Local Celebrity Profiles

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  Don Simmons | Magnolia 23
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  Don Simmons | Magnolia 23

  

  Q:  You worked for Energizer Battery for 37 years. How did you manage to go from that to having an award-winning restaurant?

  That's true, but after all those years at the plant I still retired early, and one thing led to another. I had two daughters that both went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, four years apart from one another. For eight years, I would go to the school and we would always be tailgating. Cooking and sharing food has always been a passion, so when passersby would come up to us while we were tailgating they would tell us how good everything smelled. I would always give them a taste. After a while the people I would feed bought me a cooker and they would even supply the food so all I would have to do is show up. People would always ask me when I was going to open a restaurant and finally, three months after I retired from Energizer I opened a catering business. The next thing you know we had the restaurant!

   

  Q:  What are the favorite items of people who come in other than your delicious fried chicken and tasty catfish?

   

  Of course, the fried chicken is most popular along with the collards, Doris' cornbread, and Evelyn's famous mac and cheese.

   

  Q:  You go to every single table and talk to your customers like they are family. Have you always done this?

   

  I want to make sure every single customer knows they are appreciated, and I want to make sure they are happy with their meals. If something is wrong I want to make sure I know about it so I can make it right. I try to talk to every customer like I would want them to talk to me, and word of mouth is very important to me. I want to keep people happy so they want to keep coming back. We are very lucky to have a loyal following.

   

  Q:  You like to help our Veterans. How so?

   

  As a veteran myself, I have a special place in my heart to do what I can. Every three months we have the 108th Training Division of retired vets come to eat and they pay what they can. I do whatever I can in between. There are a lot of hungry people out there, so ever little bit helps.

   

  Q:  You helped rescue an old cemetery in town. How did that come about?

   

  I also used to own a funeral service and one day I was out walking and I came across a grave that had been overgrown near a fence. I figured it was near the border of the cemetery until I looked further and realized that it was a black cemetery that had been neglected from the 1700s and through the Civil War. There were at least 250 graves that were wooded and needed attention, so about five or six people and I cleaned it up out of respect. Some of them did not even have headstones but we could tell they were graves marked with only rocks and no names. It's the least we could do to honor their lives.

   

  Q:  What's the thing you are most proud of?

   

  When I was a kid I picked a lot of cotton in North Carolina not far from here, but I could never keep up with how fast others did it, and I always knew I wanted to do something else. Sixty years ago I was not event able to walk in the front door of most restaurants, and today I own one. That makes me feel pretty proud!

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