Annie Porte and Rhonda Dempsey, who have been business partners and friends for 31 years, are happy and pleasant and finish each others' sentences.

Porte talks about the first time they met. She was working at a restaurant called The Shrimp Boat, when Dempsey came in looking to be hired as a waitress.

"She was dressed in a Hawaiian, floral kind of dress. She had lots of blonde hair and looked gorgeous, like she had just flown in from California. There was no chance the owner wasn't going to hire her, and from that time on, everything changed," says Porte.

The two became fast friends and dreamed of opening their own

restaurant.

"We would go out for dinner once a week and talk about what our place would look like. One night, having dinner at Carol Kanabis' place in New London, she heard us talking about looking for a place. She said it's a hard business for women," Dempsey says.

But they saw that Kanabis had done it and thought maybe the two of them could do it, too.

They found what would become Sneekers, at 568 Poquonnock Road in Groton, which at the time was office space, with one wall down the center. They had each saved some money - $20,000 apiece - and borrowed an additional $40,000 from the bank.

They stained the walls, sanded the floors, and built the bar, with some help from the contractor Porte was dating at the time. A few months later, in 1984, Sneekers opened, and the customers who initially went to Sneekers still go, many of them with their

children.

Dempsey and Porte have changed little. Looking at a picture of them 25 years ago, the two seem even younger now. They each cook and wait tables, and there is no job they can't or don't do, from sweeping the floors to signing checks.

Even with 15 to 20 employees, both Dempsey and Porte work every week, each earning three days off after three days on. Keith Corbett has been cooking with them for 15 years.

Sneekers looks a lot like it did years ago. The bar remains enormous and egg-shaped, there are lots of televisions on all sides, plus a few others around the tables. Though the televisions are on, there is no din from the audio. There are some high-top tables and plenty of regular ones.

The waitresses are smart and snappy, they know the menu, and many of them know their customers.

What has changed is the venue itself. What began as a bar offering some food is now very much a restaurant with a full pouring license.

Twenty-five years ago, most came to Sneekers for a drink and maybe a deli sandwich. There was no Fryolator, and the kitchen closed at 3 p.m. Today the kitchen is open every day for lunch and dinner. Today, lots of the younger clientele come for the food and for the microbrews on draft.

Years ago Sneekers was famous for its Wicked Chicken, and it is still the dish most talked about, but mussels and clams Provencal, Chicken Medley - a boneless breast of chicken, with spinach, tomatoes, black olives, and feta cheese tossed with a garlic white wine sauce on penne - and Sneekers' famous BBQ St. Louis ribs are other standouts.

Salads are served as full entrees and many of the wine aficionados who are watching their cholesterol often choose them instead, although they are missing a lot if they don't get a steak with mashed potatoes covered with gravy.

And those who are trying to diet are making yet another mistake. Sharon Gibeault has been making the desserts at Sneekers for many years. On the blackboard each day are sweets like Mandarin pineapple cake, chocolate Heath Bar cake, apple or Key lime pie, and a superb carrot cake.

"We try to learn about new food, too," says Dempsey.

"We don't want to be stagnated," adds Porte.

At the same time, Sneekers is a great recession buster. Most entrees cost from $6.99 to $18.99, and portions are large enough that a doggie bag may come home filled with the next day's lunch.

Dempsey and Porte may be looking toward the next 25 years at Sneekers, but the two have plenty going on outside the restaurant. Porte loves to spend her extra time with her husband, Richard Bendola, a psychologist in the Westerly school system, and her horses. Dempsey enjoys her beach time and spending time with her husband, James, a land surveyor and "rock star."

Whatever the next 25 years will bring, it is sure that these good friends and business partners have found - along with their customers - that Sneekers, located in what their Web site calls the "ugly little strip mall" at Main's Plaza, is a true gem for them all.

For more information, visit www.sneekerscafe.net.