TEMPLE TERRACE — Big man. Big dreams. Big personality.
But of all the things people seem to remember about Ralph Lupton Jr., it’s the big heart.
On Jan. 30, Lupton Jr. died at the age of 87.
Hundreds poured into his viewing and funeral at the Temple Terrace United Methodist Church, where the Luptons have been members for nearly 50 years.
He leaves behind wife Nancy, sons Ralph III (known as Chip) and Jeff, seven grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and a seemingly unlimited list of many hundred others he considered his extended family.
Ralph was a successful local businessman known for his barbecue restaurants, but it was his generosity that most endeared him to the city he loved. He has been described as a pillar of the community, a generous benefactor and a beloved figure who left an indelible mark on the city he called home.
“It would be hard to overstate the value of Ralph Lupton to Temple Terrace," said Temple Terrace Mayor Andy Ross. "He and his family are an institution in this city.”
Ralph owned the Fat Man’s B-B-Q Restaurant on Busch Boulevard, which later became known simply as Lupton’s. It featured homestyle cooking and a buffet, was open 24 hours and became a popular local staple. Its pork sandwiches and hot fries, and Ralph insisted they always be served hot, drew all sorts of people, from plumbers to pediatricians to politicians to police chiefs.
“He was a local icon,” said Temple Terrace police chief and close personal friend Kenneth Albano. “He was a larger-than-life figure in a small city.”
For those who grew up in Temple Terrace, it seemed you either ate there, worked there and knew the guy who owned it.
For many kids, from King and Tampa Bay Tech high schools especially, it was the place they got their first job.
"I can't tell you how many people I run into that tell me their first job was over at the restaurant there," said Ross. “It's a common theme. And I honestly, I don't think I have ever met a single person who has said a single negative thing about Ralph or his family, which is pretty remarkable."
If you ate at Lupton’s, that means you likely met Ralph. He prided himself on customer service, first and foremost. He would make his rounds during the lunch and dinner rushes, and every moment in between.
The restaurant was popular enough that he was able to open two others — one on 30th Street and another in Brandon.
But while the restaurant may have been a BBQ Mecca in its time, for Ralph Lupton Jr., it was also a vehicle for him to touch as many lives as he possibly could.
“He lived life, he loved life, and he loved to share the blessings that God had provided to him and his family,” Albano said. “Losing Ralph, it’s like we lost a family member.”
• • •
Jeff Lupton, his youngest son, doesn’t remember how many people attended his father’s visitation and funeral, but he does remember receiving hug after hug after hug.
“A thousand of ’em,” he said. “The love here in Temple Terrace, that’s why I’m never leaving. The outpouring has been unbelievable.”
Ralph’s generosity made him a local hero.
He provided food for thousands of fundraisers over the five decades he owned the restaurant. He helped the Boys & Girls Club and flew Shriner burn victims where they needed to go.
“He didn’t know how to say no,” Jeff said.
Nor did he want to. Even on holidays, Ralph made sure to reach out to those who needed to be fed.
Jeff remembers getting up at 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving for years to go help feed 2,500 migrant workers in Wimauma, bringing them thousands of turkeys, tortillas, rice, beans and corn.
On Christmas every year, he said his dad would feed the employees at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
And Ralph always made sure to take care of the first responders.
“He always wanted to make sure that we had enough to take care of the police and the fire department that had to work on those holidays,” Jeff said.
Ralph had a soft spot for those dedicated to keeping the city safe and secure.
Police, firefighters, TECO workers and other were always taken care of, especially during and after bad storms and hurricanes. Those on the front lines of almost every emergency in Temple Terrace the past five decades knew what it was like to eat a meal or two from Lupton’s.
“When there was a storm, he was there almost immediately with home-cooked meals,” Albano said. “You can’t help but be endeared to a guy like that.”
Even closer to his heart, however, was the annual Foster Family Care Picnic he hosted for 30 years at Lupton’s Boggy Bottom Ranch, located in the secluded woodlands of the Alafia River basin in eastern Hillsborough County.
Ralph himself had been adopted, so it was extra meaningful to welcome thousands of foster children over the years as they visited the 150-acre ranch for a day of fun, food and activities.
“That’s the part of his legacy I think I’ll remember most,” said Chip Lupton, his oldest son. “He took care of everybody. He was everybody’s dad.”
Jeff remembers his family taking in a young girl when she was 13. She lived across the street and didn’t have a father. When her mother died, Ralph insisted she come live with them. He gave her Chip’s room until she turned 18.
Another time, Jeff says, they took in one of his sixth-grade friends who was having a hard time and being unruly. Ralph made it his mission to “straighten him out,” which he did.
“It’s the kind of guy my dad was.”
• • •
Nancy Solvang met Ralph Lupton in 1961 in Milwaukee.
She was working for an insurance company. He was a student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. MSOE was an all-boys school, so when they had dances, they would invite the women from the insurance company.
“He saw me come in the door, and he went up to guy that was playing the records and said, “Put on the ‘12th of Never,’ because I’m going to go dance with that girl that just came in the door.’”
