The Back Porch restaurant, pictured above, brings more people to Shellman these days than any place else, but the building has always been important to the community. To people of another generation, it was the Suwannee Store, an early grocery chain.
I had a nice visit with one of the Duke sisters, who own the restaurant. Their family has been serving up good food in Shellman for at least a generation and they are glad to see positive changes to the town.
Shellman Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I always make an effort to “eat local” when traveling, and while in Dawson at lunchtime on a recent trip, searched my phone for restaurants. Glowing reviews of Paul’s sent me in their direction and I wasn’t disappointed, to say the least. The building itself was rather plain and with cars and trucks lining both sides of the street outside I wondered how in the world everyone could fit inside such a relatively small place. It was packed but not so crowded as to be uncomfortable.
The buffet line at Paul’s
In the best way possible, Paul’s is just an unassuming soul food joint. But what’s better than the food that feeds your soul? Meat-and-two, meat-and-three…Southerners know the drill. Entrees here change from day to day but there is almost always fried chicken prepared by people who really know fried chicken. The greens were perfect, not too salty and not overcooked, at least to my Southern palate. And the fried cornbread and tea were top notch. They don’t put sugar in the cornbread, thank God, and the sweet tea isn’t so sweet it will cross your eyes. And you get your own pitcher.
Locals enjoying lunch and catching up on the latest news
Raymon Huston Paul (1928-1993) and Laverne “Nanny Paul (1935-2024) were married in 1955. In 1969 they bought a supermarket and named it Paul’s Little Supermarket. In 1989, they transformed the business into Paul’s Restaurant. After Mr. Paul’s death in 1993, Mrs. Paul developed the restaurant into the local landmark it is today. She didn’t just build a successful business, but rather a family. The community thought of her as a grandmother to all, including her employees and her customers. That’s about the highest praise one can hope for, in my opinion, a true legacy based on love and kindness.
The line at Paul’s
When you go into a local restaurant that isn’t local to you, you often feel like an invader from Mars. Those of us from small towns know you can spot an outsider a mile away. But you don’t feel that at Paul’s. It’s a truly welcoming space. Further evidence of Mrs. Paul’s ethics and continuing legacy.
Stacy Paul George with her beloved grandmother, Laverne “Nanny” Paul (vintage photograph)
Mrs. Paul’s granddaughter, Stacy Paul George, is one of the main reasons her grandmother’s legacy remains intact. She is continuing the business just as it was intended, and her energy is infectious. Stacy doesn’t meet a stranger and personally welcomed me and my friend to Paul’s. She genuinely cares about her customers and has a great sense of camaraderie with her employees. A recipe for success, no doubt.
Stacy Paul George and Deborah at the front lines. Virginia is in the background
As most of you who follow Vanishing Georgia know, I rarely “endorse” businesses, but Paul’s Restaurant has my seal of approval. If you ever find yourself near Dawson around lunchtime (I think they serve breakfast, too), eat here. It will be an experience you won’t soon forget.
Thanks are due to Stacy and all the wonderful staff at Paul’s for the food and the hospitality.
The Dairy Ranch, a Jesup institution known locally as the “Eat Now” for its famous red-lettered sign, closed in 2017 and has stood abandoned since then. I got a message this afternoon that it was being torn down.
I passed by earlier and it was still there, but the sender of the message shared photos. (I’ll add an updated image later; I’m traveling at the moment).
Dink NeSmith wrote of the landmark in 2018, “…when Homer Johnson opened the Dairy Ranch in 1952, it was an immediate hit. Over the years, the establishment has had four owners…Several generations of teenagers grew up under the Dairy Ranch’s neon glow. The Dairy Queen was a phenomenon, too. Cruising around the DQ on Friday and Saturday nights was a must. But the “Eat Now” had a jukebox inside. You could listen to Elvis and chomp on a foot-long hot dog and a bag of those irresistible French fries.“
The photos above were made in 2018. The ones that follow were made this morning (10 September 2024).
While it’s not quite down yet, it will soon be a memory.
The sign is gone, too. I’m sure it’s being saved for posterity.
The first time I photographed this building, about 15 years ago, it was painted yellow and known as the Court House Deli. It’s located across the street from the Macon County Courthouse. It’s now known as the Bowlegged Grill and was still open the last time I was in the area. I believe it was a originally a store or office and is typical of the shotgun form buildings that were once common as commercial and office spaces.
