Toby Shaughnessy is a man with a weight off his shoulders — for now.
At 2 p.m. Wednesday, he will break ground on his latest endeavor, an Italian restaurant called Sam and Louie’s that he has guided into existence. He sat on his back porch Monday afternoon, having just left his job at Gates Corp. to move his attention to the restaurant.
He reflected on what it has taken for him to get to this point. It is just beginning to hit him that he will have a restaurant of his own.
“We just paid the franchise fee and got access to the Sam and Louie’s website,” Shaughnessy said. “It hit me again — wow this is really happening.”
“Sometimes you get so into something that you lose sight of what you are doing to begin with.”
HIS JOURNEY started in college, where he worked for Chili’s in Pittsburg, while attending Pittsburg State University.
After working for Chili’s, he took a job delivering pizzas at Papa John’s Pizza. He graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in business management.
That is when reality sank in.
“I started looking for that dream job, but it never really came, it was a struggle just to get interviews,” he said. “I realized how bad it really was.”
He applied for a job as a manager with the same Papa John’s he had delivered for, and got the job. From that experience, he decided he wanted to own a Papa John’s of his own someday.
He began searching out locations during his one-year with the pizza chain. After looking in Park City, Kan., things didn’t pan out as he had hoped. He dropped the idea of opening a chain restaurant and moved back to Iola to look at opening a restaurant of his own.
He and his father, Bob Shaughnessy, searched for prospective locations across Iola — the old Ken’s Pizza building (now where Corleone’s is located) and the east side of Iola, past Kentucky Street.
But, once again, they faced roadblocks. Upon reflection, Shaughnessy said he was glad he did not have to open a business from the ground up.
“In a lot of ways I’m glad it didn’t work out,” he said. “It’s a lot harder to do it independently.”
But then chance smiled on him. His brother called in regard to an ad he saw in The Register. A small franchise called Sam and Louie’s was looking for prospective owners to start new franchises in Kansas.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
SHAUGHNESSY called the director of franchising for the chain, Michael Nolan. He and his father, Greg Nolan, the founder, made a visit to Iola to see how their restaurant would fit in the community.
