Last week, out of the 125 Mr. Goodcents restaurants across the nation, the Tonganoxie location was named the best of the best.

Owners Paul and Linda Mayse, who spent Memorial Day weekend in Orlando, Fla., at the company’s convention, returned to Tonganoxie with trophies.

Restaurants in the 11-year-old franchise business, founded in Johnson County, were judged for quality of service, food, cleanliness, ambiance, profit, administration, sales and, of course, customer satisfaction. And overall, Tonganoxie ranked first.

Not bad for a restaurant in Tonganoxie, a town where company owners predicted a Mr. Goodcents wouldn’t have a chance.

Paul Mayse recalls how he convinced the company to sell a franchise to him.

“Joe Bisogno, the founder, called me and said he’d fly with me in a plane over Tonganoxie,” Mayse said. “Two hours later, he said if you want to do it I’ll sell you a franchise, but you’re taking a chance.”

After that, Mayse received a letter from company officials saying that Tonganoxie was too small for a Mr. Goodcents.

“But now they just say they’re surprised that we do well,” he added.

Others might be surprised, too, considering that neither Paul nor Linda Mayse had any experience in the restaurant business.

Paul Mayse had worked for 20 years in the machine shop trade, and Linda Mayse had been a homemaker and later worked in school transportation.

But it’s Mayse’s basic values that seem to make his restaurant work.

“I take care of my customers,” he said. “We’re customer-oriented, that’s what I push.”

This means having friendly employees who give the customers what they want, keeping everything clean and making sure the food is good, he said.

The menu includes sandwiches served on fresh-baked bread, pasta, salads and desserts, and breakfast items.

The smooth operation is helped along by what Mayse calls, “an excellent staff.”

Tammie McCutchen, manager, agreed.

“It has a lot to do with the employees we have,” she said. “We try to keep a good crew in here, and we all have fun.”

Bantering with the customers they know well is part of it.

“Our customers catch a lot of heck with us,” she said. “We play back and forth with them. If you can’t have fun, it’s not worth being here.”