The Boone Show - S6 E10 - John Benca, Anderson County Auditor, McGee's Irish Pub Owner - The Boone Show

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome again to the Boon Show
on MyPulse Radio.
I'm John Boone, the boss lady.
Holly Harrell is here.

SPEAKER_11 (00:07):
Hey, good evening.

SPEAKER_03 (00:08):
Good to have you.
Um Danica's here.
Rattling, rattling into her seatover there.
But uh she's here to assist.
We appreciate that.
And our special guest today isJohn Benka, known as uh a couple
of different things in theAnderson County area.

SPEAKER_11 (00:26):
Different hats going on.

SPEAKER_03 (00:27):
He's uh an Anderson County auditor, which always
scares me when auditors walk in.

SPEAKER_11 (00:31):
You hear them the word auditor.

SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
It's like uh but also he uh he owns McGee's Irish
Pub, and we'll hear about uhboth those jobs um coming up.
Very very interesting uhcombination there.
Uh so John, how are you?
Thanks for coming in.
Great, thanks for having me.
Uh happy Tuesday.
Yes.
Yeah.
Tell us about um kind of uh yousent me a bio earlier about your

(00:54):
your education history and andjust kind of how you evolved
into uh the jobs you have today.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02):
Well, it's um it's a long story, but I'll give you
the abridged version.
Okay.
Uh I was born, I went to school,I got out of school and got a
job.

SPEAKER_11 (01:12):
That's a good way to do it in South Carolina.

SPEAKER_09 (01:14):
You grew up in Georgia?
My dad was a yeah, what my dadwas a career army uh engineer,
and um that's how I and becauseof that I wanted to be like my
dad.
So I said, one day I'm gonna bean engineer too.
So um, of course, uh being theoldest of four kids, anything
that was needing fixing, he did,and I had to hand him tools and
hold flashlights, and eventuallyI was like, well, I can do this

(01:37):
myself.
But um he retired in Atlantawhen I was in sixth grade, so
that was his last tour of duty,and I went to middle school,
high school, and started atGeorgia Tech there on a Navy RTC
scholarship.
And that lasted about as long asGeorgia Tech and I had a major
disagreement on my academicprowess, and my parents had

(01:59):
taken jobs uh with theUniversity of Georgia, so I was
encouraged strongly to followthem there and continue my
education, which I did.
I did, yeah, with the completeintention of going back to
Georgia Tech for a secondbeating.
Um it's a tough school, it's avery demanding curriculum.
And um, if you're not preparedfor that coming out of high

(02:21):
school, where you're at the topof your class here, you're not
necessarily at the top there.
So um a lot more work involved.
I did well, I just didn't dowell enough, really for my
standards, and and barely madethe minimum for there.
So Georgia, I I decided to go umpursue a Bachelor of Science in
Physics, mainly because that'sthe one degree that every

(02:44):
engineering discipline fallsunder in some capacity.
And I it gave me the opportunityto decide if I want to go back
to Georgia Tech or pursue agraduate degree.
I've got a lot more options.
So um that was my intent.
Finished that, worked my waythrough school a couple of
different jobs, restaurantsmainly, uh, preventive
maintenance for the Universityof Georgia over the summers.

(03:06):
Uh that got me into athleticfacilities, really just fixing
air conditioners and and gettingclose to the athletes, but not
actually being allowed to talkto them.
And then uh, and that's where Imet my wife.
And I started graduate schoolactually in uh agricultural
engineering.

SPEAKER_11 (03:23):
So you finished your bachelor's in physics?

SPEAKER_09 (03:26):
Kept going.
Kept going.
Yeah, on my dime, because my dadinsisted either you get a
scholarship or you're paying forit.
So that's one of the reasons Ihad to work through school.
And I met my wife um uh one ofthose opportunities where you're
really not, nah, I'm gonna focuson my studies, and girls can
take a backseat to that until abuddy encouraged me to go out

(03:50):
one night, and I'm like, okay,fine.
And um, I met her at this placecalled O'Malley's.
And it's uh it was uh it's notthere anymore, but at that time
it was the the most populardance club to go to, and I like
to dance, so um, we met andtalked because she was in the
same situation.
Her friends drug her out thatnight, and both of us didn't

(04:11):
really want to do any of this,but they paid our cover charge.
So for five dollars, uh you metyour wife serendipitously, met
my wife, and we I I I like tothink we struck it off really
well right away.
Um and she she tells it a littlebit differently.
But um as the night wore on, Iwalked her back to her dorm

(04:33):
room, and then the next day wegot snowed in at Georgia, and I
thought, well, I'm gonna I'mgonna call her up and see if she
wants to go.
Yeah, yeah, we'll we'll dosomething, grab coffee or
something.
And um I she didn't give me herphone number, and I searched my
pants pockets and it wasnowhere, and I'm like, what am I
gonna do?
So back in the day, theypublished phone books for the

(04:58):
university of all the students.
And so I sat down and opened itup and started, and I couldn't
remember her last name, but Iknew her first name was Dixie,
and I thought to myself, howmany Dixies could possibly be at
the University of Georgia?
Well, it would surprise you.
There were at least seven by thetime I got to the M's.

