By Staff
Tired of fast food?
Know the pizza delivery guy by name?
Davon and Lisa Lyons have a tasty new dining option for Atmore food connoisseurs.
The Atmore couple opened the Snack Shack located at 202 Howard Street Friday night after over three months of preparation. Davon said not only have he and his wife been anticipating the shack's opening, but so has the community.
"It has been overwhelming," he said. "People have been stopping even before we did a lot of the renovations. They've been looking at menus and being real supportive. We've had a lot of positive support and you seem to get that in Atmore especially when you're a young adult. It's something new and people are willing to try something new and we're going to try our best to keep them customers."
The Snack Shack will offer a wide variety of food including chicken wings, catfish, shrimp, oysters, an all beef patty melt, a grilled chicken patty melt, Philly cheese steak, club sandwich, Phat burger, and a wide variety of po-boys. Sides offered at the Shack include grits, fries, onion rings or a side salad, and for desert, customers can choose between an apple fritter and sweet potato fritter.
Lisa, who will oversee the kitchen, said customers should expect "momma-style cooking."
"It's home cooking with soul-food seasoning," she said. "It won't be hot, it won't be spicy, but it will be good. It will be like something your mom would cook or what you would expect when you go home or to grandmothers."
And no need to worry about leaving hungry, Lisa said everyone will receive 'hearty helpings."
"It will be good," Lisa said. "Customers will receive satisfaction."
The couple, both of which are graduates of Escambia County High School, said one of the main reasons they decided to open the Snack Shack was to offer residents quality food that can be delivered to the doorstep.
"The concept came because people want quality food delivered to their house, that was our main objection" Davon said. "Sometimes you don't feel like going out on Friday night and in Atmore you can't have food delivered. People get tired of pizza. Most of time grown ups, like me and my wife, want some shrimp, oysters or catfish; quality food not fast food all the time."
The Snack Shack will have a limited operation schedule and will only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the business is off the ground.
"We've both got full-time careers and we want to train our help to be able to maintain the place even though we're not there," Davon said. "Now since we're going to be involved a lot we've got to work around our schedules also. Having two fulltime careers and being parents, we'll be juggling a lot. We eventually will go five day, six days maybe even seven days a week."
Davon believes one advantage the Shack will have is its hours of operation on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m.
"Our hours will be a major advantage for us because a lot people get off work at 11 p.m.," he said. "We've got the prisons, Masland Carpet and people that work out of town in Bay Minette or Brewton and when they're coming home there's nothing to eat on Friday and Saturday nights. A lot of people also like to go out on the town on Friday nights and when they come in they can get a quality meal before they go home or even have it delivered."
The Snack Shack's delivery hours will stop at 111 p.m. every night for security reasons, Davon said.
As with all new businesses, the Snack Shack will offer more employment opportunities for residents of Atmore and the surround areas. Davon said he has hired on what he believes as a great team of quality workers.
"The employees we've picked are people that have been in the restaurant business or other food service areas," Davon said. "Especially my managers, they have a vast amount of experience in restaurant and food service industries. We feel like they'll be able to lead the others that don't have much restaurant experience and train them."
Davon hopes the combination of good food, great service and late-night delivery will fulfill his No. 1 goal.
"We want Atmore to be happy to have something different," Davon said. "I want the community to be happy to have us. I want to satisfy the Atmore community, having been born and raised here."
For more information, call the Snack Shack at 368-3883.