May-June 2020
BUSINESS IN
DAWSON
Celebrating the businesses that make our community unique.
Dawsonville
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CONTENTS
May/June 2020
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Letter from the Editor Nobody does business like Dawson Big D’s BBQ How Big D’s found a home in Dawson County
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Dawson Faces Five questions with Roger Slaton City Produce Continuing generations of fresh foods
There’s a lot of elements that make a community unique. The people, schools, culture, food, natural resources and industry each tells a different part of the story that defines a community. But the most telling characteristics a community can have, in my humble opinion, are the type of businesses that choose to set up shop there. Where would any city or town be without the mom and pop shops that have been open for generations, the diners and restaurants that draw regulars every day without fail, and the myriad of other businesses that make up a community. For this issue of Dawson Living, we have stories about the businesses, new
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Dawson CrossFit Family friendly fitness Christie Moore State of business in Dawson County
and old, that make Dawson County the vibrant place, teeming with business opportunities, it is today. From the masters of fine barbeque at Big D’s BBQ, who came to Dawson County on a gamble and found their future; to Leslie Callaway, whose family has operated City Produce for generations, and Roger Slaton, one of Dawsonville’s longest serving businessmen — people chose to do business in Dawson County because despite hardships and setbacks, our community is unique. Thanks for reading. Alexander Popp | Editor Dawson County News
EDITOR Alexander Popp
PHOTOGRAPHY Ben Hendren and Jacob Smith
PUBLISHER Stephanie Woody
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Erica Schmidt and Jacob Smith
ADVERTISING SALES Jennifer Richardson
DAWSON LIVING A Division of Dawson County News Dawsonville, GA A Metro Market Media Inc. property www.dawsonnews.com
CREATIVE SERVICES Chelsea Sunshine, Magazine Design
May/June 2020
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BBQ & BUSINESS
BBQ & Business:
DAWSON COUNTY STYLE
By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
Big D’s came to Dawson County on a gamble and found community, loyalty. When Darin Muenchow, owner of Big D’s BBQ, left the corporate world to open fast food franchise in the early 2000s, he had no idea what was waiting for him in Dawson County. Muenchow, a North Carolina native, had plenty of practice making barbecue growing up. But until he opened the first Big D’s in Alpharetta in 2007, he never planned on making BBQ as a career. “I’d cooked a lot of barbecue so it was just something I wanted to try, and when we did, people liked our food so we just continued with that,” Muenchow said. Originally Muenchow planned to
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May/June 2020
expand his Zaxby’s franchise locations, but because customers liked his barbecue so much Muenchow decided to sell his rights to Zaxby’s and focus solely on Barbeque. Opening a location in Dawson County didn’t come until later, Muenchow said. “A lot of our staff had called in one day so I was working in the kitchen,” Muenchow said. “And a real estate guy came in and asked if I wanted to open up a restaurant in Dawsonville. He left a business card, which has happened time and time before … and I’ve never called them back, but for some reason that day I called him back and we signed a lease two days later.” Big D’s opened their Ga. 400 location in Dawson County in 2009
and despite being unsure what to expect, the new location thrived. “We didn’t think the store would do much at all, but it did,” Muenchow said. “Dawson County opened us with open arms.” In 2012 Muenchow closed the Big D’s Alpharetta location and opened a new location in downtown Dawsonville. More recently, in June 2019 the restaurant opened a new location in downtown Cumming. Muenchow says that moving his business from Alpharetta to Dawson County has been one of the best decisions he’s made. “It’s been one of the best moves we’ve ever done business-wise and we had no idea leading up to it how it was gonna turn out,” Muenchow said, “but
BBQ & BUSINESS
it was definitely a God-send. He’s looking out for us and the rest is history.” Over the years, Big D’s has amassed a strong following of customers both from Dawson County and surrounding counties. “Dawson County has been good to us - we have a loyal following in the people here,” Muenchow said. The restaurant is what it is because of its employees, Muenchow said. “We have some really long-term employees … some who have been with us for 10 or 11 years,” Muenchow said. “The customers like that because they get to know them, but it’s just a great group of people who have helped us grow.” Giving back to the community is important to Big D’s culture, and Muenchow said he’s tried to give back as much as he can to police, firemen, schools and other groups in the community.
While Dawson County has been growing quickly recently, Muenchow says that his business has continued to feel the support of local customers and that he hopes it will remain that way in the future. “There’s so many great businesses that were here long before the explosion of growth we had, and hopefully the people won’t forget about those businesses,” Muenchow said.
May/June 2020
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D A W S O N F A C E S : R O G E R S L AT O N
Dawson Faces ROGER
SLATON
Five questions with Roger Slaton For decades, Roger Slaton has served the Dawson County community as a leader in the field of business and education, serving as a local State Farm Insurance Agent and member of the Dawson County Board of Education. Recently, the Dawson County News sat down with Slaton to ask him five quick questions about his time in the local community.
What got you started in the insurance business? “A friend recommended State Farm as a new career path. (And it was) Terrific – all my pleasure.”
