74 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024
MACON'S FOOD SERVICE VETERANS OF 2024
BY SIERRA STARK STEVENS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DSTO MOORE
Seasoned
in service
T
his is our second annual Seasoned in
Service, highlighting food and beverage
industry professionals who have been in
the business for ten-plus years.
This year, the average tenure of service
is 26 years, with Mr. Jimmie Scott bending the curve
at 63 years strong. He's been with S&S Cafeterias
since age 15 in 1960. Imagine all the stories he's
seen pass through the dining room he supervises –
not to mention his life beyond those swinging doors.
"Everybody has a story to tell," the photographer,
DSTO Moore, always says. Inspired by his project,
"Macon a Living," and being fresh out of a long stint
in hospitality work myself, I reached out to DSTO in
2023 to see if he'd partner with me to shine a bigger
light on industry folks in our Food Issues.
This year, we loaded up all the lighting and camera
equipment into my truck and zoomed across town,
shooting at nine locations in two days, in busy
kitchens and crowded dining rooms.
If that sounds like a hectic schedule to you, try
working in a restaurant. As Natasha Phillips of
FOJ notes, "The restaurant business is a hard life."
Industry people work hardest when the rest of the
world is celebrating: Mother's Day, Valentine's Day,
the holiday season. The tipped minimum wage in
many states, including Georgia, has been $2.13 an
hour since 1991. The hours are variable, the products
are perishable, the demand fluctuates wildly (see
COVID), and it's a live performance each day,
rushing against the guest's clock. And it's all done
with a smile and a flourish to outmatch the steep
competition and slim margins.
Yet some are strong enough to do it for a
lifetime. Read their full profiles online at
maconmagazine.com/category/seasoned-in-service.
Nominate someone for 2025 by emailing hello@
maconmagazine.com.