The Welaunee Inn originally served as housing for unmarried female employees of the Welaunee Mill, essentially a dormitory. Built in the Tudor Revival style in 1923 [some sources date it to 1920], it had 26 rooms. By the 1950s it was often referred to as the Village Inn, or simply, the Inn. It was sold by the mill in 1966. It’s a massive building, located on Broad Street near the center of town, and has rear-facing wings at either end. It’s still in good condition and though empty at present, has so much potential.
It’s best remembered today not as a hotel but, as Darrell Huckaby wrote in the Newton Community Magazine, “…the Center of Georgia’s Culinary Universe”. He noted, “In the 1950s and into the 1960s, Mrs. Effie Boyd served up some of the best Southern cooking this side of Heaven, from fried chicken and baked ham to roast turkey and country fried steak.” He recalled that Brown’s Guide to Georgia, the state’s periodical travel bible for many years, christened it the state’s best meat-and-three year after year after year. He also said that mill workers didn’t get lunch breaks during the week but folks from “town”, i.e. Covington, were faithful patrons. On Sundays, he said, people from everywhere would line up for hours to sample her Southern favorites. And, “If you have all those vegetables, you have to have cornbread and biscuits with which to sop. Effie Boyd’s biscuits were as good as anybody’s biscuits who ever sifted flour, and her cornbread came in pones, muffins or sticks, depending on the day of the week and her mood.”
Porterdale Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
It’s been quite awhile since I visited Berlin (BUR-luhn) down in Colquitt County, but I’m told most of the old buildings I photographed are still standing. This one, which featured in another one of my Berlin photographs from 2013, has quite the history. The architectural style [shotgun] leads me to believe it was originally a general store of one kind or another, but it’s best remembered as General Browning’s barber shop. Wes Carter wrote to say that there was a red, white, and blue barber pole out front. More recently, it served as the Berlin Diner, whose faded sign is barely visible here. Surveys I consulted date the building to 1950, but I think it’s at least 20 years older.
This photograph also dates to 2010. The building is gone now, and I just call it “Chicken Dinner” because that’s what the sign says. It probably had another name. There’s a Carter’s Fried Chicken on this site now. I mostly liked the Mid-Century architectural vibe of this little restaurant, and the globe lamps inside. I don’t know if you could eat inside or if it was simply a walk-up-and-order kind of place. I do recall the place being open in the late 2000s. It was located across the street from the Piget, another local landmark that is also gone.
When I first photographed this location in January 2010, it looked like a busy place. That may have been due to the fact that there was an automotive detailing shop next door that only charged $8 for cars and $12 for trucks. The restaurant was once known as the Corner Kitchen and I’m not sure if it was even still open when I photographed it. I imagine it was a good soul food restaurant, a meat-and-three kind of place, and considering the lack of restaurants in Cuthbert, was probably quite popular. The building looks to have originally been a neighborhood grocery store.
When built in 1907, this downtown Waycross landmark at the corner of Mary and Tebeau Streets was originally the lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elk (B.P.O.E). After the Elks relocated to another facility on Plant Avenue in 1962, it served several tenants but most notably has been home to several popular restaurants over the past 50 years or so. To me, the most memorable was the Carter House, where my family would occasionally eat when we visited my father when he was in town overnight with the railroad. It was just down the street from the railroad men’s home at the time, the then-derelict Ware Hotel, and featured homestyle Southern cooking. Besides the old Green Frog, the Carter House was perhaps the most beloved Waycross restaurant of its day. Whitfield’s and the Crab Trap have also been located here.
DowntownWaycross Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
A local favorite and popular stop for travelers through Thomaston since 1950, Piggie Park is an old-school drive-in specializing in barbecue, scrambled hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs, and Brunswick stew. And some people love their greasy fries. They also have handmade milkshakes. It’s a no-frills old-school place where carhops still come out and take your order, and judging by comments throughout social media, they are very efficient and always have a smile on their faces.
The original location was on the south side of town and when most of the development moved to the north side, Piggie Park moved with it. The neon sign is one of Thomaston’s most identifiable logos.
When The Founder, the movie about Ray Kroc and McDonald’s, was made a few years ago, Piggie Park was transformed into two different 1950s restaurants and used as a set location for filming.
