Cleanliness, courtesy, call-ins key at Buddy's

Drive-in's namesake is pet St. Bernard

MOSES LAKE — "Don't drop that; it's good food."

With those words, Buddy's owner hands over a white bag to a youngster customer helping out his mom.

Ron Stump has been in Moses Lake, and in Moses Lake business, for about five years. The corner property on which his drive-in business, Buddy's, sits — located at 5981 Turnkey Road — also houses the 3-year-old ABC Properties, where Stump's wife of 17 years, Bea, is Realtor and Turnkey Storage, a new mini-storage facility that Stump says is not yet open.

"I bought this whole corner and I built this," he explained. "Then my wife got her broker's license, so I built her a real estate office. And in back of that, you see all that new mini-storage building, that's ours, too."

Originally from the Yakima Valley area, Stump was visiting a friend in Las Vegas whose father worked as a pit boss at the Sands Hotel. Observing the father's bartending, Stump expressed an interest in learning how to do that.

The father got him in as a bar helper, and a year later, Stump had his bartending license.

"I bartended for a lot of years, and I just learned the food and beverage business as I went along," he said. "Consequently, since I was 20 years old, I've been in this business. It's been good to me. It's been very good."

He bounced around managing different restaurant chains and lounges, and leased out his ranch in Sunnyside while working at the King City Truck Stop in Pasco, which he ultimately ended up managing. After that, they bought property in and moved to the area.

"We moved up here to retire," he said. When he arrived in Moses Lake, he did not want to get involved in another restaurant — especially not another cocktail lounge.

"To me, liquor is gone; it's taboo," he said. "They sell it to you, but they fine you for drinking it. You have to monitor; if you walk in and have two, three drinks, I have to cut you off. And I don't want to go through that."

Without a lounge, there's not a lot of money to be made in a restaurant, Stump added.

"So I was just laying at home one night and I told my wife, 'You know, I bought all this property, I think I'll build a drive-in.'"

Bea's response was, "What are you going to name it?

"I looked over at my dog, Buddy," Stump recalled. "My big 200-pound St. Bernard, and I said, 'I'm going to name it Buddy, after Buddy.' She said, 'Well, that's a cute name.' So that's what we do."

Buddy's logo appears on the Buddy's menu.

"He's at home," Stump said. "He's getting old, but he's still around."

Buddy's has two employees other than Stump, manager Amber Palmer and cook Corrine Fischer.

Business is good. Stump said about 80 percent of his orders are call-in orders.

"I have people who call from clear across town," he said. "They'll go by five places to have a milkshake and they'll call to get one here."

Some days, Stump said, the phone is ringing as soon as he gets in the door to prep.

The drive-in business is "swamped" from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., stragglers throughout the afternoon and then the late eaters come in at about 4 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. Stump said he depends primarily on those people working on the former Larson Air Force Base area.

"I just want them to be satisfied with the food," he said of his customers. "That they got a good meal for the price. To me, that's the most important thing, and that the help was courteous to them. I always make sure the girls say 'Thank you,' when they hand out, 'Have a nice day' or 'Thank you for coming in.' Say something. Don't just hand somebody their food and walk off. Because they don't have to eat here. There's places all over town. It's a very competitive business. We don't have a lot to offer but cleanliness, courtesy and a good product."

Buddy's is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.