Simple home-style fare keeps customers coming to Penny’s

Home-style cooking is what Penny’s Drive In is all about, right down to the corned beef made in-house.

“It’s not canned,” said Sam Vance, son of the founder. “It’s a big chunk of meat, and I gotta boil it for like almost three hours. It takes a while.”

It gets done every weekday at the Sand Island Road restaurant, which is in its 51st year.

About the business: The founder is Sam’s mother, Virginia Vance, who set up the drive-in as a lunch wagon back in 1965 as a way to support her family.

So who’s Penny?

Nobody. Vance started the business without a penny to her name, so that’s what she called the lunch wagon, which was financed with a $5,000 bank loan.

Her customers primarily have been workers from the Sand Island industrial area, and some are “people who came from the beginning, when we first opened,” she said. Three generations of customers now count Penny’s among their regular stops.

In addition, two of her employees, cook Tony Perlawan and cashier Reenie Carvalho, have worked for Vance for at least 25 years, she said. “I’ve been very fortunate to get some very good workers.”

The lunch wagon always served the Sand Island area, and moved into its brick-and-mortar location in 1980, Vance said.

On the Penny’s website she thanks her children — John, Frank, Sam, Mike, Kathy and Richard — “who all worked very hard washing pots, serving customers and cooking whenever I needed them.”

It was her sons who launched breakfast service, she said.

While Sam has worked at other jobs, including carpentry and delivering auto parts, Penny’s has been a constant since he was 11 years old. He and his brother John work in the kitchen while Reenie runs the front of the house alongside other employees.

Sam’s mother is not fully retired. She still handles paperwork and bookkeeping but, at age 86, goes to the restaurant only once in a while.

What to order: Most of the dishes at Penny’s are from Virginia’s recipes, though Sam has added quite a few of his own.

Best-sellers include curry stew, beef stew, roast beef, roast pork — “simple kind of food,” she said. The meatloaf also is popular. Of Sam’s recipes, his favorites include garlic chicken, garlic ahi and pork with eggplant.

Also: Penny’s fried rice is delicious.

The corned beef hash is so popular that one customer called in an order last week for 20 plates for pickup the next morning. Were someone to walk in and order that many plates, “I would have a heart attack,” Sam said, indicating that it is a good idea for people with large orders to call ahead.

Online reviewers rave about the pickled onion, made by Sam’s older brother John. Adding a small portion to a meal costs 25 cents, though containers of various sizes can be purchased, Carvalho said.

Grab and go: About 80 percent of the business is takeout, though there is seating for about a dozen customers inside, and a picnic table outside allows for al fresco dining with industrial ambience. Parking is out front along Sand Island Access Road, though you might need to navigate around a very large tractor-trailer or two, depending on the time of day.

“Grab and Go” focuses on takeout food, convenience meals and other quick and tasty bites. Email ideas to crave@staradvertiser.com.