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May/June 2020
What makes doing business in Dawson County so special? “Because Dawson County is so special.”
What’s the best business or career advice that you’ve received? “Treat people as you want to be treated.”
How do you balance our business with other work you do in the community? “It’s a pleasure to do both always.”
What’s your favorite local restaurant and why? “The Dawsonville Pool Room. Gordon is my friend.”
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Celebrat ing the business make our com es that munity unique.
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706-265-3384 May/June 2020
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City Produce
CONTINUING THE LEGACY OF FRESH FOODS
By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com For 36 years, Leslie Callaway has owned and operated City Produce. In those years, Callaway has grown her business from a humble roadside stand into locally loved produce storefront it is today. As fourth generation produce stand owner, Callaway said she’s been operating City Produce for the majority of her life. “My great grandma grew her own produce, back in the day when they had to grow food to make a living,” Callaway said. “They would eat some of the produce, can some of it, and take the rest of it to downtown Atlanta to sell.” Callaway’s great-grandmother passed the produce stand business on to Callaway’s grandfather, who in turn passed it on to Callaway’s mother. And according to Callaway, at that point the business was little more than a stand, picnic tables and gazebo. “My mother ran her stand in Sandy Springs,” Callaway
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May/June 2020
said. “It was called ‘Cowgirls Produce’ because that was her nickname — Cowgirl.” While her ancestors grew their own produce to sell, Callaway purchases hers from the Atlanta State Farmers Market. She drives the 124-mile round trip to Atlanta every other day - sometimes every day - to hand pick out the freshest fruits and vegetables possible to sell her customers. “People follow me around when they see me at the market to see what I’m buying because they know that I only pick out the best,” Callaway said. Callaway’s reputation for always having the best produce has earned her nicknames such as “produce queen” or “tomato queen”, a nod to her best-selling item — tomatoes. In her time in the business, Callaway has grown City Produce from a produce stand in downtown Cumming to a stand at the Dixie Flea Market to a storefront at the North Georgia Premium Outlet Mall. “I started out with an outdoor produce stand, but it became harder and harder to keep an outdoor stand
CIT Y PRODUCE
in operation due to county codes,” Callaway said. “So we moved inside. The CEO of the outlet mall loved the idea of bringing my customers to the mall.” After 34 years of doing business outside, City Produce is now in its second year indoors, and Callaway said that her business is thriving in its storefront location. In addition to their large selection of fruits and vegetables, City Produce also offers Amish-made jams and jellies, freshly made salsa and local honey. “It’s nice not to have to worry about rain or storms, and we’re enjoying being inside in the air conditioning during the summer,” Callaway said. “And we have foot traffic from all over. I’ve had people in here from Duluth and Dallas, Ga.” But Callaway’s business has not been without its share of difficulties. In 2011, Callaway suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm, a type of aneurysm with a very high fatality rate. She was rushed to the hospital and managed to survive the aneurysm with a new outlook on life. “I survived that for a reason,” Callaway said. “And now I want to pay it forward to the community.” Callaway does this by donating what she doesn’t sell in her store to a food bank, and by always striving to provide her services to her customers. “Because of the aneurysm I qualified for disability, but I decided I loved this so much that I would keep doing it,” Callaway said. But Callaway could never see herself anywhere but operating City Produce. “I love what I do and I love this community,” Callaway said. “I’m going to do this as long as I can. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
DAW S O N C RO S S F I T
Dawson CrossFit Family friendly fitness business
Chip Sweatte speaks of his journey to start Dawson CrossFit and how his staff worked through the COVID-19 quarantine.
By Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com When a veteran and fitness buff decides to open up a gym for CrossFit, a workout specifically designed for highintensity workouts, some might assume that it would end up with environment too intense for just anyone to be a part of. But over the past seven years, Chip and Lynn Sweatte, owners of Dawson CrossFit in Dawsonville, have worked hard to build their local business into an accessible, family friendly space, where anyone can learn to be fit. “I’m very humbled,” Chip Sweatte said. “It’s quite an honor. We all have the same mentality of it being a blessing that we get to provide a service where we can make the members and the community as healthy as possible both mentally and physically. We are blessed every day that we get to open the doors.” Seven years ago, Sweatte’s doctor encouraged him to get into a more intense workout after discovering his blood pressure was running high.
