Ronnie, the Oldsmobile Site and the Sizzler
The restaurant wasn’t always this hip, and it wasn’t always a Golden Corral.
Chandradutt Harpaul, known as Ronnie, arrived on a student visa in New York from Guyana in the 1970s. Instead of attending class, Mr. Harpaul looked for work to send money back to Guyana. He got a job as a manager of a Sizzler in Queens, and in 1976, by the time he was 28, he and his brother pooled their money to buy the property at 2375 East Tremont Avenue, Ms. Harpaul said.
The lot, where they built their own Sizzler, had once been the home of an Oldsmobile dealership. The operations were a family affair from the beginning, and the Harpaul brothers did everything, from cook to count the register tills at the end of the night. Years later, Mr. Harpaul met his future wife, Chandra, and his family grew. They had three daughters: Niroopa, Nadia and Priya, and a son, Davendra or Dave.
Nadia, Dave and Priya were too young to work at the restaurant for most of the time that it was open, but Niroopa was able to cut her teeth in the hospitality business while working with her father.
“Two days out of the week, I was there with Dad, and I would work open to close as a waitress,” Niroopa said. “He wasn’t easy on me. There was no special or preferential treatment. Everything that a server had to do, I did.”
During the busy season, Ms. Harpaul and the other siblings would pitch in. They would fold napkins or help refill beverages. “Whatever we could help at, we would do,” Ms. Harpaul said. “We would even have my aunts and uncles come and help because the lines used to go out the door around the block when it was a Sizzler, especially on Mother’s Day and Easter.”