Engineer turned fry cook

Warren Winter worked for 23 years as a mechanical engineer, helping design machines that analyze blood.

Last week, Winter was cooking hot dogs and hamburgers in the Hot Rod Grill, a restaurant he has opened in Sebring.

"It's not the normal route to fry cook," Winter said.

The Hot Rod Grill's menu includes hoagies, salad plates, Philly steak, and sausage grinder among other items. Homemade chili and soup will soon be added to the menu.

Winter is leasing the space that was previously occupied by Sweetie Pye's. The address is 1320 U.S. 27 N. in Sebring.

Lunch and dinner are offered from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Customer can eat there or take out.

There is seating for 80 that includes seats at the counter.

Winter has never owned a restaurant, but he did some cooking and worked as a dishwasher at a pizza place in Pennsylvania while attending Bucknell University.

"It was a fun job," he said.

After leaving Beckman-Coulter in Miami, Winter said he has been a real estate investor for 10 years. He got to know Jim Jervasi, who works for Ridge Real Estate.

Jervasi is the restaurant's manager. It is just the two men working there for now.

Jervasi said he owned a couple of restaurants in New Jersey where he is from.

"I'm relying very heavily on Jim," Winter said, acknowledging that he has "some learning to do."

Winter, who said starting a new career at 55 is "an adventure," wanted to eliminate things that bother him about restaurants. There are no waitresses and no tipping at the Hot Rod Grill.

He added that all prices include tax. They don't use pennies, nickels or dimes.

The eatery opened April 12. Winter said he wanted to do a "soft" opening to "get the systems down."

"We have a good location here on the highway," Jervasi said. "We're providing people with another choice."

As far as the name for the restaurant, the men said there a lot of car enthusiasts locally. Photos of cars adorn the wall at the Hot Rod Grill.

Winter noted that his nickname when he was younger was "Gear head." He said he enjoyed fixing old cars and selling them.

Jayvee Café open

The refurbished Jayvee Convenience store south of Sebring has added some new items – food.

The Jayvee Cafe at the back of the store has fresh subs, fried chicken, chicken wings, fried mushrooms, fried okra and breaded chicken gizzards.

The subs are available from 6 a.m. – 8 p.m. and hot food from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Food is sold Monday through Saturday.

Convenience stores are now going into food, according to Vijay Patel, who owns the store with his wife, Fagoon, and brother Ashwin. They are hoping it will bring in more customers.

Everything is fresh and customers can come and pick up hot food that takes eight minutes, Vijay said.

A new counter has been installed. A coffee island that also has nachos and hot dogs has been added as well as a Beer Cave.

"We wanted some changes and create a new look," Vijay said.

The store is located at 11911 U.S. 27 S. at the corner of Lake Josephine Drive.