MACON, Ga. — After a kitchen fire kept a popular long-time Macon restaurant temporarily closed since September, folks at the S&S Cafeterias said it's not stopping their Thanksgiving tradition of staying open.
While many spots close for the holiday, the S&S Cafeterias welcomes anyone who doesn't want to cook, or clean-up on Thursday.
Their Riverside Drive location's still temporarily closed because of fire damage, but you can still dine in or get takeout at their Bloomfield Village Drive location.
"Thanksgiving looks a lot different this year," CEO Rick Pogue said. "We're very, very busy just serving - one fun fact is - maybe a thousand sweet potato pies."
He said Thanksgiving is always their busiest day of the year, but things will be extra busy at the Bloomfield Village Drive location, since it's their only location open in Macon this year.
"And we're open Thursday, dine in from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m," Pogue said. "So if you don't want to cook at home, come out and we'll have all the traditional fare."
Catering orders have kept them busy all week long, but he said catering is sold-out for Wednesday, and mostly sold-out for Thursday, as of Tuesday morning. Otherwise, he recommends showing up in person as early as possible to dine-in or take-out.
"I like S&S because of its customer service," customer Jerome Enders said. "Those young ladies in there, they take care of me, they greet me with a smile."
He said he loves how they treat him like family when he picks up his orders. For Enders, the homestyle food keeps him coming back, when his many jobs keep him too busy to cook.
"I'm a local author, filmmaker, and barber, content creator," Enders said.
He's thankful for all the folks working Thanksgiving, to keep people like him fed with all the fixings this year.
Pogue said it'll be all hands on deck on Thanksgiving, and they're looking forward to serving anyone who wants a hot meal.
"We're lucky that we have some very good coworkers because we took everybody we could from Riverside, and everybody's pitching in, and it's just been a great Thanksgiving season so far," Pogue said.
The S&S Cafeterias Bloomfield Village Drive location will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving. You can also order from them on DoorDash and Grubhub.
Pogue said they hope to begin construction on their burned Riverside Drive location next month. He's hoping for a June opening at the latest.