15-02-2025
Simp McGhee's owner loves camaraderie with guests, food industry
Feb. 15—A lot has changed since Christy Wheat bought Simp McGhee's restaurant in downtown Decatur 20 years ago. But one thing has never changed: her love for visiting with customers, especially repeat ones.
"I love everything about my job — the camaraderie with clients," Wheat said. "Our guests are more like family, and when you see someone every week, it's just nice. I just like the industry; I love being in the food industry."
Wheat owns Simps at 725 Bank St., which sells fresh Cajun seafood and beef. Her husband, John Wheat, owns Josie's Mediterranean Cafe at 109 Second Ave. N.E., also downtown.
The restaurant is named after Simpson "Simp" McGhee, a colorful 19th-century riverboat captain who was known around Decatur for shooting the rapids at Chattanooga and drawing the ire of river officials and drinking in bars with his pet pig. The restaurant was named after him many years ago under the previous owner. Wheat bought the restaurant in 2005.
It takes a lot of hours to run a successful business, as any business owner can tell you.
"During the week I come in at noon and then go back home when my kitchen staff gets here about 2:30 p.m. I come back to work at 4 and work the evening shift until we close," Wheat said. "We are closed Sundays and Mondays."
Wheat got her start in the restaurant business the hard way — by being a server first and then working her way up to management and finally buying the business.
She isn't sure what training is out there for prospective restaurant owners, but she knows experience is everything.
The restaurant world transformed with the COVID-19 epidemic and hasn't gone back, she said.
"COVID changed the whole industry — finding employees is harder and the workforce is very different now," she said. "It has changed as far as the way employees are, to being able to even find employees for that matter — it's just very different now."
Costs have always been a concern for restaurant owners, especially now.
"Food costs, operating costs, wages — everything is up," Wheat said.
They don't always pass it on to customers.
"We absorb what we can until it comes down to the point we just can't anymore," Wheat said.
The two restaurants owned by the Wheats are very different.
"Simps is more a casual but fine dining atmosphere where Josie's is more your night life — casual, relaxed with live music five nights a week."
—
Assistance for owners
Although Christy Wheat worked her way up, learning how a restaurant works from serving, managing and then finally owning the business, there is help out there for new business owners.
The Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center at 1629 Fourth Ave. S.E., offers a Business 101 course twice a year — once in the spring and again in the fall.
"It teaches the basics — financials, law, licensing, branding and all of it," said DeeDee Berry, office manager at the Entrepreneurial Center.
She said it is a fantastic course.
"It's good for new startup businesses, and will help people enhance their business and get a firm understanding of how to run it well," she said.
She said 30 or more people typically attend the 10-week course each semester.
The Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce offers both personal and professional development through its many activities and events, but nothing specifically geared solely toward new business owners, said Rachel Keith, the chamber's director of communications.
"Throughout the year we have several events in which we offer professional development, including Breakfast and Biz, and Emerging Leaders," she said. And as far as on-the-job training, there is the Alabama Community College System Innovation Center across from City Hall, she said.
"It customizes training for employees and employers — that's a big part of what they do," Keith said.
Whether it is meat cutting or forklift driving, they offer training and they are constantly developing that training, she said.
"Let's say an employer has a need to have someone training in forklift driving," she said. "They have a class with the Innovation Center and train several people at once who are interested in getting that certificate. You are talking about for free getting employees trained and certified for a job they already have or to get certified for a job that they want. That's a great benefit for our local employers, too, because they are not having to pay to send that person."
Calhoun Community College and Athens State University also offer classes in business that could benefit a new business owner.
— or 256-340-2361
