ELLIJAY, GA. -- Wayne Sloop may be the only man in America who has gotten more fit and healthy due to immense stress.
The turnaround started just four months ago as he approached a historic building in Ellijay -- at the time it housed a financially struggling pool hall and bar -- that Sloop had admired for years. The desperate pool hall owner sitting on the front porch yelled, "Buy my restaurant, please" as Sloop eyeballed the building.
The 1907 Restaurant and Bar at 24 River St. used to be a pool hall, but now it focuses on "New South Cuisine."New Kids on the Ellijay's Block
* The 1907 Restaurant and Bar at 24 River St. 706-276-6116. the1907.com. Wayne Sloop opened the 1907 about four months ago, turning the former pool hall/bar into a restaurant that focuses on "New South Cuisine." The upscale eatery gets its supplies from local farmers, cheesemakers, beekeepers, vineyards and beer brewers, it offers lunch and dinner menus with tasty-sounding dishes such as trout, short ribs, salmon, chicken livers and Wagyu meat loaf. Reviews at Yelp are all overwhelmingly positive. And apparently there are odd things going on inside the building because they've invited the Murray County Paranormal Investigations group and Carol Cottrell, a "spiritual medium" from Charleston, S.C., to check out the building. * MooBears at 40 River St. 706-276-2611. moobears.com. Firefighter Chris Durden and his wife, Carrie, owned a vacation cabin near town. Both consider daily ice cream a vacation must-have, but there were no ice cream parlors in town, just Dairy Queen. They opened MooBears last year to fill that need. Their ice cream is made in a Michigan creamery and includes a luscious Eskimo Pie flavor that involves vanilla ice cream swirled with chocolate-covered bits of coconut. Big jars full of bulk candy like gummy worms and lemon drops and bottled Boylan craft sodas and lemonade sparkle across tables and shelves. The Durden's son, Chandler, now a U.S. military man, gave the ice cream parlor its name when he was a little boy. The family was driving on a mountain road when Chandler was sure he spotted a bear nearby. "It was actually a cow," Carrie laughs now. "The 'ferocious moobear' was our family joke." * Martyn House In Towne at 131 N. Main St. 706-635-5565. martynhouse/in-towne.com. Rick Lucas and JoAnn Antonelli did a gut rehab of this long, sprawling building which opened last summer as a restaurant/coffee bar serving farm-to-fork salads, paninis, smoothies, pastries and homemade pickles. It has exposed brick walls, hardwood floors, Scrabble games and plenty of comfy couches. The owners encourage the community to think of Martyn House as a hangout. Local entrepreneurs hold meetings here; dreamers can sip coffee and work on their novels thanks to the free Wi-Fi. The Martyn also hosts live music on Saturdays and a book club. Lucas and Antonelli opened another Ellijay attraction back in 2007 also called the Martyn House -- a farm surrounded by lush forest, vegetable gardens and huge fairytale tents with striped with black, plum, pumpkin or pistachio that are available for "glampers." The tents have wood floors, lamps, full-size beds and are 100 percent cotton, supposedly cooler in summer than nylon tents would be. They are equipped with heaters during the winter. * River Street Tavern at 40 River St. 706-635-6166. riverstreettavern.com. Heather and Brad Simmons have downtown's coolest sidewalk sign. A red arrow on a chalkboard points to the tavern and says "Food, Friends & Booze." A blue arrow points away from their door and is labeled "Real Life." The Simmons acquired the pub, then called Jilly's, last May. On a recent spring day, the porch was overflowing with people laughing and chatting. Cyclists swooped in, jumped off their bikes and promptly ordered baskets of fries and chicken wings, hefty burgers, fried chicken fingers and fried fish. Only guys who've never worried about body fat could bury their faces into food baskets as enthusiastically as they did. There are also healthy salads on the menu. * Back Porch Bistro at 10 N. Main Street. 706-636-1111. backporchbistro.com. This place was closed on a weekday when its posted hours declared it was open and a call placed to its phone number rang 15 times without voice mail picking up. However, it gets excellent TripAdvisor reviews for its healthy customized sandwiches and salads, desserts and gluten-free options. It also promises pedicab or motorized scooter delivery anywhere within bicycling distance for orders over $15.
"He made me a good offer and I had the money for him before the lawyers had even finished drawing up the papers," says Sloop, who went from running a successful online media consulting firm to the risky restaurant business when he opened The 1907 Restaurant and Bar.
"That was 128 days ago and I weighed 197 pounds, my blood pressure was 139 over 199 and my heart rate was 78. After just 128 days in the restaurant business, I now weigh 164 1/2 pounds, my blood pressure is 118 over 65 and my heart rate is 44 beats per minute. Maybe that's what comes from thriving on stress -- and running up and down stairs, working 16-hour days at renovating and rebuilding and moving in new furniture."
