Photo by Erin Nelson.
Guests wait for a table outside Lloyd’s Restaurant on U.S. 280 on Oct. 5. The restaurant’s last day of business was Oct. 15 after more than 80 years of business.
Bogue Stevens said the only way to describe the way he feels right now is overwhelmed.
After he announced on Sept. 25 that he would close the U.S. 280 location of Lloyd’s Restaurant on Oct. 15, the restaurant was flooded with people who have long-held ties to the place.
“Our customers have created a lot of great family memories in this building,” Stevens said.
“People get very emotional about us closing and tell stories about how they came with their grandfather when they would go hunting together, or their mother after they would go horseback riding, or for birthday parties, anniversaries, you name it.”
He said he didn’t realize just how connected so many people were to the place.
“It’s overwhelming; it’s humbling, very humbling,” Stevens said. “It’s more than just cooking food; it’s creating sacred times for a family at a table.”
In 1971, Stevens’s father, Eli, bought Lloyd’s Restaurant from the founder, Lloyd Chesser, who opened it in 1937. At that time, it was located in Chelsea. The Stevens family opened the 280 location in 1978.
“I worked with my dad for a long time,” Stevens said. “My sisters, my brother, we all worked through junior high and high school.”
After college, he worked there full-time, then after 10 years began splitting his time between Lloyd’s and another business that his father owned. In 2020, when his dad passed away, he became the majority owner, with his brother and older sister as minority owners.
“We decided to carry on the tradition,” Stevens said.
But the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard, as did the economy. Stevens’s goal as president was to keep the 280 location open as long as he could, but when a company offered to buy the property, it “helped fix a lot of things that we were addressing as a family,” he said.
Stevens said he intends to keep the Sylacauga location of Lloyd’s open, and he’s also still considering opening another 280 location one day, if he can find the right property.
“That may come in the future — you never can tell, something may happen,” he said. “I would still be looking to do that because it has such a good following here.”
Lloyd’s has long been known for its hamburger steak, as well as its fried chicken, barbecue plate and chocolate and lemon pies.
But Stevens said recent weeks have highlighted for him over and over that it’s not about the food — it’s about the people.
Stevens said people have been emotional about the restaurant closing, but “it’s more that they’re disappointed,” he said. “They have their own family memories here.”
Stevens said some of his father’s high school buddies came in with pictures to show him. Another couple from Gadsden told him they’ve been coming to eat there for 30 years, every time they come into town to go to a doctor’s appointment.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Stevens said. “It’s just been sweet; it’s been really touching.”
For more information about Lloyd’s, visit lloyds280.com or the “Lloyd’s Sylacauga” page on Facebook.
