Mercy Senchur and the Smiley Cookie can claim the same start date with Eat'n Park, which seems appropriate.

With her ready smile and ebullient manner, Senchur embodies the attitude behind the restaurant chain's sugar cookie mascot.

“I feel passionate about the Smiley Cookie,” she said.

Senchur, 49, of North Huntingdon, is passionate about every aspect of the Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, where she has worked her way up the corporate ladder from server to chief operating officer of the restaurant division.

In the past two decades, she has been present as the Homestead-based diner chain has reinvented itself into a modern restaurant group with trendy offerings for millennials. Today, the Eat'n Park Hospitality Group operates 68 Eat'n Park restaurants in three states, five Hello Bistro establishments and several other restaurant brands.

Senchur's rise from entry-level waitress to corporate executive over 31 years is not as unlikely as it sounds, she insists.

“There are hundreds of stories like mine within the company,” she said. “Other people have mentioned it, but it just seemed like I was in the right place at the right time with the right attitude.”

Senchur started with Eat'n Park in 1986 — the year the Smiley Cookie became a staple of the children's menu — while an 18-year-old student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Her sister, Suzie Romano, who is still with the company, helped her get the job.

“I was looking for an employer that would work around my needs,” she said. “Eat'n Park was known then, as it is now, for its flexibility.”

Senchur worked as an hourly employee for four years, splitting her time between Dormont and Banksville Road. Because she sometimes worked into the early-morning hours, the police would see to it that she got home safely, she said.

“I lived on Arkansas Avenue, and I would walk back and forth to work,” she said.

Her longevity with the company, however, was not assured. She had no waitress experience and struggled with things like balancing plates. An early manager even observed that waitressing apparently didn't run in her family, where she was the youngest of seven.

“I think I dropped a few trays — and I want to apologize to those guests in my early days,” she said.

Setting aside her artistic aspirations, Senchur got promoted in 1990 and got married in 1991.

A manager recommended her for management training, which led to stints as an assistant manager and general manager in Penn Hills and Robinson. From there she worked as a district manager, regional vice president and senior vice president.

When people ask her how she can stay at one place for so long, she reminds them that though the company is the same, it continues to change.

“Probably the decision to stay occurred several times. … As the company evolved, more opportunities kept coming,” she said.

Senchur describes Eat'n Park as both a team and a family.

As if to prove the point, she recently returned to the newly renovated Dormont Eat'n Park and reminisced with three servers whom she considers mentors and friends. Among the three — Mary Lafferty of Monroeville, Barb Pikutis of Beachview and Mary Manfredo of Brookline — they have 111 years with the company.

“Coming from a large family, I always say I was born onto a team. And then I came to Eat'n Park, and I felt part of a team,” she said. “When I struggled, there was always someone there to support me.”

Senchur said the company's family feeling extends to her own family life.

“I never felt the need to balance work and life. Eat'n Park gives me the opportunity to blend it,” she said.

Her husband, Scott, and her sons, Grant, 16, and Garrett, 14, regularly volunteer for company-sponsored events such as the Great Race. Her older son is following in her footsteps now that he works for the North Huntingdon Eat'n Park on Route 30.

Like his mom, he can walk to work and fit his work schedule in with school and sports.

“What's a better place for a teenager to work?” Senchur said.

Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1280, shuba@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shuba_trib.

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