Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021 - 62

FLAVORS
Remembering
the Late Pal Barger
His regional hot dog and hamburger empire turns
65 this year.
By FRED & JILL SAUCEMAN | Photos by FRED SAUCEMAN
T
he first restaurant company in America to win
the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award isn't located in New York or Los Angeles
or Atlanta. Pal's World Headquarters sits just
off Konnarock Road in Kingsport, Tennessee.
The year 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of
the announcement of that award, earned by a
business called Pal's Sudden Service. In 2002, company
founder Frederick " Pal " Barger and CEO Thom Crosby
traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the award from
President George W. Bush. Pal's was the second Kingsport
company to win a Baldrige-Eastman Chemical
Company being the first, in 1993, for its quality management
practices.
For Pal's the award brought responsibility: A mission to
share the knowledge that catapulted this regional chain
of hamburger and hot dog joints to national prominence.
In one sense, the Pal's " world " encompasses a 120mile
stretch from Norton, Virginia, southwest to Jefferson
City, Tennessee. But the company's influence is literally
global. The Baldrige award was the genesis of the
Pal's Business Excellence Institute, drawing professionals
from all over the world to Kingsport, eager to apply the
Pal's philosophy to their businesses. In January of 2020, it
became an independent company, the McClaskey Excellence
Institute, named for David McClaskey, who was the
consultant for Pal's when the company won the Baldrige.
The institute teaches principles of operations excellence
for clients in education, health care, manufacturing,
the non-profit sector, small businesses and corporations.
It all started with hamburgers, hot dogs and milkshakes,
and a fresh-out-of-college Kingsport native who
grew up curb-hopping barbecue for his parents' business,
Skoby's.
Pal Barger reached his 90th birthday in August of
2020. He would live for a couple more months. Even with
his advanced age, his death shocked the region. His name
was arguably the most recognized in the restaurant history
of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. But the
notoriety never changed him.
62 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
ABOVE: Pal Barger always insisted that food should be fun.
FACING PAGE: The hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and shakes
that adorn the Pal's drive-around locations are made by a boat
manufacturer in Elizabethton, Tennessee.
" Want to see how quickly I can get this Tesla up to 80? "
he asked us during our very last visit with him. " Sure, " we
replied, and he proceeded to hit the mark in a handful of
seconds, just a few days shy of his 86th birthday.
Pal Barger found humor and joy all around him, all
the time. His vanity license plate didn't tout his restaurant
business. Instead, it read, " CAR TAG. " Every time Pal
saw us he would say, " There are the people I named the
Sauceburger for. " Not true, but endearing.
Pal's name became a synonym for quality. The restaurant
chain that he has left behind is a regional treasure.
The original Pal's opened in 1956 at a cost of $20,000
and still occupies its original spot, on Revere Street in
Kingsport. That location is now joined by 29 other restaurants
in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.
The success story started with Pal's parents, Fred and
Helen Barger, known as Big Skoby and Little Skoby, owners
of a post-World War II barbecue, hamburger and beer
joint in a 20-foot by 40-foot building in Kingsport. " I
hopped curb for them when I was in high school, " recalled
Pal.
When his father died in 1971, Pal retooled the business,
converting Skoby's into the region's premiere fine
dining establishment at the time. " We did prime steak,
dry-aged. You couldn't get a better one, " said Pal.
That early experience as a car hop while he was a student
at Dobyns-Bennett High School convinced Pal that
the restaurant business was his future. After service in the
Air Force, he entered East Tennessee State College. Al
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Blue Ridge Country July/August 2021

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