SHAGGY’S CHEESEBURGERS by Ron Ladner charts the rise of the business and the various stages on its road to success. As such, the book serves as a smart insider’s guide to setting up a restaurant. It’s likely, though, that readers with personal experience of Ron and his cheeseburgers, or Pass Christian Harbor and the Gulf Coast area, will get the most from this book. He’s certainly a genial host with a sharp sense of humor. But beyond the core story of setting up Shaggy’s and coping in the aftermath of Katrina, more general readers may find these affable tales of Gulf Coast living and frequent fishing expeditions just a little overdone.
In the introduction to this memoir-meets-community-centered business manual, Ron Ladner quotes the food writer Josh Ozersky: “The case could be made that one of the things that defines us as Americans is our ability to recognize a cheeseburger as a bundle of meaning, not just a bundle of meat.” In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Ladner founded Shaggy’s Cheeseburgers: a restaurant that would serve as a focal point for people coming to terms with the devastation the storm had brought.
In SHAGGY’S CHEESEBURGERS, Ladner uses the simple sandwich as a metaphor for hope, resilience, and the power of building good relationships. By putting his energy into founding a restaurant, Ladner discovered a new perspective on the life he had lived and a new positivity in the face of any challenges that could be thrown at him.
The storm and its aftermath are well detailed, as Ladner’s prose style is simple but effective. He recalls how after the hurricane hit, of the 600 homes that had made up his community, only 50 were still standing—and 80% of those would need to be demolished. He writes: “There was a very, very eerie sense of quiet there, and all you could smell was mud, fire, and sadness.”
Finding himself in a position where he needed to actively rebuild his life, and with an altruistic vision to bring some hope to a broken community, Ladner sunk his own money into a restaurant that would run on “good vibes” as much as what turned out to be his astute business acumen.
With its numerous photographs and input from members of the Shaggy’s crew, SHAGGY’S CHEESEBURGERS by Ron Ladner will certainly be an essential read for any of their loyal customers. In addition to being a well-told memoir, the book serves as a guide on how to build a community-focused restaurant that means more to its clientele than just good food.
~ Kent Lane for IndieReader