Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn & Amy Kight.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The story of our restaurant life actually started in Roanoke, Virginia. We had just had our first child (Landon) and realized we wanted to be closer to our families back in Georgia and North Florida. The Kight-side of the family tree has a long list of entrepreneurs in the restaurant, grocery and motel business and an existing breakfast restaurant came on the market in the North Georgia Mountains where both of our families visited often. We loaded up a 27 foot U-haul and barely made it over the 7 mile mountain pass outside of Asheville, NC. Thirteen years later, we’re still cooking breakfast with fresh eggs, local sausage & homemade buttermilk biscuits & gravy. We’ve added a lunch service, our second child, Emerson, and a new Market of local goods. But most importantly, we’ve created lasting relationships with co-workers and diners; they have become our extended family. We realize for many we are part of their day; and there are good day and bad days. We know when they are healthy and we know when they are recovering from cancer or a spouse has passed and now it’s a table for one. Sometimes, we serve more than a good meal. In the end, ours will be a story of Faith, Family and Food.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to success in a breakfast restaurant is paved with 4:00 a.m. mornings, 12 hours-on-your-feet days, and late night reminders of what you may or may not have forgotten to do that day. Thirteen years ago when we first started, the biggest struggle for me (Shawn) was trying to preserve some form of energy and attentiveness for my wife and our then one-year old son, Landon. I can still remember coming home and getting on the floor to play with Landon and falling asleep. I’d wake up ten minutes later and he’d have me pinned down with toys stuck up my nose. Fortunately, as time went by, I was able to develop a wonderful staff and my son and I both learned how to sleep through the night!
Please tell us about The Sawmill Place Kitchen + Market.
The Sawmill Place Kitchen + Market is a farm to table destination. The restaurant has long sourced its nostalgically Southern breakfast and lunch menu from local farmers and purveyors. The newly opened Market carries over the theme of “All Things Local” by featuring goods sourced either locally, Georgia Grown or from the Tri-State area. The uniqueness of the restaurant’s kitchen dishes and the quality of the goods available in The Market are what makes this property a gathering place for locals and a destination for travelers.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
From Amy: One vivid memory from my childhood was planting, harvesting and selling watermelons on my grandparents farm in Yulee, Florida during summer breaks when I was about 12 years old. The “harvesting” left more of a memory than the planting and selling parts of the process. Once he had severed rows and rows of watermelon vines, my Papa would drive his pick-up truck down the garden rows at a snail’s pace while myself and my younger 8-year old brother, Rusty, loaded the 10-20 pound melons from the ground to the tailgate of the truck. We did this what felt like about a million times in one day (it may have been slightly less than a million). I don’t know if you have had the opportunity lately to harvest watermelons in Florida during August, but I can now liken it to walking in a 27-acre spa steam room with black dirt floors while lifting weights and slapping at yellow flies (they bite, bad) that were the size of hummingbirds for hours…without the eucalyptus aromatherapy. Once we harvested the melons, we would sell them to truckers on a dirt road bypass over the Florida-Georgia state line that cut through their property. All things fair, all of our trucker watermelon sales were matched by Papa. He would then take us swimming in the pond behind their house to cool off. You know its hot when 85-degree water feels refreshing. While the work was tough, the memories were almost as sweet as the watermelons he grew.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1150 Pat Haralson Drive, Blairsville, GA
- Website: http://thesawmillplace.com/
- Phone: (706) 745-1250
- Email: shawnandamy@hotmail.com
Image Credit:
Angie Vinez
Scott Michael Anna
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
