 J o h n n y G a r n e a u —
T h e L e g e n d L i v e s O n !
 There are many reasons people come to Florida, the land of Sunshine, freedom, snorkeling and the leisurely life of retirement. But then there’s Johnny Garneau, who moved to Lighthouse Point, brought his successful restaurant business with him, and now, at the age of eighty-seven, is starting anew.
There’s nothing like a perfect anti-aging ingredient to add to the luster of life than setting a goal and making it happen. So, Garneau is opening a new restaurant that will house railroad memorabilia that he has collected through the years. And this timid, modest man isn’t living in the lap of luxury, but has a desire to share his treasures with the community.
“I don’t brag about my age because then people say to me, ‘What are you doing going into business again?’ — I love it! I’ve never been comfortable being idle. As long as I can still think and get around and do things, I’ll go into business. I still have a lot of energy and want to keep things going. This current project is probably going to be my last one.
His plan is to open up a restaurant called Johnny Garneau’s Golden Spike that’ll include a gift shop. “I’ll also be having a raffle a few times a month in order to give away Tiffany Lamps. There’s going to be a separate room for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital railroad set, and customers will be able to run the trains for a donation and one hundred percent of the money will go to St. Jude’s.”
Garneau would like to franchise this whole concept later on with his heirs continuing the business. “The first one will have all of my original train sets in it. The second one will be much smaller, but will still have a railroad motif,” explained Garneau. “My daughter Jane McLaughlin is very busy with her own life and I don’t know whether she even likes trains, but my daughter Susan who lives in Pittsburgh is very interested in trains, as well as my son Johnny Garneau Jr., who also is in the restaurant business.”
Johnny’s daughter Jane, a former Lighthouse Point Commis sioner, owns the Bonefish Grill in Lighthouse Point (Sample and Federal) with her husband. He’s very proud of her accomplish ments, but particularly likes to boast about her successful restaurant prowess. “It’s right down the street and they own another one in Port St. Lucie and opening up another one in Wellington.”
Garneau was born and bred in Connecticut, making his way to Pennsylvania, falling in love with a local gal named Lois and raising a family of five children. Even tually this grew into a brood that now includes twelve grand children. His string of restaurants began in the Pittsburgh market and was known simply as Johnny Garneau’s before the Golden Spike moniker was added to it. Eventually his famed restaurants opened up in different Pitts - burgh locations, such as Monroeville, 6th Street Downtown, McKnight Road and North Hills. Then he expanded into other areas such as Clarion, PA,
Youngstown, Ohio and Brecksville, Ohio.
Garneau created the revolutionary idea of the ‘Smorgasbord’ which these days is called a buffet, and in 1956 invented and patented the idea for the ‘Sneeze Guard’ that protects the food on the buffet from unintentional customer contamination.
Growing up, Johnny’s father would take the kids on the train to visit their mother and his father who had model trains placed around their Christmas tree. This is when he started to take notice of these fascinating relics of days gone by. “I’ve always loved trains. My dad used to take us to the New HavenHartford Railroad and we’d stand on the bridge and watch the trains,” he said. “I was real young at the time and I’ve liked trains ever since and I figure I’d work them into my life someday,” said Garneau.
His love of trains collided with his beginnings in the food industry as this mini-tycoon was start ing to blossom. “I was in high school when I worked at the Stratford Candy Kitchen, and it was when I was working there when I thought to myself that someday I’ll have a restaurant of my own. I’d go to different places, such as hot dog stands that also sold hamburgers and thought it was a good concept.”
The sum total of Johnny’s childhood experiences, along with his time in the service as an Army Corps Cadet in World War II, landed him in Clarion, PA, and this is where he began exploring a life in the food industry. “I built myself a hot dog stand that was named The Beanery,” he explained. “It was real
small, but it had a drive-in and a big driveway that offered curb service. I was operating for only three months and it burned down. But I was only out of business for four days before I borrowed a carnival stand from the local fire department and used it until a year later, until my new building was ready. It wasn’t easy, but you couldn’t stop me.”
After his success with his first venture, Johnny opened his first restaurant and eventually several Johnny Garneau’s. It was during these gloriously enterprising years that he and his wife traveled to Hawaii for a vacation. One day, they were having lunch with their good friend Bill Winter, a gentleman who owned numerous restaurants in Hawaii, and began talking about starting a string of restaurants. As it turned out, Bill couldn’t get the financing on his end, but Johnny went through with his plans.
One year after its idealistic conception in Hawaii, the first Johnny Garneau’s Golden Spike restaurant became a reality and was built in the shape of a railroad station. The ‘Golden Spike’ was the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States, connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. In his new restaurant Johnny has a replica of the Golden Spike.
“I used to have trains inside the Pittsburgh restaurants. They’d go around the bar serving drinks and food and we also had rooms with trains on display,” he said. “We had one of the railway express carts out back and a lot of antiques on exhibit. Upstairs we had a fine dining area with murals of trains on the walls. It was a beautiful restaurant and a very successful one.” It wasn’t long before his wanderlust eventually brought him to Florida, where he opened his famed restaurant. “I had a big restaurant here called Johnny Garneau's Golden Spike on North Federal Highway in the ‘70s, and we had trains out in front of it,” said Garneau. “When I first came to Florida, I was on my own. My wife was watching things at the other restaurants up North and finally joined me in 1975.”
Through the years, he has collected a beautiful set of model train stations that are just waiting for their home in his newest enterprise. In fact, he has an entire room in a warehouse bursting at the seams with items he has amassed over the years. The location and name is still under wraps at the time of this interview.
“My continuous love for food and trains definitely makes me feel young, I wouldn’t be alive if I didn’t have a passion for these things,” he said. “I enjoy doing what I’m doing and I think I get my drive from my early life. Yes, it’s true, many people endure difficult times, but never truly see a way out.”
Garneau’s unique drive and spirit keeps him going after all these years. And you can be sure he is determined to keep the family legacy alive.
The best of luck, Johnny!
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