Ralph told her that he loved her while they danced to the Johnny Mathis hit, and that he wanted to marry her.
“I thought he was crazy,” she said.
They were married the next year. Last Saturday marked their 63rd wedding anniversary.
The Luptons settled in Nashville, where Ralph worked as an engineer.
But he wanted to do his own thing. So, they moved to Florida.
Nancy said they saw an ad in the Tampa Tribune — “that was the smallest ad you could ever believe” — offering franchising opportunities for Fat Man’s B-B-Q. Ralph decided to give it a try.
He trained in Titusville, learned all the recipes, and remained friends with the guy who trained him right up until his passing.
“And he always said, keep your recipes the same, because some people will always like it,” Nancy said. “Some people won't and if you keep changing it, you're going to confuse the customers. So just always keep your recipes the same.”
In September 1968, they moved to Temple Terrace and found a piece of land on Busch Boulevard to lease.
It took 11 months to get the restaurant built at 5299 E. Busch Blvd and opened Aug. 14, 1969.
“They waited forever the first day. It was chaotic, and I came in, sat in the restaurant, and it took two hours to get a pork sandwich,” Nancy said. “And I thought, this is wonderful. Oh my goodness. I had no idea it would be a success. I had no idea.”
It was known for its all-you-can-eat buffet of ribs and fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens and other southern-style dishes, and became a must-eat destination.
Over the years it was called Lupton’s Buffet and Catering, or Lupton’s Fat Man’s BBQ and Country Cooking, or mostly, just Lupton’s BBQ.
The Luptons lived across the street, and they had a small office right behind the restaurant. Chip and Jeff grew up washing dishes, bussing tables and learning the business.
In 1980, the Luptons opened a second location on 30th Street, with Ralph paying $500,000 for the land on a handshake deal.
In 1982, they opened a third location in Brandon.
As time passed, more restaurants popped up across Temple Terrace. Large chain restaurants moved in. The landscape changed. Ralph sold the 30th Street and Brandon locations.
The original, on Busch, held on the longest, until 2019, when Ralph sold it.
Its last day was Christmas Eve.
“That day was very sad, and very happy, because everyone came out to see us,” Nancy said. “Everyone in Temple Terrace was there, to say goodbye.
“But the next month, COVID started. And oh my gosh, if we had stayed in business, a buffet would not have lasted. It would have been bad. We realized we were glad it was gone, because it would have been gone anyway.”
But the Luptons didn’t completely let go. They couldn’t bear the thought of the new owners gutting the place. There were 50 years of memories in there, and they wanted to preserve them.
The airplanes hanging from the ceiling. The pictures on the wall, the benches, the tables, they stored as much as they could and moved much of it to RJ’s Wings & Things on Fowler Avenue, which is no longer open.
Now, much of the old Lupton’s décor is at the last remaining restaurant the family owns, RJ’s Wild Wild Wings and Lupton’s Catering in Zephyrhills off U.S. 301, which the family had purchased in 2008.
• • •
When you walk into RJ’s Wild Wild Wings and Lupton’s Catering, you are walking into a time capsule that pays homage to Ralph, who would have turned 88 today.
The booth tables still have the familiar stamp of a caricature of Ralph, or the Fat Man.
The familiar airplanes are back — Ralph was an accomplished pilot — hanging from the ceiling. An old bomb, which Ralph fished out of Pamlico Sound near an old bombing range training ground when he was a kid working on his dad’s shrimp boat in North Carolina, floats near the entrance.
The walls are mostly filled with old pictures of Ralph and his family. The first dollar he made at the restaurant is framed. There is a large portrait of him over the kitchen window. Another of him standing in knee-deep water at the Boggy Bottom Ranch, and others of he and Nancy with local celebrities.
There are newspaper clippings from the time Ralph was named Temple Terrace’s Citizen of the Year, and the time Lupton’s was chosen by the Tribune as the best barbecue restaurant, and the time Ralph was the grand marshal at the Temple Terrace Fourth of July celebration.
“There’s a lot more to get hung,” Chip says. “You won’t even be able to see the bricks on the wall.”
The recipes are the same, the menu is basically the same, the tastes are all familiar.
“Let’s have some lunch,” Nancy says.
She orders a chicken wrap and some green beans. Jeff orders a pork sandwich and steak fries, as does his son, Jeff Jr. Everyone gets the coleslaw.
The brothers debate whether dad’s old Lincoln Continental was black or green.
Chip is trying to figure out how to get more smoke into the pig he is planning on cooking. Jeff offers a few tips.
They laugh while sharing a few more stories about Ralph.
The food comes, and it’s just like it always was. And just like Ralph insisted on back in the day, the fries are hot.
Nancy gets up to go check on a table, to make sure they’ve been helped.
Jeff gets up to use the restroom and stops by the same table, asking how everything is.
Chip hustles back to the kitchen.
Customer service.
Old habits die hard.
Ralph would be proud.
