JUNE 26, 2008 Issue
Business Spotlight
Red Onion Café—A New Look But Same Great Service, Atmosphere and Food
Story by Sam Calhoun
A smile creeps across Danny Mauney’s face when he remembers the day when Red Onion Café overflowed for the first time and the hostess had to make a wait list for customers.
“That was probably the most pleasing moment of my life—of course, aside from marrying my wife and when my children were born,” said Mauney, owner of Red Onion Café. “And I still love this place. It’s no easier than it was 20 years ago, but I’m a survivor. I still love doing it. I’ve never worked for anyone else in my life and I’m not so sure I could at this point.”
Thankfully, Mauney won’t have to. Red Onion Café turns 24 this year, and with a new façade, an ever-changing menu, a new covered patio, a dedicated wait staff and a host of regular customers, it looks like Red Onion will continue to be a cornerstone of the Boone community for at least another quarter century.
The biggest news at Red Onion these days is the new covered patio and landscaping. To become more of a visible landmark for locals and visitors and to provide a more aesthetically pleasing and comfortable atmosphere for customers, Mauney set out two months ago to redesign parts of his restaurant. After redoing the hostess station and updating parts of the restaurant’s interior, Mauney hired builder Richard B. Knight to construct a covered patio on the front of the restaurant. Two months later, the patio is finished, making room for 24 new seats and six new tables. What’s more, Margie Sparks of Garden Path Designs in Boone has spent the last two weeks landscaping the front side of Red Onion, creating a garden and waterfall.
“Danny was looking for something different,” said Sparks, “so I created a garden area for people to enjoy, and it enhances what [Knight] was doing structurally. It creates a focal point for people to walk around—it’s to enhance Danny’s food, which is really good, especially the artichoke dip!”
“I think it helps with drive-by business for visitors and locals,” said Mauney.
Red Onion Café’s menu appeals to all tastes. The choices include appetizers, such as the famous artichoke dip, pimento cheese plate and fried zucchini; soups and salads; sandwiches, burgers and wraps; pasta, such as the Florentine wild mushroom lasagna, black bean and pesto lasagna and Cajun chicken pasta; entrees, such as grilled teriyaki salmon and Mediterranean grilled tuna; and desserts, such as the famous Horace cookie—named after one of the premier cooks in Mauney’s family.
Every dish at Red Onion is made from scratch—sauces, desserts, salads, appetizers, even the whole-wheat pizza dough.
Thirty-five part-time employees keep the restaurant running under the guidance of two managers who have been working at Red Onion for 20 years—Joe Ellison and Andy Robertson. Many chefs help behind the scenes, including Mauney himself who works every day behind the line.
Mauney seems to have a hard time getting out from behind the cooking line.
Born in Bellwood—near Shelby—Mauney came to Boone in 1975 to attend ASU and earn a business degree. Four years later, though, the call of running his own business was too strong and he dropped out of school to open a pizza parlor with some friends in the current location of Red Onion Café.
“We decided that we could do it ourselves,” said Mauney, who worked at another pizza parlor while he was in school.
There was one problem, though.
“We didn’t have a dime to our name,” he said.
With the property available for lease, Mauney and his friends presented their idea to Gene Wilson, owner of Dan’l Boone Inn. Wilson agreed to help get the boys a loan to open the restaurant.
“We borrowed every dime,” remembered Mauney.
Business was good for the first couple of years, especially because college students adopted the pizza parlor as their preferred hangout location. That clientele made for long nights and, in addition, Mauney felt typecast as a college-only hangout.
“We were successful but I found that I was losing business in the summer when school was out. We became strictly a college location,” said Mauney.
With a desire to diversify the restaurant’s clientele, Mauney attempted to convince his partners to change the name to Red Onion Café—a name he thought was easy to remember and evoked a feeling of freshness, said Mauney.
Shortly afterward, in 1984, Mauney bought out his partners and changed the business name.
With 72 seats and a new name, Red Onion kept its pizza menu, kept offering delivery and stayed open late. When beer and wine became legal to sell in restaurants in 1986, the late-night crowds increased in numbers and Mauney decided it was time for more changes.
“We were still attracting the late-night drinking crowd and I decided that was not the course I wanted to travel,” said Mauney.
Mauney soon quit delivering pizzas, scaled down his hours and started adding selections to his menu that attracted families and tourists. He added dishes made with family recipes, as well as recipes he picked up from traveling to different states.
“Our menu is something that is always changing. It hasn’t stopped changing—it never stops,” said Mauney.
Today, Mauney’s clientele is, quite simply, everybody. With 70 percent repeat business, Mauney sees ASU staff and professors, business people, families, second homeowners, hotel guests and everyone in between. Mauney believes his secret to success is working hard to appeal to the local population, not just students and tourists.
“Appealing to the local clientele helps pay rent 12 months out of the year,” he said. “If you take care of local business, they take care of you.”
Red Onion Café annually takes part in the Habitat for Humanity Taste of the High Country and the Celebrity Serve benefit and regularly donates door prizes to community and university organizations.
Red Onion Café also offers catering for gatherings of 100 people or less. Mauney can have most catering gigs taken care of within 48 hours of the call.
For the future, Mauney has no plans to leave Boone or to sell or expand Red Onion Café. He loves Boone and, at the moment, his biggest focus is getting his three kids—Ivy, 22, Austen, 15, and Lydia, 13—out of high school and college.
Red Onion Café is located at 227 Hardin Street in Boone. The restaurant is open from 11:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Reservations are not required, but are recommended for large parties. For more information, call 828-264-5470 or click to www.theredonioncafe.com.
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