Before dawn on June 24, employees arriving to open McCall and Sons Restaurant discovered one of the restaurant’s most important pieces of equipment was gone.

The trailer-mounted smoker, built by the late Grady McCall Sr. and used for the family’s business, had been stolen from outside the restaurant on 49th Street South, near the St. Petersburg-Gulfport line. Known for serving a $3 breakfast of eggs, grits or grilled potatoes and a choice of meat, the family-owned breakfast restaurant and catering business suddenly found itself scrambling to stay open while searching for a piece of equipment that represented years of family history.

Grady McCall III, one of three brothers committed to keeping the family business alive, discovered the smoker missing shortly after arriving around 4:30 a.m., he said.

“I was in the process of trying to prepare food,” McCall said. “It was just crazy.”

Rather than waiting for answers, McCall spent the day collecting surveillance footage from neighboring businesses. The video showed someone arriving around 1 a.m., hitching the smoker to a small SUV and driving away northbound on 49th Street.

After turning the footage over to detectives, McCall posted the surveillance video on social media. The response was immediate, with hundreds of people sharing the post across Florida and beyond.

“It went viral basically,” McCall said. “We had hundreds and hundreds of shares.”

A few days later, someone recognized the smoker and called with a tip.

McCall contacted police before heading to the location. After officers completed their investigation, he said, they allowed him to tow the smoker home.

The St. Petersburg Police Department confirmed officers responded to the theft report June 24. Spokesperson Ken Knight said the agency could not independently verify the smoker was later recovered.

Although the smoker was missing only a few days, McCall said the theft forced the restaurant to postpone a barbecue catering job while the family explored renting replacement equipment.

“It definitely affected business,” he said.

The theft came at a particularly difficult time for independent restaurants. In a recent interview with the St. Pete Catalyst, Roger Curlin, director of business growth and engagement for the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said many locally owned restaurants are operating on razor-thin margins while facing rising food costs, higher insurance premiums, increasing rents and slower consumer spending. With profit margins often hovering around 3%, even a modest decline in customer traffic or an unexpected expense can quickly erase profitability.

Those pressures become even more pronounced during the summer, when many St. Petersburg restaurants rely on savings built up during the busier fall and winter months.

“We gather all of our acorns from October to Mother’s Day,” Curlin said. “Then we spend all those acorns from Mother’s Day to October, hoping to have one acorn left to do it again.”

McCall said his family’s restaurant has experienced many of those same challenges. Rising food costs, insurance, rent and operating expenses have forced the business to become more resourceful while trying to keep meals affordable for longtime customers.

“The economy … it fluctuates so bad,” he said. “Sometimes you might win, sometimes you might lose. It’s just trying to break even just to keep the customer happy.”

Instead of simply raising prices, McCall said the family spends more time comparing vendors, shopping for better prices and looking for ways to stretch every dollar.

“You’ve got to get creative,” he said. “You’ve got to shop around, change vendors. You’ve got to do a lot of footwork on the day-to-day operations just to keep things going.”

That commitment to affordability has helped build a loyal following over nearly three decades. The family’s first restaurant opened on 22nd Street in 1996 before relocating to its current home in 2013. After Grady McCall Sr. died of cancer in 2023, his three sons continued operating the business, rotating shifts to keep the restaurant open six mornings a week while expanding its catering operation.

Their goal, McCall said, has remained the same: Feed the neighborhood without pricing people out.

“Our cheapest meal is $3 plus tax,” he said. “We just try to feed the community.”

That mission made the community’s response to the theft especially meaningful.

“It felt very good to know the community is behind you,” he said. “It helped motivate you to keep going.”

For McCall, the theft became one more challenge in a business that demands resilience every day.

“It’s hard, man. It’s really hard,” he said. “Every day, staying consistent. Some days you’ll be a little slow, some days you’ll be busy. You just take the good with the bad, hold your head up high, stick your chest out and prepare to open up the next day.”

This content provided in partnership with stpetecatalyst.com.