Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q

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Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q

Type	Private
Genre	Restaurants
Founded
Founder	Sonny Tillman
Headquarters	Gainesville, Florida, United States
No. of locations	138
Area served	Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee
Key people	Sonny Tillman, John Yarmuth
Owner	Bob and Jeff Yarmuth
Website	www.sonnysbbq.com

Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q is a large barbecue restaurant chain. It was founded by Sonny Tillman in Gainesville, Florida in 1968. Bob and Jeff Yarmuth, franchisees in the Orlando area, purchased the company in 1991 and moved the headquarters to Maitland, Florida. It has 138 restaurants in 9 Southern states.

The menu includes lunch and dinner specials and a children's portion. Lunch and dinner specials may be ordered at any time and the only difference is the portion of food served. Dinner portions contain about half a pound of meat and lunch portions contain about a fourth of a pound of meat. The menu includes sliced pork, pulled pork, sweet & smoky ribs, baby back ribs, barbecue chicken, sliced or shredded beef and smoked turkey. Recently, sweet, mild and sizzlin' sweet chicken wings were added to the menu. The children's menu also includes the option for a hot dog, known as beans & franks, and all portions are significantly smaller than the lunch specials.

Some of the sides include garlic bread, coleslaw, barbecue baked beans, potato salad, soup, okra, corn nuggets, brunswick stew, onion rings, corn-on-the-cob, baked potato, sweet potato, green beans, crinkle-cut fries, cornbread, macaroni & cheese, and a toss salad (not to mention their salad bar). It is also possible to get a bun, buttered toast, dry toast, or plain bread instead of garlic bread for making sandwiches or in place of garlic bread on regular sandwiches and meals.

One of the most popular draws to Sonny's are the signature barbecue sauces which are as follows: smokin', mild, sweet, and sizzlin' sweet. There is also a mustard sauce available for sale and all sauces can be purchased in small bottles or large gallon jugs from most restaurant locations and the official website.

Also during the holiday season Sonny's sells holiday turkeys and hams along with sides that can feed ten people. The turkeys and hams are generally sold from November to the end of December and are available with a 24 hour notice.

[edit] Congressional Connection

Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky is a brother of the franchisors and a silent partner in 16 restaurants ^[1]. Royalties from his interest in the corporation provide most of his personal income. ^[2] As a result, Yarmuth has pledged to donate his congressional salary to charity.