a tragic drowning accident about 1945.  Only after that did eldest son Carl, leave his job with GMAC in Harrisburg, PA,  bring his family to Tampa and take over the business.  Meanwhile, his father and his wife had bought a farm at Palm River around 1940.  It was an older dairy farm, with milk cows, and he raised sugar cane.  At that time, youngsters Elizabeth and Peter New--Betty's children--came to live with their grandparents on the farm.  Elizabeth New Weld, who lived there when she was 2 years old until she was 6, remembers getting bathed and dressed every afternoon for the trip to the Goody Goody. 

                           Feb 24, 1941 - Inside the Goody Goody

Goody Goody in 1941

After she and her brother ate supper in the restaurant, they would entertain themselves, waiting with their grandmother while their grandfather went off to play cards at the Elks Club.  Although she was tiny at the time, she remembers the employees.  "The waitresses always seemed so wonderful," Weld said.  "They were so good to us, and they were wonderful looking women.  They had a certain snappy talk, always cheerful."  She also recalls the managers--Lionel "Cicero" Roberts, William Mote and Milt Gaston.

Gaston, (86 at the time of this article) and living in Bradenton, is the oldest former ball player for the Boston Red Sox.  He managed the Goody Goody for a number of years before becoming a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy.  Mote, 66, recalls that there were big signs posted when he came to work in 1941:  "No Tips, Please."  The carhops were still young men, and the going salary was 20 cents per hour.

AHH! THOSE GOOD-LOOKING GOODY GOODY GIRLS!

Just a chance to flirt with a bevy of pretty car-hops was enough to draw the guys to The Goody Goody at 1119-21 Florida Ave. in the glory days before and after World War II. But the food - especially those delicious pies-was the best in town. The popular restaurant was family-owned from 1929 when William B. Stayer bought the place until it was closed in May 1984. A few months later, in January 1985, one of the long-time Goody Goody girls, Yvonne Freeman, reopened the landmark. This photo was taken about 1945.    Photo from HAMPTON DUNN COLLECTION

From "Tampa pastimes: Those good-looking Goody Goody girls." Sunland Tribune 15/1 (November 1989):

Notice in the photo at top of page that the front of the restaurant is set back from the street.  The dining area was expanded at some time towards Florida Avenue and took up the yard space in the front of the building.  In the attic crawl space above the expanded dining area, can be found the original front wall with the original sign painted on the wall.

This partition marks the original dining area to the left, from the expanded area to the right.

Goody Goody p1   |    Goody Goody p2

The End of an Era:  Last Day P.1    |   Last Day P.2   |   Last Day P.3   |  Last Day P.4    |   Demolition

Scene from the movie "The Punisher" filmed in the Goody Goody

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