Macon’s most missed. Closed businesses locals can’t forget

Enthusiasts still talk about the iconic menu at Len Berg’s — the fried corn, macaroon pie and the legendary homemade peach ice cream.

Opened in 1908 down a brick alleyway at 440 Walnut St., the restaurant operated for nearly a century. Though it passed through the hands of three different owners, its distinctive white and green arrow-shaped sign remained, marking the spot of a Macon staple. 

After Len Berg’s served its last plate of fried chicken in 2005, Kimchi Factory fed Macon diners for four years in the same space before closing up shop.

Then, last month, Jeremy Nguyen and Macon native Julie Koo opened Saucy’s Kitchen at the location, setting off a new round of nostalgia for locals who welcome the new endeavor but still pine for the past. 

Businesses come, and businesses go. But, like Len Berg’s, they live on in our collective memory, holding a special place in our hearts and stomachs. 

Ask any Macon old-timer about the Green Jacket Restaurant and Lounge. The restaurant closed in the ’90s, but people still light up immediately as they conjure memories of its prime rib and massive salad bar. The thought of Shakey’s pizza parlor in the 1970s can transport many of a certain generation to noisy Friday night celebrations after high school football games. Go back a little further, and many still fondly remember downtown’s Edwell’s Trick & Novelty Co. 

“I hope that my restaurant can bring that kind of joy and satisfaction to the community as well,” said Nguyen, who opened Saucy’s Kitchen on May 28. 

In an age where Instagram is constantly prodding us to remember yesteryear, many Maconites need no digital aids to recall the landmarks of their youth. We contacted several of them to hear their favorite memories of cherished local spots.

Edwell’s Trick & Novelty Co. 

Prank toys once flew off the shelves of Edwell’s Trick & Novelty Co., from mousetrap-rigged packs of gum to itching powder and matches that turn into worms when lit.

The image of a wise and powerful soothsayer, printed on Edwell’s Second Street storefront window, beckoned any youngster who dared enter “The house of 1000 laughs,” as it was called in an Oct. 6, 1939 ad. The shop was later staffed by Otis Redding’s mother, Fannie.

“Every penny I could get went into Edwell’s Trick and Novelty shop,” Macon native Mike Fuller said.

Fuller became interested in magic at age 7. He would purchase books on magic tricks from Edwell’s — some of which he still has today.

“It had just the strongest incense smell in there,” he said. “I’ve got books that if you open them you can still smell the incense. But it was just a would-be magician’s dream.”

A retired illusionist and meteorologist, he paid his way through college doing magic tricks and later traveled the southeast as a magician. Kids even tuned in to see Fuller every Saturday at 9 a.m. for his show, “The Magic Club,” on WMAZ. 

Nowadays, old shops like Edwell’s are as rare as the oddities once sold inside.

“You didn’t find out how any of the magic worked in the trick shop until you bought it,” he said. “Now you can find out just about how everything works — just go on the internet.”

Red Lamp Lounge

Kemper Watson’s memories are a little fuzzy, but he can still recall going into the Red Lamp Lounge in 1975.

In the basement of Macon’s old Dempsey Hotel at 523 Cherry St., the Red Lamp Lounge was “the place to go” during a time when “they would roll the sidewalks in Macon up at 9 and shut the town down,” Watson said. Red Lamp could hold more people than other local venues, he added.

Watson played bass guitar for the Brooks Brothers Band and saw many other performers pass through the “dark and musky” lounge where restless music-lovers descended when the rest of the city was too quiet for comfort. 

He performed for several weeks at the lounge, which he said “wasn’t the nicest place in Macon, it was just the rock ’n’ roll room” — and not somewhere you would take a first date. 

On breaks, the band would go to the roof to smoke weed. One day, Dickey Betts, of Allman Brothers fame, stepped off the elevator, Watson said, noting that Capricorn Studios rented several apartments for band members back then. He also saw Gregg Allman rehearse “Oncoming Traffic”and Molly Hatchet perform at the lounge.

Although the hidden music hub is long gone, a plaque at the Dempsey building recognizes it as the place where the iconic rock band Molly Hatchet was first discovered.

Shrimp Boat

Only one restaurant in Macon let customers walk up to the side of a giant white boat — port holes and all— to order a basket of fried shrimp.

“When you’re a little kid, that kind of impressed you a lot,” Macon native Guerry Norwood Sr. said.

An old ad for the restaurant, which had several locations in Macon, promised food “ready to go in 8-10 minutes” and a four-piece shrimp and fish or chicken dinner for 97 cents.

Norwood’s favorites were fried shrimp, hushpuppies and the fried biscuits served with honey.

There are no longer any Shrimp Boat locations in Macon. Like Shakey’s Pizza, the Central Park burger joint and El Camino tacos, Shrimp Boat has become a distant memory in a greasy wrapper. But longtime fans of the restaurant can still grab a bite to eat at the Milledgeville location.

Media Play

Before Spotify and Apple Music, there was Media Play, an American chain that sold CDs and operated from 1992 to 2006.

Just as kids once eagerly awaited a weekly trip to Blockbuster to rent the latest movie or Borders for a good book, Media Play — with its bold red lettering and colorful music note logo — kept the tunes playing for music-lovers across the nation. Instead of hitting play on an app, listeners could spend hours perusing aisles of CDs and other media. 

“Media Play would be the first stop before we got into any other mischief,” said Kirsten Collier, who grew up in Byron but visited Macon often.

She browsed the media store at the Westgate Mall at least once a month and recalled the cafe inside, where customers could grab a soft drink and settle into a headphone kiosk to listen to new music.

Collier still remembers the Smashing Pumpkins boxset she purchased at Media Play and the hunt for obscure, new artists.

“There’s not a lot of places anymore that are unique, and that these kids can create memories at,” she said.

Preserving memories

With the evergrowing microcosm of digital content, there’s a nostalgia-fueled push to preserve history in the digital sphere.

One Macon resident has spent more than a decade doing just that. Michael Mullen’s “Macon Georgia Then and Now” Facebook page serves as a living archive of Macon history, where followers can share photos and comment on posts.

Mullen’s efforts began when he was managing a dialysis center. He said he was shocked by the number of people who didn’t know about Macon’s rich history.

“How can you spend your whole life here and not know about the Hay House?” said Mullen, who grew up in Warner Robins and later moved to Macon. “There’s tons of firsts that happened here.”

“So much is overlooked,” in Macon’s vast history, he added, such as Wesleyan College granting the first degree to women or Jefferson Franklin Long becoming the first Black man to serve as a U.S. congressman.

“We go about our lives — going to work, feeding the kids, cutting the grass and don’t look outside our four walls,” Mullen said.

From photos of Macon’s first grocery store to downtown in 1936, Mullen has uploaded thousands of historical images often found from his research at the Washington Memorial Library.

Over the years, “Macon Georgia Then and Now” has garnered nearly 20,000 followers. Some are fascinated by all the ways the city has changed. And some are just looking for a quick ride down memory lane.