How Bucky’s Began …
People are always asking, “What made you get into the restaurant business?” The answer is simple. “I enjoy seeing people happy and satisfied.” I admit that with a background in metal fabrication and woodworking, I am an unlikely prospect for the most likely to succeed in the restaurant industry award.
I do have a few early years experience in the food industry. As I was growing up my dad owned and operated a meat packing plant. I was in and out of restaurants and meat plants for most of my first 20 years of life. I remember visiting the old Ballentine Packing Plant in downtown Greenville, SC. As a small boy (well maybe not small) I would watch how they would hit the cow over the head with a big hammer. This would stun him and then they would hang him up for slaughter. Can you imagine a slaughter house just off main street Greenville today?
Although I never worked in a restaurant, I did have some special preparation for this restaurant job, I loved to eat! I guess maybe I learned to cook so I could eat anything and anytime I wanted.
Sometime around 1983 I found I had time to take on a volunteer cooking job for a local church. I prepared Wednesday night suppers for about 100-150 people. This really gave me a huge amount of satisfaction as well as preparing me for what God had in store for me a few years later.
Boom! One day here we are with the power bill due and me short on cash. I had to do something so I set up a table on the side of the road and sold barbecue to everyone who would stop. All of a sudden I was feeding about 80 people every Friday at lunch. Hot weather set in and I had to keep people cool, so I moved inside. Now here I am. Bucky’s Bar-B-Q became reality.