Cooking Up a Memory
ConCon’s, a homey little diner on Russellville Road in Bowling Green, is a stop many people would easily drive right past. There isn’t a neon sign or flashing lights that draws people to this spot. It sits between an auto shop & a Papa John’s so the restaurant is quite easy to miss. But this quaint little eatery, however, is cooking up something very special for their customers.
Connie Blair, owner & manager of ConCon’s has been in the restaurant business most of her life. She got her start working with her sister, Teresa, in a Bowling Green restaurant that shares her name. Nine years ago, Connie decided to break off to start her own eatery, and ConCon’s was born.
Connie needed a catch, something that would draw customers to her restaurant. She’s always had a great relationship with her patrons, but she needed something more. Something that would get people in the community talking about ConCon’s. She thought back to her childhood when her mother would make large meals for herself and her three siblings.
“My mother always cooked big meals,” she says. “And Bud would say Seuss it up!”
“Seussing it up,” according to Connie’s brother, Bud, means to break up the entire breakfast and smother it in sausage gravy. She took a classic breakfast special that you find at most restaurants; a choice of meat, eggs, hash browns & biscuits and seussed up in her own unique way. Pretty soon, the Bud-Style Breakfast was on the menu and word about this breakfast behemoth began to spread throughout Bowling Green. Once one person orders it, customers inside the restaurant begin asking questions.
“Somebody at the next table will see it and they’ll want one too,” she laughs. “What’s that? What’s that? We’ve started really selling a lot of them.”
But it’s not just the mystery of what’s underneath the blanket of sausage gravy that sells this product, it’s also the story behind it.
“Bud is my only brother. He died in a car accident when he was 39.”
Bud can be found in a small cemetery in Morgantown, Kentucky; right next to Connie’s parent’s and her infant son. She keeps his memory alive with each Bud-style breakfast special she sells…which is close to 15 a day, nearly 100 a week, over 1,000 a month, and more than 5,400 of them a year!
The food, service & word of mouth is one way to get people in the restaurant, but it’s her love of sharing Bud’s story which she believes keeps her customers loyal and brings new faces into the restaurant.
“I love being able to tell them about Bud and they continue to come back & have fallen in love with it…and I think the story helps sell it a lot too.”