Sloop didn't gamble on Ellijay alone. Four other new restaurateurs opened places this past year in downtown Ellijay, population 1,637. Owners of local landmark eateries seem delighted that the pretty mountain river town, hard hit by the 2007 recession, is becoming a magnet for people who love good food as much as hiking and fishing.
"Downtown Ellijay was a ghost town," says Kelly Bramlett who owns Mr. P's, a 37-year-old carryout restaurant famous for its juicy Paradise Burger. "Last year, everything started changing for the better. The national economy is so much stronger."
Now there are swank restaurants with chef-created dishes of Wagyu beef and trout fresh from nearby mountain streams; you can find cyclists jumping off their bikes to chow down on gastro-pub food with no fear of weight gain; homemade everything -- pickles, biscuits, pastries, lemonade -- is all around. And prices are far below what you'd find if these restaurants were located in a city.
"Four restaurants opened downtown that helped draw a lot more tourists to Mr. P's in numbers we haven't had before," Bramlett says. "And we're getting a crowd we may not have gotten before, people who really care that we make our own cole slaw, baked beans, pink lemonade, chocolate cake and biscuits instead of trucking them in. I'm going to buy our produce from local farmers because those tourists cares about farm-to-table, too."
Mr. P's walls are decorated with art and chalkboards covered with pastel Bible verses and menu specials. Friendly locals chat with visitors and make recommendations while waiting for their orders. Bramlett smiles at the harmony and wonders about other states where restaurant owners refuse to serve some customers because of the owner's beliefs.
"We welcome every person no matter what color they are or how much money they earn or who they want to marry as long as they're polite to my staff," she says, then smiles wryly. "I really don't want to know anything about my customers' sex lives because it's none of my business."
Firefighter Chris Durden and his wife, Carrie, an accountant, bet their retirement savings on their new downtown ice cream parlor called MooBear. The bet seemed to be paying off on a recent April weekday when a steady flow of customers filled the charming shop to buy handcrafted sodas and unique ice cream such as the top-selling Jacked Up Tennessee Toffee -- vanilla ice cream with a non-alcoholic whiskey swirl and chocolate-covered toffee chunks.
"A lot of our customers this week are Miami, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale families and college students who are on spring break," Carrie says. "When I was putting together our business plan, I noticed that Ellijay attracts a lot of South Florida, so downtown businesses keep their prices low to suit those budgets."
This month, the Durdens added hot dogs with gluten-free buns and more than a dozen toppings to the menu because so many customers wanted to eat lunch in the pretty store.
"When we opened here, we were prepared to start out slow the first couple of years," she says. "So far, the response has been terrific."
Ellijay is so protective of its lovely historic downtown buildings and lodging choices, Durden says, the town council worries over the prospect of opening a new large chain hotel because it would compete with the many log cabins in the area that often offer amenities such as free Wi-Fi, fireplaces and kitchenettes.
The Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce teaches social media classes to businesses, using one of the town's new downtown restaurants, Martyn House In Towne, as its classroom.
"We tell them how to set up and maintain a Facebook page, maximize their exposure on TripAdvisor and use Instagram," says chamber spokeswoman Karla Haege. "Ellijay was hit hard by the recession. There were a lot of empty windows with 'For Lease' signs downtown. But things really have picked up over the past couple of years and I don't think there is a single vacancy downtown now."
Sloop was savvy about social media thanks to his consulting firm. But his last experience in the restaurant industry was decades ago in a posh Miami restaurant where he would wait on actor Burt Reynolds, who would tip him $500 each time.
But this go-round, Sloop didn't want a big city business. He was living in nearby Canton, Ga., when he fell in love with Ellijay's originality and decided he would rather serve meals that would draw big city dwellers and locals. His entrees include Wood-Charred Double-Cut Pork Chop, Local Mountain Trout, Springer Mountain Chicken with Ricotta Dumplings and American Wagyu Meat Loaf Stuffed with Country Ham, Peas and Cheese. All dinners are priced from $14 to $22.
"Wagyu comes from Angus beef mated with Kobe beef and combines the best of both; I have it delivered from a ranch near Chattanooga," Sloop says.
The chef's mother is donating a grand piano to the restaurant, whose walls will be decorated with Sloop family artifacts such as his grandaddy's banjo and a photo of his drop-dead handsome great-grandfather, a circuit preacher whose many female fans nettled his wife. It's clear Sloop inherited great grandfather's charm when a cluster of women bursts through the door of and throw their arms around Sloop.
"I call these ladies my 'Huggables,'" Sloop says, hugging back. The husbands wave at him as they head directly to a table and order their drinks.
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.