‘I always thought I would come back’: Longtime favorite Rock Hill eatery reopens
For years outside a white, non-descript building tucked between McDonald’s and a car wash, a crooked sign welcomed customers to Anna J’s Restaurant.
It was a local favorite, a greasy spoon on Camden Avenue in Rock Hill, serving up hot coffee and everything breakfast. Then it closed in 2018. After 11 years, owner David Uong lost his lease on the building.
Uong, 57, moved to Chester to work at family eatery T&M Restaurant until a diamond in the rough appeared back in Rock Hill. The Patty Wagon Restaurant closed up shop and an opportunity emerged for Uong to re-establish Anna J’s in its spot.
Now, Anna J’s has two signs in front of his Herlong Ave. location with bright orange lettering and large windows.
“A lot of my old customers came back,” Uong said after a busy lunch shift less than a week after reopening on Feb. 18. “I always thought I would come back.”
Uong bought the nearly 40-year-old restaurant in 2007. He knows the previous owner who ran the restaurant years before him. But the history of the restaurant becomes muddled before that. A customer in the store said he believed it was the name of the wife of one of the owners, while other customers on a Facebook group threw out other names of possible owners and even different names of the eatery.
Most of the commenters on the Facebook group just knew Anna J’s was back.
The first day, the restaurant lobby was so full, customers were spilling out into the parking lot, Uong said. Many of them had a hankering for Anna J’s longtime specialty: the Bubba’s He-Man Breakfast. Included in the dish, where one of the options is prime rib, are two eggs, three silver dollar pancakes, grits, toast and coffee or tea. The prime rib breakfast is $10.49.
“They like the way I cook and they love the Bubba’s He-Man,” Uong said.
Uong said his menu reflects his years getting to know his customers’ likes and dislikes. Anna J’s also serves lunch until 2 p.m. six days a week. Examples on the menu include an appetizer of chili cheese fries for $3.99. On the lunch menu, diners can order a BLT with chips and a pickle for $3.49. A hotdog plate with fries or onion rings is $3.89. And the children’s breakfast menu starts at $1.89.
The menu includes a “homestyle” lunch for $6.99 that has 10 meat choices ranging from country fried steak, to pork chops and meatloaf. More than a dozen side dishes include deep-fried staples like okra and squash, and southern favorites like gravy and macaroni and cheese. The menu also includes seafood and chicken.
On a recent morning around 10:30 a.m., the restaurant was nearly full, except for the tables cordoned off for social distancing.
Loyal customer Bette Jean Janicke saw a Facebook post written by longtime Anna J’s server Angela Brandon about the restaurant’s opening.
“My best friend and I for years frequented the other restaurant and after we retired (we were both teachers) we went every Wednesday and every Saturday,” Janicke said. “One day was scrambled egg day and the other day was pancake day.”
Janicke was waiting in line Feb. 18 to be one of the first customers of the newly reopened restaurant, and returned the following day for more.
“I had not found pancakes anywhere that I was happy with,” she said. “So when I saw on Facebook that they were coming back, I was just delighted.” Janicke said she was hopeful that Uong would still be behind the grill.
Whitney Hardy waited at a four-top for her prime rib Bubba’s He-Man breakfast with three friends. She was going to try her friend’s catfish plate, she said, adding she went to the old location every weekend.
Server Brandon placed a piping hot plate of grits on a customer’s table. “They were regulars, they were regulars, they were regulars,” she said, pointing to different tables.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Uong sped around pouring eggs for scrambling and batter for silver dollar pancakes. He pressed a sizzling prime rib while chopping hash browns, coordinating with another cook to get the plates in the window for pickup.
Uong’s son Peter said reopening the restaurant “means everything.”
“We’re really lucky, really grateful that we got the opportunity to open,” Peter Uong said. “It’s a really unfortunate time, with the pandemic. For our family, it just opened up that one door we needed. It’s a blessing to be back in Rock Hill.”
If you go
Anna J’s is located at 135 S. Herlong Ave. near the intersection of Ebenezer Ave. The restaurant is open daily except Tuesday. The hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 803-366-0027 for takeout orders.
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 1:00 AM.
