Traveling to Placerville
By Suzy McMinn
Spanky’s Pizza Parlor is the
Placerville equivalent of the made- famous-by-television Boston bar
"Cheers, where everyone knows your name". Spanky’s is a delightful,
down-home restaurant and bar with the greatest food in the county
and, for sure, no one is a stranger there. Regulars? Some loyal
diners travel from the San Francisco Bay area, or stop by on their
way back from Reno, just to eat at Spanky’s. For some, this is the
most important stop on people’s travels. For other locals, it is a
daily treat.
George and Shawn Hicks, Spanky’s
Pizza Parlor owners, can remember special orders and what
condiments the customer wants. This is an amazing feat considering
how many satisfied customers pass through Spanky’s doors. "Do you
want me to hold the tomatoes?" asked Shawn when I ordered my
all-time favorite food - cheeseburger, fries and a coke. I hadn’t
seen Shawn in a couple of years but she remembered that I couldn’t
eat tomatoes. 
A first-time-diner at this
all-American restaurant, Delores Smith, said, "I had a great
tasting beef patty with huge slices of cheese, iceberg lettuce,
tomato, sweet red onion,
pickles, all stacked between George’s homemade hamburger rolls; it
can’t get any better than this." Spanky’s contemporary American
menu runs to the best type of comfort food. The whole menu offers a
contemporary blend of wholesome ingredients and vigorous flavors.
Traditional and imaginative sandwiches are built on first-rate
breads and buns baked onsite by George. He bakes every Tuesday
morning using his special recipes and spices.
"Spices? It’s our secret! If I tell
you, I’ll have to kill you; same with our special pizza sauce,"
said Shawn Hicks. "Everything we serve is freshly made that
morning." George uses the best quality of meat purchased from a
reputable butcher. He starts fresh every morning, no frozen
hamburger meat is allowed in his restaurant. "The hamburger juices
stay in, we don’t smash the burgers," said George. "We don’t have a
special way of cooking them, we just grill our burgers and watch
carefully that the hamburger doesn’t get too well done or stay too
raw."
George and Shawn have been in the
restaurant business for over 30 years. George started off working
at the Placerville KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) for nine years.
Then the old Placerville bowling alley needed a restaurant. The
owner asked George to open his pizza parlor there. Shawn met George
through waitressing there. 
Styks, a bar and restaurant on Placerville Drive
needed someone to run the kitchen so George brought his pizza
business there. In 1982, after running the business for four years,
George and Shawn bought the business. "My friends and I were all
tossing around names for my new restaurant. We tried ’Our Gang’ but
didn’t want that in identifying our restaurant so we came up with
Spanky’s," said George." Spanky from "Our Gang’ was real popular at
that time."
Spanky’s is open seven days a week and specializes
in pizza, tacos, burgers, calzones, salads, poppers, hot wings; all
kinds of things. Not only delicious food, but huge, husky portions.
Spanky’s offers great buys for your restaurant budget. The burgers
range in price from $5.20 to $5.70, sandwiches $5.90, pizzas $6.25
for a cheese pizza to the large monster combo with everything is
$20.95.
"Daily specials are a big part of the
lunch menu," said Shawn. "But, once they’re gone, they’re gone. We
select our specials by what we have most of in the refrigerator.
Our special tacos, grilled pastrami on rye and, of course, our club
sandwiches, chef salads and varieties of pizza are requested." This
is the great food that keeps patrons and their bellies coming back
to Spanky's. Spanky’s is open seven days a week. The hours are
Saturdays through Thursdays: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Fridays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Beer and Wine are served in the bar
area; pool tables and game room are downstairs.
All ages are welcome at Spanky’s
Pizza Parlor. Visit Spanky's soon at 197 Placerville Drive,
Placerville, CA. Contact them: Restaurant phone, 530-622-5023; the
Bar phone, 530-622-1700. Spanky's owners and your friendly hosts
are George and Shawn Hicks.
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