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The new owner of Rama Jama’s shares qualities with founder Gary Lewis: Michael Hebron loves Alabama football, with that affection expanded to encompass the crimson-and-white diner just off the southwest corner of Bryant-Denny Stadium.
About a month back, after a three-day meeting, the old owner and new came to terms, among them being that tradition would hold.
“What I’m buying is a breakfast-luncheonette kind of place, with a lot of really cool memorabilia,” Hebron said. “And it’s across the street from my happy place.”
The new boss divested himself of other interests, packed, and moved to Tuscaloosa from New York City.
“I said ‘New York City’?” Lewis said, laughing. “New York City and Tuscaloosa just became a little bit closer in my world.”
The new boss is no outsider. He became an avid fan four years ago, when daughter Lisa began studying at the University of Alabama.
“I went to my first home game my daughter’s freshman year, and I’ve never missed one since,” said Hebron, who’d been a golf pro for 20 years, following in his PGA Hall of Fame dad’s cleat-steps. As Lisa took a job, post-graduation, teaching at UA’s Brewer-Porch Children’s Center, staying close appealed to him. Aside from food services at courses, the 51-year-old didn’t have much restaurant experience.
But that’s not unlike Lewis, who sold his part of the Houndstooth bar back in 1993, then tried unsuccessful food concerns with Birmingham partners. “I learned a very valuable lesson: Just because you may be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company doesn’t mean you can run a restaurant,” he said.
A lightbulb went off when Lewis spotted the then-dilapidated 1000 Paul W. Bryant Drive spot. When he opened it on Sept. 14, 1996, he made over the former gas station and convenience store into a fast-food haven decked out in pure Roll Tide, sinking it so firmly in Bama fan’s hearts, it seemed to have grown there decades before.
Hebron left behind a 12th-floor office at Rockefeller Center, overlooking the ice-skating rink, to plunge hands-first into flipping burgers, waking up pre-dawn, turning keys, guiding staff, and maintaining Rama Jama’s ambassadorial image. On any given day, 65 percent of patrons come from out of town, Lewis said, with that number soaring in fall.
For game days, Rama Jama’s will add outdoor stands, for those who can’t fit in the doors, and they’ll start opening Sundays 9 a.m.-2 p.m., open until 8 other nights. Staying the same are the menu, red vinyl seats, checkerboard floors and walls of decor: Helmets, jerseys, calendars, pom-poms, stadium seats, autographed photos, framed newspaper stories, Heinz 57 ketchup bottles labeled with UA’s national championships, personalized Alabama license plates — TGRHNT, ROOLLL, 2B 1ST, YEATIDE — in a cornucopia of crimson, white and black, an organically grown shrine to Crimson Tide players, coaches and fans, generations of glory and gridiron greatness.
Panic briefly ensued when Lewis announced, two years ago, that Rama Jama’s was going on the market. Patrons flooded in, pleading, offering donations, sometimes thousands of dollars, to help.
″ ‘Oh, man, please don’t leave us!,’ ” Lewis recounted, laughing. But business wasn’t slow. It’s just that after almost 20 years of 14-hour days, six days a week, no vacations or days off, the owner-creator-operator thought change might be OK.
“I’m probably not the smartest restaurateur in town, but I’ve sure outworked ’em,” he said.
Offers came in, none acceptable.
“I’ve had an opportunity to talk to a lot of smart businessmen over the years,” Lewis said. “By that I mean they wanted to steal the place.”
Hebron stepped up with the right combo of fair price and similar vision.
“I’m here to perpetuate what he started,” Hebron said, “and do the right thing. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” His new title, he said, should be “steward.”
Lewis concurred: Why break a solid foundation?
“After 21 years, I said, ‘Here’s the keys. Don’t screw it up,’ ” he said.
Post-sale, he still wakes early to ease transition, which as far as Lewis is concerned includes fall, as thousands stream by, and through, Rama Jama’s doors.
“I’m not ready to retire. Long as I can go, I want to go,” said Lewis, at 66 boundlessly energetic, as when playing basketball for Alabama Christian College more than four decades ago. He’ll continue hunting trains, staple of Sundays with his 14-year-old son, but is also talking possible other ventures with Hebron.
“This is not the end for me. This is the beginning of the next chapter of my life,” Lewis said.
He’s still pondering going to a game, rather than watching the Tide roll from nearby.
“I’ve been right across the street from 174 of ’em. ... And you know what? I’m still not going to be able to. Those seven days a year are so important to the bottom line, of his business now, somebody’s gotta be here,” he said.
“Maybe in a year or two, they can squeeze me in.”
