Three Penn State seniors took a random thought one afternoon and turned it into a fast-growing business.

Justin Goldman (senior-letters, arts and sciences), Jason Kwicien (senior-marketing) and Chris Jeffery (senior-finance) are the men behind Lionmenus.com, a Web site listing the menus of 41 local restaurants and bar specials.

This week, Lionmenus.com is expected to add an online ordering capability that will allow students to avoid the phone and place their orders online.

"The online ordering eliminates troubles when placing multiple orders for friends," Goldman said. "You will be able to click boxes for condiments and things you want on your order."

The site averaged 238 hits per week last spring and 2,500 each weekend. Super Bowl Sunday recorded the highest traffic in the two-year history of the site, with 1,293 visitors. Jeffery, Kwicien and Goldman are looking to expand the site to other universities.

Goldman and Jeffery, who took this semester off to work on the growing business, said their idea was sparked after being sick of ordering from the same restaurants every weekend.

"We had the same menus lying all around our room and would rotate from like three different places," Goldman said. "So we thought we would create a Web site with all the menus."

Their idea took off after consulting the computer science department on campus and professors in the Smeal College of Business. After that, they asked their friends if they would use the service.

Jeffery said it took a while to sell the idea and get ads from local businesses.

"We did man-on-the-street, approaching in business suits and briefcases," he said. "No one at first would even listen to our ideas; then we went in street clothes and we started getting ads."

The team started selling ads on a free, two-week trial basis, so the businesses could see if the ads made a difference. Now Lionmenus.com is selling packaged advertising to restaurants.

Steven D'Achille, manager of Pizza Roma, 111 Sowers St., said they have been the second-most accessed restaurant on Lionmenus.com.

"We were able to tell how much business we got this past weekend alone," D'Achille said. "The site has been really good for us with advertising."

Adam Parnes (sophomore-marketing), who uses Lionmenus.com occasionally for delivery, said he would consider the new online ordering option.

"As long as the restaurant was efficient still and did their job, I wouldn't see a problem using it," Parnes said.

Andrew Bergstein, marketing instructor, said he had Goldman in class and helped answer questions about starting a business.

"This is a great example of kids who have ideas and actually making them work," Bergstein said.