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In the minds of many barbecue aficionados, Sonny Bryan and his namesake restaurant were nigh-unto sainthood. One restaurant reviewer even called Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse a "Dallasites' Mecca," and that was only a slight exaggeration.
So, when Dallas businessman Walker Harman decided to buy the restaurant company, it was not without some trepidation.
"When you own an institution, you feel a responsibility to protect it," Harman says.
The 53-year-old businessman approached the transition wearing kid gloves.
"We've had a passion to keep it the same," he said. "We have a healthy respect for the restaurant business and for Sonny Bryan's. If you don't do that, you're asking for trouble."
Sonny Bryan started looking for a buyer for his business in 1989, after he was diagnosed with cancer. His two sons had each found their own career paths and had no interest in taking over the family business, according to their mom and Sonny Bryan's widow, Joanne.
"A friend of mine won the bid to buy the company," Harman said. "Then, he called me up and said, 'I don't know anything about the barbecue business.' "
Harman bought 25% of the business then. He later bought his friend's 75% stake.
Buying an icon
The late Sonny Bryan's barbecue roots go back to 1910 in Oak Cliff, where his grandfather, Elijah, opened his first restaurant. He passed the recipes for brisket and barbecue sauce on to his son, William Jennings Bryan, known as "Red," and grandson, Sonny. The original sauce recipe remains a guarded secret after nearly 100 years. The first location opened on Inwood Road in 1958, and is there today, unchanged from its original concept.
"Sonny was very devoted to what he did," Joanne Bryan said of her husband. "And he had a whole different concept of doing business. ... He thought he had to be there all the time."
Even more than 10 years after his death, people still ask her about Sonny, and comment on how much they loved...