RE Log Fall 2018

18 Ransom Everglades LOG )$// )$/ “I didn’t know what winter was really about,” he said. “I’d seen snow before; I knew it was cold, but I had no idea what it was like to live there, to walk on ice, to fall on ice … Four brutal years of winter chased me back to Miami.” A return home and new start His return represented both a homecom- ing and a launch. His parents wanted to make sure there was enough work to support another full-time employee, so they decided to bring back lunch for the ¿UVW WLPH VLQFH :RUOG :DU ,, $UPHG with a college degree and fresh ambition, Sawitz assumed responsibility for the new shift. Summoning the work ethic he had honed at Ransom Everglades, he was determined to prove himself up to the task – and more. “I was jumping into a place with a well-established culture,” he recalled. “I didn’t just work lunch, I worked dinners. Every day it was a minimum of 10-12 hours.” Sawitz toiled and brainstormed. He recognized that though the price of Joe’s fried chicken represented a slice of tradi- tion that should never change, certain adaptations were imperative. On his watch, after decades of employing short- order cooks, Joe’s Stone Crab began KLULQJ IXOO ÀHGJHG FKHIV ZKR H[SDQGHG and improved the menu. And, after years of packing to-go stone crab orders in aluminum-foil-lined tomato boxes to honor the special requests of customers, Joe’s opened a take-out store in 1987. In 1994-95, Sawitz oversaw the enlargement of the take-away storefront, relocation of the restaurant entrance, addition of a covered parking lot and construction of a large bar.