- April 28, 2024
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Joe and Barbara Bonasia bought the State Street Diner, in Bunnell, in October 2004. And the thrill is still alive.
Nobody seems to know for sure just how old the building really is, but some of the State Street Diner’s eldest patrons swear they remember eating there in the 1930s, when it was a cornerstone of Flagler County.
To owners Joe and Barbara Bonasia, though, age isn’t all that important. There’s history in their restaurant, they know that, but that doesn’t mean you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Since taking over the place seven years ago, in October 2004, the two have engaged in a heated rebranding campaign. From renovations and a name change, to menu shifts and the most recent addition of a full liquor bar, they’ve tried to make State Street their own.
“It started in the kitchen,” Joe Bonasia said, wide-eyed and pointing with his entire arm toward the back.
“From the get-go, we started with renovations,” Barbara added. “We had to turn the place inside out, basically.”
Interestingly, the couple opened the restaurant together before they were even married. Both New Yorkers, Joe from Staten Island and Barbara from Long Island, they met in Flagler and quickly hit it off. After going into business and realizing they could handle co-ownership, they figured marriage wouldn’t be too much harder.
“Not everyone can work together,” Joe said, tapping a plastic pen on the table. “But, really, the restaurant runs itself. You just make sure it doesn’t get veered off.”
The couple credits that fact to their staff and the pride they have in their jobs.
“You have to get a thrill out of that, or you’re in the wrong business,” Barbara said.
Today, Joe manages the inside of State Street — the cooking, the employees, the ordering — and Barbara does the exterior stuff — the marketing and payroll.
Their pasts seem perfect for this breakdown: Joe started working in a Greek restaurant at 15 and “gets” cooking. Barbara used to be in banking and insurance. She also owned her own business.
“I like to eat. He likes to cook. It’s a good team,” she said.
Similar to his no-recipe-required cooking style, Joe Bonasia admits he didn’t have a detailed plan in place before opening the restaurant. He just knew that he always wanted to own something and that you have to do what you know.
“Running this business, we’ve used everything we’ve ever learned in everything we’ve ever done,” Barbara Bonasia said. “And sometimes, it’s just the basic skill of good hard work. … It all goes into play here.”
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been hiccups. At the beginning, the diner would serve lunch, then close for remodeling work. They even tried the all-you-can-eat model awhile back.
But now, the place has an image: quirky eclecticism. The menu is described by their chef, Marc Adams, as “everything from home-style to fine dining,” with old-Florida eats next to seafood, stuffed peppers and gourmet steaks.
Despite the renovations, the inside still looks retro. Instead of replacing something like the old-fashioned ceiling vents with something sleeker, they refinished them, made them red and shiny, and put them back up. All of the coffee mugs are mismatched, just like at home, some picturing teddy bears, others a holiday scene.
And their bathrooms, of all things, they describe as a crown jewel of the restaurant. Designed professionally, their mirrors are set into the walls instead of hanging over them, and are surrounded by geometric tiling. Framed artwork adorns the walls.
“It’s very unexpected,” Barbara Bonasia says.
The mixed-bag vibe they’re going for inside isn’t lost on their clientele, either, which the two describe as split between landscapers, lawyers and everybody in between. And about half of their patrons, they estimate, are out-of-towners who make a point to stop in whenever passing through.
Just about when they finish saying all that, as if it were planned, an old lady stops by the front door and yells to them.
“Everything was delicious,” she tells them. “It was so much I couldn’t finish it all!”
The Bonasias laugh, thank her, wave and say that kind of thing happens constantly.
“It took me a long time to get (Joe) to realize that what he can do, not everybody can do,” Barbara Bonasia said.
“I like to see happy people. And that’s what it’s all about, you know?” he responded. “It’s only food.”
For more, call 437-0700.
