The summer of 1983 was the summer of astronaut Sally Ride, “Return of the Jedi,” and the 76ers. It was also the summer that Ronald Reagan came to Jackson for a United Republican Fund dinner and praised then-House Minority Whip Trent Lott.
President Reagan flew in for the large dinner at the Mississippi Coliseum, where carpeting and land line telephones for the press had been installed, security increased exponentially, and pounds upon pounds of food prepared for the occasion.
Reagan and Lott are easy names to recall, but who was the caterer? It was Paul George whose family is counting 65 years and three generations of service to the metro.
L.M. and Belva George established the company in 1948 as a grocery store in South Jackson off Raymond Road.
Paul George, their son, certainly has stories to tell as he and his sons carry on the business. They’ve catered for presidents, pop stars, and legendary musicians in the rain, shine, and massive ice storms. Even today, Catering by George’s holds countless events at private venues as well as their banquet facility, Reservoir Pointe, but it’s not just the stories that draw guests in – his hospitality and expertise are widely praised by his clients.
Considering their decades of experience in the catering business, it’s unsurprising. His path to a remarkable career in the food industry started in a small independent grocery store on Raymond Road. His father, an industrious man who had picked up construction in Okinawa, built the store himself after returning to Jackson in 1945. Even though he had never been in the grocery business before, it wasn’t long before his store, called George’s Fairway Food Store, was in full swing.
However, as quickly as the store opened, competing chain groceries came to Jackson. Development in South Jackson continued well into the 20th century. “That put us little independent folks out of business,” said George. “We just couldn’t survive.”
The grocery store was converted to a cafeteria in mid-1980. Over the years, the George family has evolved into an off-site catering specialist.
They had noticed that, though restaurants and groceries were rapidly multiplying, there was no catering service in the area. Then, he and his father decided to launch the catering business.
Once George and his father converted their grocery into a cafeteria, they quickly received some of their largest orders to date. “They said we did more than 24,000 meals in one week,” George said, referring to an order from 1994. “Their bill, for that one week, was $330,000 for food.” Not only did this order entail copious amounts of food, but it also required the caterers to drive hot trucks from Jackson to Cleveland in the winter of 1994, during one of the worst ice storms Mississippi has ever seen.
George’s favorite stories, however, are about the people he has served. When Reagan came to Jackson, for instance, George knew his company would need a few additional servers, so he enlisted the help of several students at Hinds Community College. The job, however, quickly became more dangerous than the students had expected. “Security was really tough back then, you can imagine,” relates George. “One of the boys had some wrappers in his pocket. It went off, and they threw him up against the wall. A bunch of Juicy Fruit wrappers!”
Besides Reagan, they’ve served the Beach Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, and Brett Favre, just to name a few.
George has even catered to quiet the impressive list of famous musicians in addition to the above. He rattles off some of their names: The Gatlin Brothers, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Whitney Houston, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Gilley, and others. Late in the 20th century, such household names would often pass through Jackson on their way to New Orleans or Baton Rouge. Perhaps the most memorable of the performers, according to George, was Willie Nelson. “He brought 25 cases of beer, brought it onstage for the crew and all,” George says. “He was going to Memphis after that, and Memphis called and said that their state law would not let them have beer on stage. He said, ‘We’re not going there.’ And he didn’t.”
George continued to garner abundant business from his cafeteria on Raymond Road. However, the lightning-quick urban development of South Jackson was beginning to freeze over in the 1990s. “All of them left South Jackson,” he says of the chain stores that once flowed into the area. “So, there came a point where I decided that it was time, maybe, for us to leave too.”
Then, George stumbled upon Reservoir Pointe, a two-story banquet facility built overlooking the Ross Barnett Reservoir which serves as their corporate headquarters now as well as a venue.
The building has its share of good old-fashioned 1970s charm: wood paneling, elegant white walls, pale exposed brick. The most striking part of the venue, though, is the view. Each room has a host of windows through which the Reservoir is crystal clear. “Everybody comments on the view of the water,” jokes George, “but they’re usually here at night and can’t even see it.”
It was 1999 when he bought Reservoir Pointe, where his catering business has operated for twenty years and counting. That business is still thriving. George estimates that Catering by George’s hosts or caters for an event every weekend, amounting to “a couple hundred” events every year.
Reservoir Pointe is a facility that caters to private parties including wedding ceremonies, receptions, rehearsal dinners, special galas, company meetings, and reunions.
Luckily, he has his sons to help him. Jim George runs Catering by George’s with his father, and Paul Jr. runs the George's Museum Cafe, an extension of the family business at the Mississippi Ag Museum off Lakeland Drive. Chris, the younger brother to Jim and Paul, Jr., passed away three years ago of a heart attack.
“I can’t brag on these people enough!!” wrote one reviewer on Facebook. “Our wedding was absolutely perfect! Unfortunately, Chris passed away during the planning but the staff jumped right on in and picked up where he left off. Shuna and the staff were amazing!! We can't thank y'all enough!!”
George’s family is incredibly important to him and he’s hoping for even a fourth so that the business will carry on. “We’re here to stay,” George affirms.
cateringbygeorges.com
