Spanky's Pizza Parlor
By
Suzy McMinn
Spanky’s Pizza Parlor is the Placerville equivalent of the, made famous by television, Boston bar “Cheers, where everyone knows your name.” Spanky’s is a delightful, down home restaurant and bar with the greatest food in the county and, for sure, no one is a stranger there. Regulars? Some loyal diners travel from the San Francisco Bay area, or stop by on their way back from Reno, just to eat at Spanky’s. For some, this is the most important stop on people’s travels. For some locals, it is a daily treat.
George and Shawn Hicks, Spanky’s Pizza Parlor owners, can remember special orders and what condiments the customer wants. This is an amazing feat considering how many satisfied customers pass through Spanky’s doors.
“Do you want me to hold the tomatoes?” asked Shawn when I ordered my all-time favorite food - cheeseburger, fries and a coke. I hadn’t seen Shawn in a couple of years but she remembered that I couldn’t eat tomatoes.
A first-time-diner at this all-American restaurant, Delores Smith, said, “I had a great tasting beef patty with huge slices of cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomato, sweet red onion, pickles, all stacked between George’s homemade hamburger rolls, it can’t get any better than this.”
Spanky’s contemporary American menu runs to the best type of comfort food. The whole menu offers a contemporary blend of wholesome ingredients and vigorous flavors. Traditional and imaginative sandwiches are built on first-rate breads and buns baked on-site by George. He bakes every Tuesday morning using his special recipes and spices.
“Spices? It’s our secret! If I tell you I’ll have to kill you; same with our special pizza sauce,” said Shawn Hicks. “Everything we serve is freshly made that morning.”
George uses the best quality of meat purchased from a reputable butcher. He starts fresh every morning, no frozen hamburger meat is allowed in his restaurant.
“The hamburger juices stay in, we don’t smash the burgers,” said George. “We don’t have a special way of cooking them, we just grill our burgers and watch carefully that the hamburger doesn’t get too well done or stay too raw.”
George and Shawn have been in the restaurant business for over 30 years. George started off working at the Placerville KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) for nine years. Then the old Placerville bowling alley needed a restaurant. The owner asked George to open his pizza parlor there. Shawn met George through waitressing there.
Styks, a bar and restaurant on Placerville Drive needed someone to run the kitchen so George brought his pizza business there. In 1982, after running the business for four years, George and Shawn bought the business.
“My friends and I were all tossing around names for my new restaurant. We tried ’Our Gang’ but didn’t want that in identifying our restaurant, so we came up with Spanky’s,” said George. "Spanky from 'Our Gang’ was real popular at that time.”
Spanky’s is open seven days a week and specializes in pizza, tacos, burgers, calzones, salads, poppers, hot wings; all kinds of things. Not only delicious food but huge, husky portions.
Spanky’s offers great buys for your restaurant budget. The burgers range in price from $5.20 to $5.70, sandwiches $5.90, pizzas $6.25 for a cheese pizza to the large monster combo with everything is $20.95.
“Daily specials are a big part of the lunch menu,” said Shawn. But, once they’re gone, they’re gone. We chose our specials by what we have most of in the refrigerator. We are asked to have our special tacos, grilled pastrami on rye and, of course, our club sandwiches, chef salads, and our varieties of pizza.
This is the great food that keeps patrons and their bellies coming back to Spanky's.
Spanky’s is open seven days a week. The hours open are Saturdays through Thursdays: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays the hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Beer and Wine are served in the bar area. Pool tables and game room downstairs. All ages are welcomed at Spanky’s Pizza Parlor.
Spanky's
197 Placerville Drive, Placerville, Ca. 95667
Restaurant: 530 622-5023
Bar: 530 622-1700.
© 2008 Suzy McMinn