Story by Lauren BonePhotos by Wade Walker
Brad Stevens is busy this month. He’s opening Macon’s hottest new restaurant, Andalusia, and celebrating a birthday (that means in chef years, he’s dead). Patrick and I came by as he was going over the tapas menu with the back of house crew.
“Oh yeah…you think you could guest write this article for me?” Sure thing, bud. Remember this when I’m trying to make a reservation, next Saturday, two top, 6:30 p.m.
I’m Lauren Bone. My husband Patrick Rademaker and I own Macon Bagels. I bake things, Patrick grows things. This issue, we wanted to share with you all our favorite restaurant, Ghost Runner Pizza in downtown Perry, Georgia co-founded and run by Cody, Wade, and Sydney Walker.
Walking into Ghost Runner, you’re greeted first by the smell: sourdough and charred semolina. You get a fist bump from Wade, who on busy nights is always making the rounds: chatting with regulars, bussing tables, or stretching pizza dough. His wife, Sydney, is topping pizzas in a pink vinyl apron and seemingly astro turf Doc Martens. Her creativity and style makes everyone around her more creative and stylish. Then you get a nod or wave of the pizza peel from Cody, who is manning the wood-fired oven at the back but will surface occasionally to make a self-effacing joke.
The place stays busy, so there will typically be a handful of people in line, none of whom need to look at the menu. These are once-or-twice-a-week regulars who know exactly what they want, so the line moves, and I’m quickly weighing my options. Do I get my usual (Garlic — with goat cheese, capers, and arugula) or the special? Do I pair it with a chic glass of natural wine with a hip label that Cody selects each week, or do I get Wade’s frozen painkiller that — as I watch it being dispensed into a large tiki glass — looks cold… looks sweet… looks so… refreshing…
It’s our turn. Sausage pizza and a Miller Lite for Patrick. Special pizza for me. Kale Caesar for the table. Painkiller for the wait. I’ll circle back for a glass of wine when the pizza comes out. Patrick will then realize he will need to be the driver for the evening. He drowns his sorrows, and his pizza crust, in ranch.
As restaurant owners, we’ve had a lot of people over the years mention their own ambitions of opening a restaurant. And while not trying to squash people’s dreams, we offer questions rooted from our own experience: constan
“What’s your stance on really, really hard work?”
“How little are you ok with making a year?” and—
“Wanna guess how much self-employed people pay for health insurance?”
It was evident from Ghost Runner’s first pop up, pre brick and mortar, that they didn’t need to be asked those questions. We didn’t need to tell them that restaurant ownership isn’t a hobby, a side hustle, or a moneymaking scheme. It’s a calling. It’s not enough to be a good cook. It’s about making people feel so welcome that your place becomes an extension of their home.