Item of the Month - July

 This month’s special is the Chicken Chunk Basket for $8.99.

What this Boom-A-Rang Diner Employee Told a Mother She Needed to do with Her Crying Child is Shocking.

     Amanda Rousey had had a horrible day, and things were going to get worse before they got better. She was driving with her young daughter and decided to visit one of the Boom-A-Rang Diners in Muskogee, OK. She decided to go to the drive thru. As she was placing her order, however, her young daughter began to cry. As she waited at the window, the crying became worse and worse. So, she decided to get out and hold her child to calm her down. A line of cars was beginning to form behind her.
      Upon seeing Amanda out of her car with her crying child and the line of cars behind her, Teler Akers, a Boom-A-Rang Diner waitress, decided to take care of the situation. She took Amanda's order from the window and, instead, walked it out to her car. When Teler saw the stress and worry in Amanda's face at the line of cars that were waiting, she said, “Don't you worry about them.” Teler then placed Amanda's order in the passenger seat of Amanda's car while Amanda put her daughter back into her carseat. That's when Teler shocked Amanda. Before she had a chance to pay, Teler told her, “You just go.” Seeing the overwhelmed look on Amanda's face at this generosity and kindness, Teler smiled warmly and said, “Don't you worry.” Overwhelmed at Teler's kindness, Amanda put this post on Facebook:

     The first thing Teler will tell you is, “I'm a Christian, and that's where it comes from.” Teler moved to Muskogee “from a hard background.” But, when her life had gotten out of control, she decided to make a change. Since then, she has turned her life around. She has been working for the Boom-A-Rang Diners for a little over a year. On her own in Muskogee, she says, “My work-family is my family.” We are sure glad to have her as part of the Boom-A-Rang Family. “I got what I have from people helping me,” she says, “and so, I try to pay it forward.” As to paying for a customer's food, she says, “I've done it before. You can see it in somebody's eyes, and you know. In that moment, a few dollars were a big deal to her, but nothing to me, so why not help?”

Teler and her son 

      Amanda's post led to her and Teler becoming Facebook friends. And, Teler later told her, “You were just as much a blessing to me as I was to you.” So often acts of kindness go without recognition, but in the sincerest way Amanda reached out to show her gratitude. We have great admiration and appreciation for these two ladies and are truly inspired by them.
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Cost Tip of the Month

  Portion control is a vital part of keeping costs down and profit up.  This is a good month to check that your burgers are portioned at  ¹/4 pound consistently.  We suggest that you have a digital scale (you can find them at any Walmart) and have your cooks check their weights periodically.  The difference in cost between a ¹/4 pound and ¹/₃ pound burger is about $0.20.  That may not seem like a lot of money but if you sell just 75 burgers a day that would total $15.00/day or $450.00/month.  That is just the amount of money it costs in waste.  The true cost of that $0.20 per burger is even greater if you consider the lost revenue on the burgers you could have sold if you had not over portioned and wasted that meat.  By over portioning the burgers at ¹/₃ you are effectively cheating the Diner out of one burger for every three that you sell.  So if you sold 75 burgers a day, it not only cost you $15.00 in waste but an additional $107.25 in lost sales because you’ve wasted enough product to sell another 25 burgers.  

Making your burgers 1/3 lbs. instead of 1/4 lbs. costs your Diner an average of $122.25 per day or $3,667.50 per month or $44,010.00 per year!

Item of the Month - June

 This month’s special is the Bacon Ranch Cheeseburger Basket with Pickle-O's for $6.99 at a 29% food cost.  Please note that this is not a full order of Pickle-O's but a sub order as a basket so the portion of Pickle-O's should be 12 – 14 each depending on the size.  We had a great response to this burger the last time that we ran it as a special and we expect to have a great response this time as well.

News of the Month - June

To the Boom-a-rang Family,

What an exciting first part of the year it has been!  We have introduced a couple of new products with great success: the waffle which is now added to our menu and is growing in sales daily, and the BBQ Pork sandwich as a limited time offering.  

We have also made a deal with Shawnee Mills to provide our CFS flour to us which will help with the consistency and labor involved in making it ourselves.  They will also start providing our Pancake mix as well. We will communicate the new US Foods item numbers as soon as they are available for ordering.  Along with these additions we are also working on improving our To-Go packaging and other private label opportunities for the items we use

Personal Profile - June

  Many people know that Charles Degraffenreid started the Boom A Rang Diner company with a single store in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  However, few people know that before that he had been one of the leading franchise owners for the Sonic Drive-In franchise.  

