A blast from the past

SWANSBORO - Customers walked blocks in the August heat to get to the small waterfront storefront, only to be met by a crowd already there - searching for a spot of shade to shield them while they waited to get inside.

Sunday may have marked 25 years in business for Yana's Ye Old Drugstore Restaurant, but the crowd indicated it was just another day at what has become a Swansboro institution.

Yana's was born when mother-daughter team Evelyn A. Moore and Yana Davis decided to start a business. A restaurant, it seemed, would be a natural fit.

Moore had spent summers working in restaurants since she was in school and even while teaching business administration at Coastal Carolina Community College. Davis, now 44, began toiling in them at age 13.

"I like the activity of it, I like doing 40 things at one time," Moore said.

Once they settled on opening a restaurant, Moore decided having a theme would be a nice touch.

"We decided to do the '50s because I love the '50s. I never grew up," she said, looking around a room surrounded by memorabilia.

Diners are surrounded by images of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, James Dean, the Lone Ranger and other icons from the era, while corresponding tunes waft out of an old-school jukebox.

"We were nostalgic and retro long before anyone thought about it," Moore said.

The restaurant d cor also brings guests back - a bar counter lined with stools lets guests grab a seat and a shake while watching the cooks prepare and dish up their meal.

The cooks, Moore said, work through the time and motion study, where each bit of motion is planned. If a cook reaches for a plate, it will be there, so they don't waste a motion.

"That's the only way we can serve four to 500 people a day," she said.

But it isn't the d cor or the music that Moore loves most about the restaurant she shares with her daughter. Instead, it's the customers and the employees that she looks forward to seeing each morning when she wakes up.

"It's almost like they're my children, we get along really well," she said of the staff, many of whom have been there for 15 to 20 years.

The restaurant, Moore said, is what brings many of her customers back to Swansboro. One family travels from Hawaii every year. While they do not travel to eastern North Carolina for the beaches, they will travel for a burger.

"It's a destination. That's one of the best things," Moore said.

Ruth Ball, 64, and her family travel from Thomasville often, she said, and each time they make sure to stop at Yana's at least once.

"Whenever we come, we have to have a meal or two here," she said before placing her order. "We love the hamburgers and we just love the atmosphere."

Ball discovered Yana's about 15 years ago during a trip to the family's Emerald Isle house, and has yet to come to the coast and not visit the restaurant.

"It's always a must to visit Yana's," she said.

When the duo opened Yana's, Davis' oldest son, John John Sloan, was 6 weeks old, Moore said. Now, Sloan is the assistant manager and Moore is teaching him the business angle in hopes that one day he will take the reins and see the restaurant through another 25 years.

John John's brothers, Jacob Sloan and Taz Davis, also work at the family restaurant.

It's not just some of the employees that hail from the family tree - many of the recipes are from Moore's family too.

"The homemade recipes come from my family as far back as 1906," she said.

While the restaurant can seem chaotic with the crowds and the close-set tables, Moore said the positive vibe make it similar to the 1950s she remembers.

"You walk into a '50s world where everything was simpler and everyone was basically nice to other people and you feel good about yourself," Moore said.

Contact Jacksonville/Onslow County reporter Amanda Hickey at ahickey@freedomenc.com or 910-219-8463. Visit www.jdnews.com to comment on this report.