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Clearwater restaurant appeals to all tastes
By JEFF M. HARDISON
| Article published on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/033005_cit-04.jpg) |
| Photo by JEFF M. HARDISON |
| Rafman “RB” Balla, left, fills orders at the window for the wait staff while Armando Gil cooks at the grill at Harrison’s Grill & Bar in downtown Clearwater. |
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CLEARWATER – Walking across the street from the county courthouse at noon, one smells the inviting aroma of hamburgers cooking at Harrison’s Grill & Bar.
This modified diner first appeared in the 1930s, said Rafman “RB” Balla, general manager and son of Besim Balla, who bought the diner in 1975. The 42-year-old man said he has worked for his 82-year-old father for about 30 years.
Balla started as a dishwasher when he was 13. After four years of washing dishes, he became a cook. In 1987, his father retired and he became the general manager. He does more than manage.
“I’m still cooking,” he said. “You can see I have an apron on.”
Balla takes pride in the heritage of his diner. A photo of the original diner is among the decorations inside.
Additions have been made to the core diner, which still exists. There are tables on a wooden deck outside, too. Balla is always improving the restaurant, he said as he motioned toward some new lumber ready to replace boards on the outside deck.
He remembers days gone by.
“This was the only 24-hour place to eat in the 1960s, with IHOP and Frisch’s Big Boy,” Balla said. “I knew people who would hang out at the beach all day and then come here to eat late at night.”
Harrison’s is no longer open 24-hours-a-day. Now, it is open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays. It is closed Sundays.
The typical clientele are 85 percent repeat customers, Balla said as he greeted several guests by their first names. There is a limit of 230 people who can be seated, he said, and by 12:15 each afternoon the seats are all filled.
Among the repeat visitors, lawyers, judges and county workers come from across the street. Doctors and nurses go to Harrison’s from Morton Plant Hospital and Largo Medical Center, he said.
Twenty-five employees keep all of the customers happy, Balla said. His sister, Merzuka Ramdani has been the top chef at Harrison’s for 30 years. The restaurant specializes in pastas, steaks and seafood.
Each day, the restaurant staff makes its own breads, desserts, dressings and sauces to please the customers’ palates, Balla said.
“We make real sandwiches,” he said. “This is the only place I know where you get the hamburger you see on TV or in the newspaper ads. You don’t get some little hockey puck size of a hamburger.”
It’s no wonder. Balla’s family owns 70 restaurants in Pinellas County, he said. Among those other eateries are Largo Family Restaurant, Telly’s Family Restaurant in Seminole, Sunset Grille of Clearwater and Paradise Embers.
Balla is somewhat of a philosopher.
He is a licensed real estate broker, a licensed contractor and is certified for providing executive protection.
“You get on the wheel, like the mouse. You just keep going and going,” Balla said. “Then, we create other wheels to get on. The mouse, at least he stays on one wheel. For us, we see a nice car; we’ve got to get it. We see a nice house; we’ve got to get it. We see a nice girl; we’ve got to get her.”
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Article published on Wednesday, March 30, 2005
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