Business Beat Interview at Farmer's Daughter with Police Chief Kevin Denny - June 3, 2024
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Business Beat Interview at Farmer's Daughter with Police Chief Kevin Denny - June 3, 2024
On June 3, 2024, Grand Island Police Chief Kevin Denny conducted an on-location interview with Joanna, owner of Farmer's Daughter restaurant, as part of the "Business Beat" series. The conversation covered the restaurant's history, staff, menu, community ties, and the chief's personal connection to the establishment. No formal city business was conducted.
Discussion Items
- Restaurant History and Ownership: Joanna shared that Farmer's Daughter has been operating for over 50 years. She worked there for 16 years total (11 for the previous owner, 2.5 as owner). She purchased the business from Grace Anderson and Deb Dalton. The restaurant is located at 105 North Walnut, Grand Island, Nebraska.
- Staff and Atmosphere: Joanna described her team as a family. Lavina, the dishwasher, has been with the restaurant for 37 years across three ownership changes. Jason is the main cook, Dallas the prep cook, wait staff includes Angie and Erica, and newer hires Veda and Coral (a former regular customer who now runs the register). The atmosphere is described as welcoming, with customers often becoming friends and staff treating each other like family.
- Menu Highlights: Breakfast favorite is "The Sunshine" (hasbrowns, eggs, sausage, green peppers, onions, topped with homemade sausage gravy). For lunch, the hot beef sandwich is recommended, and the Ruben is also popular. Joanna makes all pies herself, including fruit pies (peach, cherry, strawberry rhubarb, apple, mixed berry, blueberry) and meringue pies (coconut, banana, lemon, butterscotch, chocolate, peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter).
- Challenges and Future Vision: Joanna noted supply chain issues have improved but prices remain high. She strives to balance costs without overcharging customers. Her vision is to preserve the restaurant's character, making only minor repairs and updates while keeping the menu and atmosphere largely unchanged. She emphasized maintaining a happy, family-like workplace.
- Community Engagement: Joanna donates to local causes and attends funerals of longtime customers, describing her regulars as family. Chief Denny expressed a desire to continue visiting the restaurant to interact with the community in an informal capacity.
- Police Chief's Personal Connection: Chief Denny recalled that Farmer's Daughter was the first place he ate breakfast when he moved to Grand Island a year and a half ago, on his first day on the job. He praised the restaurant's leadership principles and said he hopes to apply similar team-building approaches at the police department.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were made. The discussion served as a community outreach and promotional feature for the restaurant. Chief Denny indicated he plans to return regularly to pour coffee and engage with customers, building police-community relations.
Meeting Transcript
Hey folks, Kevin Denny, police chief for Grand Island Police Department here at Farmer's Daughter talking to Joanna on another episode of the Business Beat. So Joanna, thanks for inviting us into your business. And this morning we got the opportunity to uh flip some pancakes, serve some hash browns and some eggs, top off the coffee. I really enjoyed that interaction with your customers. I tell you what, my staff and I we all had a fabulous time with you guys here this morning. It was wonderful. Well, I appreciate your cook Jason allowing us to come back there and get in his groove because he likes to see got his thing going on, so that was nice to allow us to get back there for a little bit and just nice to let him shine for a minute too. It's good. Well, he does a great job back there. He does. I can tell. And the customers really enjoy, I think a single. They come for the singing sometimes. I asked him what his genre was, and he said the 80s mostly. Pretty much, but he's pretty versatile. I'm down with that. So if you could just tell us a little bit of history um on how you came to be the owner here. Okay. I've been born and raised in Grand Island. So came here a lot of times with my folks growing up. This restaurant has been here for over 50 years. And so I came a lot of times and always we just felt like this was my niche. And so my mom and I looked for a place a long lot of years. And then I ended up working here. So I worked here a total of roughly 16 years. Uh that includes the two and a half I've owned it. I worked for the previous owner for 11 years. And it's just home. It's just home. Everybody here is just one big family. I am so blessed with the staff that I have. It never feels like work. We all come and and everybody was happy to come to work. Nobody ever feels like, oh God. No, they come through those doors and we're all just one big happy family, and everybody helps each other out. We're a big team, and my customers are phenomenal. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful my customers are. We had a really neat interaction this week where we had a couple come in. They're in their late 80s, and she asked, called me and asked if she could come in and they could sing the farmer's daughter song. And they came in saying and they surprised another one of their friends who's 90, and uh she got up and danced to it. I tell you what, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. And it's just wonderful, you know. It's just that's how it is in here. You know, everybody turns and talks to each other where they've from different states, don't know each other. It's just the atmosphere is just wonderful in here. And you don't get that in a lot of places. You don't. I mean, you turn to speak to somebody and they kind of snub you in the other places. No, but not here, not here. It's just you're all connected.
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