Popular barbecue restaurant plans a return to Winter Haven by end of 2024. Find out who

A longtime popular barbecue chain is making its return to Winter Haven, under new ownership and with a new model for doing business.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday morning for a new Sonny's BBQ at 347 Ave. O S.W., near U.S. 17. It's a new location for the barbecue restaurant that closed a location off Recker Highway in August 2022 under the management of a new franchisee ACG BBQ LLC.

Scott Frantz, president of ACG BBQ, said the franchiser owns and operates several other Sonny's locations, including Bartow, Brandenton and Sarasota.

"This was a natural fit for us to come over and reintroduce Sonny's," he said. "It had a long run of 36 years in Winter Haven. It's a great market and a great place to be."

Jamie Yarmuth, CEO of Sonny's BBQ, stood at the new location, calling it a "prime spot" compared with its old location.

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"When you look at the Wawa across the street and other stores around here, this is an area that's convenient to others," Yarmuth said. "We used to be the barbecue location that others would drive through, but now there's so much competition. You want to be convenient for your customers to get to."

The new Winter Haven restaurant will have the first prototype of a new building for the barbecue chain. It will be 3,900 square feet, the smallest footprint yet, with a stronger focus on its exterior layout. Frantz said there will be a drive-thru, a feature the older building didn't have.

"We think the business has changed so much since COVID as we get a lot more curbside, drive-thru and pick-up orders than dine-in," he said.

The location will focus on having a larger kitchen to accommodate more drive-thru, curbside and pick-up orders from customers using services such as DoorDash or Uber Eats. The inside dining area will be smaller, Josh Duke of ACG BBQ said, hopefully providing a cozy, more intimate dining experience.

Frantz said he hopes to have the new restaurant up and running by the end of 2024, very early in 2025 at the latest.

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"We're tracking very, very good for this year, right where we are supposed to be," he said, based on a site visit roughly two weeks ago.

The company expects to have approximately 60 employees at the site once it's fully operational.

Those interested can keep track of progress on the restaurant by visiting its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SonnysBBQWinterHaven2.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.