Oconee County, GA Politics

Maybe you will be coming back from the soccer fields of Oconee Veterans Park or Herman C. Michael like I will be with my family, but if you can eat out tomorrow night at one of our county's nine area eateries, the Oconee Area Resource Council and Family Connections will receive 10% of your tab. So eat up Monday at Oconee County restaurants such as Barberitos, Chick-Fil-A, Dickey's BBQ, Fox's Pizza, Jersey Mike's Subs, Mirko's, Scoops, Taco Stand or Zaxby's to contribute to the worthy cause while eating out with your family Monday, September 28, 2009

I am biased. I love eating at Zaxby's fast food restaurants with my son after an athletic event at Herman C. Michael or the Oconee Veterans Park. For those who do not know or live outside of Georgia, Zaxby's is a chicken finger fast food place with roots deep in Oconee and Baldwin counties I believe. I first tried their tasty food in the Cornelia-Demorest-Clarkesville area of Habersham County some 10 years back or longer. They had a very shrewd business plan and model to slowly grow and cater to clientele in secondary markets. They went were Chick-Fil-A would not go and sometimes where Hardee's had been. But something has gone wrong in the Zaxby's business model where paying semi-famous people to eat their limited time food products seems to be the rule now instead of careful growth. These days we usually eat at the Taco Stand after coming home from a soccer or basketball game or practice, but there was time where I would grab some fingers or a Zak Snack a couple of ...

Just as we are about to celebrate the opening of the new Taco Stand at Butler's Crossing in Oconee County, Georgia, along comes a press release about the retiring administrator from the neighboring school opening up his own restaurant next door.

Regardless of how the Oconee County Board of Commissioners chooses to deal or not deal with beer and wine pouring in restaurants outside the municipality of Watkinsville, we will finally have a real Taco Stand at Butler's Crossing in early 2008. A lease was finally signed recently. The Taco Stand is as beloved an Athens institution as any restaurant. This location will be packed with basketball and soccer families coming to and from various events at North Oconee, Oconee County, Athens Academy, Westminster and Prince Avenue Christian schools. Good luck to co-owner Mark Marchant and the new Oconee County location of the Taco Stand opening maybe in mid-January 2008. Should be ready by Super Bowl Sunday - my 45th birthday - February 3 if all goes well with the build out (here's to hoping there are no problems or punch lists persisting past Christmas). Here is an excellent example of adaptive reuse that everyone can get behind. Glad to see that another choice for finer fast food...