Renovations at Sonic complete

On Tuesday morning, Shannon Smith was overseeing a flurry of finishing touches on renovations at Holton’s Sonic Drive-In restaurant.

“They’re confident they’ll have it done,” said Smith, regional director of operations for Sonic Drive-Ins in the Topeka and Kansas City area.

Although Holton’s Sonic “ran into a few snags” this morning, as Smith put it, and was still working on clearing them up, the plan remained in place to be open again sometime today, serving hamburgers and chili dogs to hungry customers after being closed for a week and a half.

The reason for closing the restaurant temporarily was the renovation, with Smith noting that it was the first time he had closed a restaurant for a remodel.

“We’ve always done it while we were still open,” Smith said. “But this store is on such a small lot that we just decided to shut it down and do it all at one time.”

Smith oversees 21 Sonic restaurants in northeastern Kansas, and the restaurants in Holton and Wamego were, so far, the only two of those restaurants that had not yet been remodeled.

“This store was supposed to be done a while back, but we kept holding off and holding off,” he said. “We were slated to do the new menus in June, but we thought, let’s just go ahead and get it done.”

The new menu is “probably the biggest thing” about the remodel, Smith said, but customers who visit the restaurant will find much more than a new menu. Holton’s restaurant now has a video “confirmation board,” which will allow customers to check the content and the pricing of their orders before the food is prepared.

Inside the store, there’s a new computer system at work which Smith said will eventually be able to accommodate personalized mobile phone “apps” that will enable customers to place orders before they arrive at the restaurant.

The building itself has been given a new brick surface and a new restroom at the rear of the building “for customers only,” Smith said. There will also be new, energy-efficient exterior lighting that he said will make the restaurat “look like Royals Stadium.”

Current manager Jesse McKinney will continue as the Holton store’s general manager, but Smith said that Jackson Heights alumna Jaime Meyer Hudson will serve as a “go-between” supervisor for Holton and other restaurants in the area. Other than that, he added, store operations are expected to remain the same, including operating hours.

Holton’s Sonic Drive-In is located at 107 Arizona Avenue along U.S. Highway 75. For more information, call the restaurant at 364-2428.