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May/June 2020
A friend brought him to Dahlonega CrossFit to try it out, and the rest is history. Sweatte said that aside from the ‘grace of God,’ his staff is what makes the Dawson CrossFit a home for so many Dawsonville community members. “That’s our big secret,” Sweatte said. “Our coaches are so phenomenal. It’s a larger staff than you would normally expect to see, but they’re phenomenal young men and women that have other jobs. They do this one because they love the community, CrossFit, and the results that they’re helping provide our community members.” Sweatte is one of 16 coaches at Dawson CrossFit and said the entire coaching team has pitched in on the Zoom classes that the gym has started offering during the quarantine period of the COVID-19 outbreak. Members of the gym can continue to interact with their coach at home and ask them questions about the workout. The gym’s head coach, Luke Syfert, also films a warmup and a CrossFit workout of the day. This pre-recorded
workout is open to the public for anybody to try out, whether you’re one of the gyms’s 70-year-old members or a 6-yearold participating in the kid’s workout. “CrossFit is for everybody,” Sweatte said. “That’s one of the big fallacies that people have. I’ve got to get in shape before I get into CrossFit. That’s not true at all.” Sweatte said that during the COVID-19 outbreak, the gym would not have been able to continue functioning without support from the community. “It’s not just the physical health of everybody that we’re looking but it’s the mental health that happens right here in the lobby,” Sweatte said. “People work out, but then they’ll stand around and socialize. It truly is the best hour because people can forget about whatever they want to forget about and enjoy their CrossFit family, which sometimes is their actual family.” Sweatte said the entire staff worked hard to get the word out about CrossFit when they first decided to open the gym. Once popularity surrounded around CrossFit grew globally, more people would
DAW S O N C RO S S F I T
stop by the gym and notice how loving their coaches were. “We try to learn what motivates every person that comes into the gym,” Sweatte said. “Some people like to be encouraged, others don’t like to be looked at and some stand in the corner and wave their hands until you notice them. Once we learn that, we try to implement that.” Sweatte said he knows that loving one’s neighbor is a common theme in Dawsonville. “All you gotta do is walk outside and see the community,” Sweatte said. “People want to help people. This is still a community where when you drive down the road, people will stick their hand out the window and say hey as you drive by. Everybody just looks to help everybody.” As for the future of Dawson CrossFit, Sweatte said his staff is not afraid to get as creative as possible to provide the service that the gym is so passionate about. “We are going to continue to try and evolve for as long as we have this situation going on different ways that we can get involved with the community different things that they can do to stay active and healthy,” Sweatte said.
Through his kettle bell exercises, Sweatte shows that you have to love your business to be in business.
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May/June 2020
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CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The state of business in Dawson County By Christie Moore President | Dawson County Chamber of Commerce
It’s safe to say that we’ve been inundated with gloomy and negative messaging over the past few months. While I, like all of us, sometimes find myself overwhelmed by the onslaught of warnings and economic predictions, my sense of hope and pride in our community has greatly overpowered the moments of doubt. 2020 truly started off with a bang. Businesses of all types were sharing with us that they were experiencing their most profitable January and February on record. Our Chamber was thrilled to celebrate our 500th member, Hellman Chang, the custom fine furniture manufacturer which relocated to our small town from Brooklyn, N.Y. And then the unexpected happened, COVID-19 showed up in the United States and eventually our community. I do not mean to undermine the struggles that our local businesses are facing and may continue to face but the Dawson County business community’s response to the public health crisis has been a shining example of how a small community only becomes stronger when faced with adversity. Sometimes we can get too busy with
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May/June 2020
juggling the pressures and needs of balancing work and family life to reflect upon how special our community is. I know that sounds cheesy but let me give you a few insights into who we are and what makes our community the place that so many businesses and people choose to call home. We are a community that welcomes businesses and encourage entrepreneurs. Hellman Chang, for example, chose to relocate from a community of 2.5 million people to our town of 25,000. I wouldn’t presume to speak on their behalf but I have no doubt that one of the factors that influenced their choice of relocation was ease of doing business here. In a thriving small community like ours, businesses do not have to wait months to find support or get answers from local government. We roll out the proverbial welcome mat and do our best to give any needed support. We are a business community of cheerleaders. It would be difficult to find a business community that is more supportive of one another than the one we have in Dawson County. I have witnessed countless examples of small businesses referring customers to other businesses and finding unique ways to collaborate. For example, the Blue Bicycle recently collaborated with Because Coffee to create an amazing coffee creme brûlée. When local business Sweet Sassafras Boutique was looking to increase their visibility, they partnered with Soul Sisters Antiques to locate within their space.
We are a business community of creative thinkers. While this period of shelter in place has certainly redefined the idea of business as usual, our local businesses have risen to the challenge and found creative ways to support their customers. Whether it’s hosting a Facebook live shopping event like Purple Corn Boutique or offering park and pickup options with tutorials for at home usage like Clarity Skin Solutions, our business community finds a way to consistently innovate. We are a business community of helpers. As our Chamber team has made check in calls to our local businesses over the past few weeks, one of the most commonly asked questions has simply been- how can my business help? While our businesses were facing struggles of their own, they put the needs of the community first. Businesses of all types such as Home Depot and Dawson Nails & Beyond have proactively sought places to donate supplies to help ensure the safety of our first responders and Good Shepherd Clinic volunteers. Local laboratory equipment supplier, The Lab Depot, has helped source and supply countless items to help in the fight against COVID-19. While the rest of 2020 may not look exactly like we expected, I firmly believe that our business community is poised to thrive as we move forward. The entrepreneurial, can’t knock me down spirit runs deep in Dawson County and I am truly grateful to have a front row seat as our community redefines the idea of business as usual.
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