Perseverance is on the menu

When our children were young, my parents would drive from Atlanta to visit.

At mealtime, if there was no desire to be anywhere near the kitchen, we would vote on where to go out to eat.

My father would speak first.

“S&S.”

And it was settled. 

It became a running joke in the family.

“You know, Dad,’’ I once told him, “we do have other restaurants in this town.’’

He loved the bounty of fresh vegetables, the steam rising  from the tables along the serving line. There was a plentiful meat selection from chopped steak to fried chicken, carved ham and broiled fish. The trays and silverware kicked off the parade with leafy salads, then serenaded sweet tooths with strawberry shortcake and sweet potato pie.

My father loved the jello. Red. Green. Orange. It would jiggle  in the small bowls. “The skins and bones of animals,’’ he would tell his grandchildren, just as he told his children.

I can still hear his voice every time I drive past the cafeteria on Riverside Drive. It is somehow fitting S&S has always had its “Great American Favorites” as menu items. My father was a great American. And S&S was his favorite.

We woke up Sunday morning to the grim news of an overnight fire at S&S. It had already been a wretched weekend, dealing with the wrath of a hurricane and the disappointment of the Dawgs losing in Tuscaloosa.

I felt a lump in my throat when I saw the photos on social media. They were taken from car windows and across the parking lot in the wee hours of the morning. The flames jumped high and appeared to stretch along the back of the building where the kitchen was located.

It took me back to a March morning nine years ago when I stood in the soot and water between the firetrucks on Cotton Avenue. I watched in shock and disbelief at the smoky ruins of the original Nu-Way – Macon’s oldest restaurant – and told those around me: “The mother ship is gone.’’

Without knowing the full extent of damage to the S&S, I could only hope for the best. That’s why it was encouraging to hear co-owner Rick Pogue remain optimistic about rising from the ashes. There are expectations of reopening by the first of next year. 

In the meantime, the cafeteria’s other location in Bloomfield Village will be pulling double duty to help satisfy all those cravings for turnip greens, squash casserole, country biscuits and macaroni and cheese (considered a vegetable in the South).

Yes, we teased my father about his S&S obsession, but the fruit salad didn’t fall far from the tree. My wife and I used to take our sons there at least once a week. It was only 1.3 miles from our old neighborhood.

Not only could we dine on the staple meat-and-two fare, but the boys could get the 99-cent kids meal. Our family of five could eat for under $15. We wore out that deal.

In fact, we could stake out the S&S early in the week, then show up at Shoney’s down the road on Riverside on Wednesday nights. That was when the kids could eat free, and the adults could indulge in the all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar. It was the real deal.

It’s funny how we have told that story over the years and others have laughed and admitted to doing the same.

Now, our grandchildren get excited when we eat at S&S.  They always want to go back. That’s four generations of Grisamore patrons.

The S&S has had a large and loyal following for 88 years. The regulars break bread with their families and share tables with friends. Tour buses still brake for the specials, and snowbirds stop   on their yearly migrations up and down the interstate.

In June, the S&S ranked No. 6 on a list of Macon’s “iconic” restaurants behind Nu-Way, H&H, Fincher’s Barbecue, the Rookery and Sid’s Sandwich Shop.

Those red-and-white double letters have stood guard at the location near the intersection of Riverside and Pierce Avenue since 1972. It’s a place that has meant so much to so many. 

Sure, the line sometimes wraps around and out the door after church on Sundays, but at least you have always been able to get a taste of history walking past all those display cases while you wait in line.

History tells us James A. “Smitty” Smith opened a sandwich shop on Cherry Street at the end of World War I.  He called it “Smitty’s Hole-in-the-Wall’’ because it was so small his customers had to turn sideways in the door to get around the counter and had to eat standing up. He would deliver sandwich orders to local businesses in baskets lowered from second and third-story office windows.

Smitty moved to Miami in 1924 and opened a restaurant and drug store. Both were destroyed by a hurricane two years later. He returned home to Macon and opened Smitty’s Barbecue and Luncheonette and later the Wisteria Cafe. He would look out his front window and notice there always seemed to be paying customers at the Macon Cafeteria across Cherry Street.

 He eventually convinced the cafeteria owner to sell it to him, and he turned it into Smith & Sons (S&S) Cafeteria in 1936. Macon is the corporate headquarters, with cafeterias on Riverside Drive (opened in 1972) and Bloomfield (opened in 1984). There are also S&S cafeterias in Augusta, Charleston, South Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.

When I moved to Macon in the late 1970s, there were two other cafeteria options in Macon –  Morrison’s and Davis Brothers.  They have both vanished. 

In today’s fast-food nation, cafeterias have been disappearing from the dining scene. But S&S has hung on through feasts, famines, floods and now fires.

One of my favorite S&S stories is the landmark “gum tree.”   For almost 40 years, it has become the final resting place for discarded pieces of Dentyne and Juicy Fruit.

It was supposed to be a solution to customers throwing their gum on the sidewalk and driveway near the front of the cafeteria.  During a routine inspection of the parking lot, a manager noticed a wad of gum had been placed on a small boxwood in the center island. 

The owners came up with a campaign to encourage participation. A sign was placed there that read: “Gum Tree.” It has become a conversation piece over the years.

Maybe it’s even symbolic. Perhaps one of those S’s in S&S stands for “stick-to-it-iveness.”

Perseverance is on the menu.