BROOKSVILLE — Florida Cracker Kitchen's inverted cowboy boot logo — seemingly plastered on every pickup truck in Hernando County — may someday be just as ubiquitous across the state.

"When people think of Florida, they'll think of that logo, just like the orange. That's the plan," said Bob Tilka, an executive with ServStar LLC, a Jacksonville restaurant group.

The company, in partnership with the Brooksville restaurant's owners, Blair and Ethan Hensley, expects to open a Jacksonville location in two months and is negotiating deals for two more outlets.

And "if they go as we believe they will, we'll continue opening at a multiples-per-year pace throughout the state of Florida, working our way down to Key West," Tilka said.

Blair Hensley, 39, and Ethan, 35, are not ready to look that far ahead.

"Our main focus is getting the culture and systems in Jacksonville the same as in Brooksville," Blair Hensley said.

But he's been thinking of a statewide business since he first drew the Florida Cracker logo — the boot resembling an outline of the state, and Lake Okeechobee rendered as a star — on a bar napkin 14 years ago.

In 2013, after the brothers bought what was then Farmer John's Key West Cafe from founder John Carlone, they expected to own just one location, which they hoped would promote an online Florida Cracker store.

Their plans started changing after Tilka stopped at the restaurant two years ago "purely by accident," he said. He saw the long line of customers outside, and once he got inside, he said, "it felt just like home."

The food was "good, down-home Southern cooking . . . and everybody was welcoming and gracious. It wasn't just a standard greeting; it was genuine," he said."

He soon got word to Blair Hensley that he was interested in working together on an expansion. Hensley, who said he had previously received similar offers, was skeptical. But, he said, the mutual friend who acted as a go-between said, " 'Blair, you better reconsider.' "

ServStar, he found out, operates seven restaurants in or near Jacksonville, including three Hoptinger Bier & Sausage Houses, which specialize in bratwurst and a wide range of craft beers. The company has the backing of several prominent Jacksonville business people, including Tilka, who previously worked for the Jacksonville Jaguars National Football League team.

"They had the infrastructure and knowledge to own and operate several restaurants," Hensley said.

The company offers management assets, including a full-service human resources department, while the Hensleys will have "100 percent creative control" over the new restaurants, Tilka said.

Blair Hensley said they will not expand further until he is sure they can duplicate what they have built in Brooksville — a menu featuring an assortment of omelettes and sandwiches, a staff long on efficiency and friendliness, a decor based on the theme of old-time Florida agriculture.

Neither Tilka nor Hensley would release financial details of the arrangement.

The logo makes the brand a natural for expansion. And though the Brooksville location seems steeped in local lore, Hensley said, the photos and signs on its walls are of scenes from all over the state, including ranches in Hillsborough and Hardee counties. Also, about 40 percent of its customers — and far more than that on weekends — are from out of town.

To tie new locations to their communities, Tilka said, he and the Hensleys will recruit local managers and servers — people who will know customers' names and favorite menu items when they walk through the door.

Blair Hensley said his current staff will be able to maintain that feel in Brooksville, where he and Ethan grew up, and where his mother, Larie Hensley, has operated Mallie Kyla's Cafe for more than 20 years.

The brothers have hired Brooksville contractors to do work at the Jacksonville location, and, if the expansion works out as planned, people might one day make pilgrimages to the original Florida Cracker, just as they gravitate to Des Plaines, Ill., where Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's.

"I hope that the byproduct is that this drives traffic to Brooksville," Hensley said.

"This is always going to be the mother ship."

Contact Dan DeWitt at ddewitt@tampabay.com; follow @ddewitttimes.