MANSFIELD, Ohio — Daryl and Dawn Kershner are looking forward to Monday, May 11–the opening day of their new restaurant Hidden Hog Breakfast & BBQ.
The Kershners owned Shelby Floats and BBQ for three years before closing in March of this year.
“We outgrew our space,” said Dawn.
So the two began the search for a new location, eventually landing on the former Wishbone Family Restaurant at 740 Springmill St.
She said they’ve had to do some plumbing and electrical work and plenty of cleaning. “We’re finally over the big hurdles,” she said.
They’re leasing the space from Grant Milliron, president of Milliron Industries. “He has been helping us tremendously,” Dawn said. “Everybody who knows Grant knows that he’s just a wonderful, wonderful person. He’s big into helping small businesses.”
Because they intend to be open for breakfast, some of their featured items will include smoked ham and cheese muffins and all you can eat sausage gravy and biscuits. Other menu items will be homemade chicken and dumplings, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, chicken breast, ham, chicken wings and drumsticks.
“Our cheesy potatoes are one of our biggest sellers,” Dawn said. “It’s my own recipe and people have been calling me since we closed [the Shelby location] because they want to have these cheesy potatoes.”
Other sides will include house baked beans, coleslaw and green beans. They’ll also serve dessert–cherry and apple pies with ice cream.
“We don’t freeze anything; it’s all fresh,” she noted.
She said they make their own barbecue sauces, adding, “We dry rub everything. We don’t put the barbecue sauce on our meat. We leave that up to the customer. If they want to douse barbecue sauce on it they can.”
With three years of restaurant experience under her belt, Dawn said it’s fun being in the restaurant business. “You meet a lot of interesting people and my daughter [Heather] has worked with me since we started so she’ll be coming here and working as acting manager…We have a lot of fun together and like talking to people,” she said.
They will be open Monday – Friday from 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. and from 7 a.m. – noon on Saturday (closed on Sunday). Dawn said the times are subject to change later on.
She anticipates reuniting with many of their regular customers in Shelby at their new location.
“There are a lot of people who were regular customers over in Shelby that can’t wait until we open over here,” she said. “They’re all excited, and like I said they want those cheesy potatoes.”