  Charles had come from extremely poor beginnings, and in his own words, he "learned through those years to hate poverty." One of his first jobs was working for the newly opened Top Hat Drive-In in Shawnee, OK, which later became the original Sonic Drive-In.  Charles became close with Troy Smith, the founder of Sonic Drive-In.  Charles found he was getting a better education from sitting in on Troy's conversations than he could get at school.  What he learned about business from Troy and the man who hired him at his first Sonic, Norman Jansen, would shape the way he did business for the rest of his life.  

  Before long, just barely in his 20's, by setting money aside each week and receiving help from Troy and Norman, Charles had bought an interest in his first Sonic Drive-In in Alva, OK.  Over the years he acquired full ownership in dozens of Sonic's across the country.  Raising his sons, Steve and Ron, in the Sonic business, he imparted the business knowledge he had gained from Troy and his trials by fire to them.  He had left poverty behind, or so he thought.  

  At 49 years old, after decades of success, a series of unfortunate events left Charles with nothing. Living in Muskogee, OK, Charles worked for a short time selling real estate. However, the food industry was what he knew and loved.

  So, again setting aside money each week, he was able to put enough together to buy a small diner.  He and his son, Ron, worked together in what they named simply "The Diner." Charles put together a menu and business plan that he believed would be successful, and slowly business grew. Through various obstacles and surprises along the way, Charles held true to his plan.  Through a unique set of events, his ownership in The Diner became an ownership of the Broadway Cafe which later became an ownership of the Eastside Diner where he firmly established his menu and plan.  

  That first day in the Eastside Diner, it was just him and one waitress, Penelope Walker. (You might know her now as Penny Cowles.) Located on Eastside Boulevard, Eastside Diner was not an immediate success but in time as word of mouth spread about the quality of the food and service it became a substantial success.  So much so, that Charles was soon able to buy another diner that he considered calling "Southside Diner." But, realizing that it didn't make much sense to continue to name each store by its geographical location, Charles chose a name he had loved even from his days back in Sonic, "Boomerang."  Tied to the image of customers who "Keep Coming Back," Charles knew "Boomerang Diner" was the perfect name for his diners.  Then an amazing and unexpected thing happened.

  One day, as Charles worked at the newly dubbed Boomerang Diner on Eastside Blvd, a woman came in and began to tell him how glad she was that he had "brought back the old Boomarang." Charles had no idea what she was talking about. Later that day the woman returned and pulled out a salt and pepper shaker emblazoned with the logo of the "Boom-A-Rang Drive-In."  Through sheer coincidence Charles had purchased a building that decades before had been a favorite hang-out for the people of Muskogee and given it an identical name... well almost identical.  A short time later Charles changed the name from "Boomerang Diner" to "Boom-A-Rang Diner."

  Using what he had learned in his years with Troy and with incredible innovations of his own, Charles began helping the workers at his stores. Waitresses, Cooks, and Managers became diner owners and operators.  With his new Boom-A-Rang Family, Charles and his sons began building on his his concept.  Year by year, more people would join the Boom-A-Rang family, and year by year the number of diners would increase.  And so this course continued for the next 20 years.       

  Charles' ability to see people not for their failures or disadvantages but for their potential success story led him to help so many who others would have written off.  Charles made the diners a place of second chances. Through his passion, leadership, humor, and love, Charles mentored hundreds of individuals whose lives were changed because of him.  

  Charles passed away on a Wednesday evening in March, 2014.  He left behind a legacy that his sons and his Boom-A-Rang Family continue to grow to this day.  On the old roll top desk from which Charles would conduct his business from the kitchen in his home, hung a pink sticky note in Charles' handwriting.  The note says:

So many people come

into our lives then

leave the way they came

But others are those

precious few who touch

our hearts so deeply

we will never be the same

Though the roll top desk has moved, the note still hangs today.  It is a reminder of all of the people whose hearts were touched by Charles, his Boom-A-Rang Family.
  We hope these words inspire some of you to share your story or the story of someone close to you in the Boom-A-Rang Family.  There are some amazing stories out there, and we want to share them all.