Sweet Mel’s was more than just a restaurant for Charles Gustine.
It meant trivia night every Tuesday.
It meant family, where the waiters and staff knew the 28-year-old UF alumnus by name — and his order.
It meant the only place on Earth he could order a “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” burger with two PB&J sandwiches as buns between the meat.
“I don’t (think) there’s anywhere I felt more at home than Sweet Mel’s on Tuesday night,” Gustine wrote in an email.
When Gustine, who now lives in London with his wife, Carolyn, read the news via a friend’s Facebook post, he was devastated, he said.
Sweet Mel’s closed up shop for good Thursday after more than six years at its downtown location, 1 W University Ave. Co-founder and owner Mel Crawford announced the closing on their last day on Facebook. A full house of fans came to celebrate that night.
Crawford said there were a few reasons for the decision to close: a very slow summer for business, new restaurants opening up and lots of construction around town.
But Mel, the woman behind the restaurant’s name, said she doesn’t feel any sadness.
“It’s been a wonderful run,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade a day, a minute, not one tear, not one bit of laughter for this experience.”
Crawford retired from a 30-year career teaching elementary school six years ago and moved to Gainesville from Columbus, Ga., with her husband, Patrick, and their two children, Lance, 37, and Lauren, 35. They set out to run a bar that felt like family.
She said she and Patrick first learned bartending and restaurant upkeep in Columbus at their friend’s bar, The Shanty Shack, in about 2006. The couple knew they wanted to open up a bar of their own in Florida after she retired, she said.
“Along comes my son, who is a chef and who had been in and out of kitchens for 20 years, at least,” she said. “He said, ‘Mom, let’s open up a restaurant bar.’”
With Lance came Sweet Mel’s calling as a local burger joint, with a new burger special every month that he invented.
Six years. Seventy-two months. Seventy-two burgers.
“That’s not even including the ones that were already on the menu,” Mel Crawford said.
It was one of these special burgers that won over Zachary Ritter.
Ritter, a 22-year-old UF computer engineering fifth-year, said he frequented Sweet Mel’s at least once a week with his friends — usually on Tuesdays for trivia night — where he’d order his go-to chicken tender burger, the “Carolina Clucker.”
Now, Ritter said he and his friends are at a loss on how they’re going to get their weekly fill of burger munching and trivia-filled fun.
“I’m not sure what we’re going to do now,” Ritter said. “We’ve gotta figure something out.”
With family ownership of the restaurant and a tight-knit, loving staff of about 10, Mel Crawford said she feels her bar served as a home and family for the community.
She hasn’t ruled out opening up another restaurant or bar in the future, but for now she plans to enjoy retirement with her grandchildren and loved ones.
Above all, she wants the people of Gainesville to know how much she cared for them, and for her customers to know she sees them as part of her family — forever and always.
“I would like everyone to know that we’re thankful for the rare opportunity to serve the people of Gainesville and the students,” she said. “We’ve added to our family.”
