Meet John McCord of Satterfield’s in Macon

Today we’d like to introduce you to John McCord.

John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I worked my way thru college at Mercer University in Macon in the restaurant business and always enjoyed all facets from cooking, waiting tables, catering, bar tending, etc. Once I left college I still worked part-time in the industry while working other jobs in corporate sales, land and timber business, etc. I kept getting asked to cater events during this time and realized that my passion was in the restaurant and hospitality industry. I decided to open my own place in 1983 and called it Satterfield’s, which is my middle name. We, my partner Emmitt Sherling and I) opened our doors on October 29, 1983, and have been blessed with great business ever since. I have had three Satterfield’s locations during that time but decided about 12 years ago (when I bought my partner out) to concentrate on my original place (120 New St. Macon, Ga.) and my extremely busy catering operation. We cater all over the state of Georgia. We have been members of the national Caterers Association; National BBQ Association and I was also on the board of Celebrate Magazine- a division of Korbel Wines. I was also chosen by Kingsford Charcoal to do a commercial for them and was flown to Los Angeles to do so. Satterfield’s has also been on the Travel Channel’s “Taste of America” with Marc DeCarlo. I have been blessed with great employees all these years and could not have done this without them. People often ask me when I am going to retire and my response to them is ” I have to get a job first!” I look forward to getting up and going to work EVERY day! There is something to the saying-” eat, drink and be merry!”.

About ten years ago, I opened another establishment with a partner, Skipper Zimmerman, called Fish N’ Pig. It has been VERY successful but that is a whole other story in itself!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been a smooth road mostly with great employees and partners along the way. You really have to dedicate yourself to working many, many, many hours in this business and surround yourself with great people and customers.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Satterfield’s story. Tell us more about the business.
Our philosophy is ” Make’m Grin!” If you can do that you have won over half the battle. We pride ourselves in doing what we say and when we say– ALWAYS! The restaurant part specializes in hickory smoked meat items, home-cooked vegetables, homemade desserts, an eclectic atmosphere in our ‘Pig Museum”. We have wait service, carry out and delivery. We are only open at lunch Monday thru Friday from 10:30 A.M. till 3 P.M. Our catering operation is available 24 hours a day-7 day a week. We travel all over the state of Georgia. We prepare almost any menu desired and cater =weddings, corporate events, special occasions, holiday events, birthdays, family reunions, etc. We have catered for 6,000 plus guests and as few as 4. We have never missed an event, been late, run out of food in 34 years and do not plan for any of that to ever happen!

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We were very lucky when we first opened in that the two largest caterers decided to quit catering that year and sent all their inquiries, etc. to us. We did over 1,000 events our first year or so in catering. We have since reduced that to 400 or so. I also can’t remember more than 4 or 5 events that rained on us at outdoor events we catered.

Contact Info:

• Address: 120 New st
  Macon, Georgia 31201
• Website: www.satterfieldscatering.com
• Phone: 478 742-0352
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: Satterfield’s

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