(05:19):
And as our rotary dialed theprevious six who hung up on me,
she said, What?
Oh, well, so uh we agreed tohave a study date and went out,
and um that that was that, youknow.
So that's funny.

SPEAKER_11 (05:33):
And how many years has that been?

SPEAKER_09 (05:35):
I call that pursuing and being persistent with that.
Uh 36, 37 years.
Wow.

unknown (05:40):
Wow.

SPEAKER_09 (05:41):
So um and it was the 80s, and music was great, and
Athens was a fun town to be in,and she was actually in home
economics and switched tolandscape architecture.
But I found out uh shortly afterwe met that she was at Georgia
Tech as well, just a year afterafter I had left.
So and the same experience, thatwasn't for her.

(06:04):
So um you never know what bringspeople together, you know, uh
what provides that opportunity.

SPEAKER_03 (06:10):
And a snowstorm in Georgia, though.

SPEAKER_09 (06:11):
And a snowstorm in Georgia.

SPEAKER_11 (06:13):
So what does your wife do now?

SPEAKER_09 (06:15):
Well, she's the general manager and executive
chef at our restaurant.
Which is the restaurant.

SPEAKER_03 (06:24):
I know.

SPEAKER_09 (06:24):
So that was um I would like to tell you that that
was my lifelong dream, butfrankly, it wasn't.
Um I knew I had experience,plenty of experience in the
restaurant business, havingworked through it in school.
But uh my first job out of outof uh college was at a local
manufacturing facility.
Because you got your degree inYeah, they didn't hire me for

(06:47):
that.
Right.
They didn't.
I said, that's great and all,but really we hired you because
you took German.
Really?

SPEAKER_02 (06:54):
Oh wow.

SPEAKER_09 (06:54):
So I went uh okay.
So they had a plant over inSwitzerland that was making a
product and they wanted to bringit to the United States.
So they hired me part-time totranslate the blueprints into
English so we could build ourown internal competition.
How about that variable speeddrive?

SPEAKER_11 (07:14):
So how long did you work there?

SPEAKER_09 (07:16):
Uh well that lasted about a year, and then they
hired me on full-time.
So I was there seven years.

SPEAKER_11 (07:22):
Okay.
And from there?

SPEAKER_09 (07:24):
And from there, um, I decided that we were gonna
need to move our family, whichwas just her and I, and I said
if I stay with the company, itwas breaking up at the time, um,
I'd have to move to Des Moines,Iowa.
And we both agreed that was ano-go.
Uh since our families were here.
And my wife's family isoriginally from Starr and have

(07:47):
been working the same land since1795.
So post-revolution type of athing.
They weren't going anywhere iswhat I'm saying.
Right.
Right.
And if we were gonna goanywhere, we were gonna end up
there.
So I figured, well, why not justnot have a series of job hops
and buying and selling homes,and was just move in with mom

(08:10):
and dad.
So that's what we did.
And um the intention at thattime was to continue my graduate
studies at Clemson, and I didget accepted there.
Um and then they had a budgetcrunch and cut out all the
fellowships that year, and I wasback on my own again.
I'm like, well, I don't I don'tknow if I really want to pursue

(08:33):
graduate school.
I'd always had this idea ofbeing in business for myself.
My grandfather was, and myfather-in-law was, and it was
just the other thing you coulddo.
Right.
So um I took a series of salesjobs.
Um not a series, really two ofthem, but the the the most fun

(08:54):
one was selling car phones.

SPEAKER_03 (08:59):
Back in the day when you were giant.
Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_09 (09:03):
Yeah, so they put me out there because I was I had
done uh door-to-door sales in incollege as well, and um they
hired me to go ahead and be theoutside sales guy and go to all
the companies in the SenecaClemson Pendleton area.
And and so I did, and the firstphone they gave me to sell was
the old brick phone MichaelDouglas had, and yeah, that
movie.

SPEAKER_11 (09:23):
Wow.

SPEAKER_09 (09:24):
And then they just come out with the flip phone,
the very first flip phone.
So it was an excitingtechnological um time, it was an
easy sell.
Um, it was either that orpagers.
Right.
So everybody that had a pagerall of a sudden wanted a phone.
Yeah, and I did that for about ayear and then decided I think I
wanted to get back into doingsomething that's a little bit

(09:45):
more fun.
So they were building theChili's restaurant on uh Clemson
Boulevard, and the parking lotwas graveled, and it said no
hiring, and I pulled right inand said, You need a bartender.
And they hired me on the spot.
So I helped them open thatstore.
My wife joined us there a couplemonths later because she was one

(10:06):
of the best waitresses I'd everworked with.
And we made a great team therein the in the restaurant and
opened up a few more around thesoutheast, and then I said, I
can do this for myself.
And that's either a great ideaor a very bad one.
And it depends on what you'regetting into.
So we just um knocked around afew ideas of what what was

(10:30):
Anderson missing, what was itneeding, um, what did we like?
Was there any place around herethat we like to go?
Greenville was just kind ofstarting its renaissance in its
downtown.
And um, so that led us to tothinking about what type of
restaurant we wanted to open,and then where are we gonna do

(10:50):
it and start looking atproperties.
So that took about a year andputting together a business plan
on really small salaries andwages and figuring out how to
put together a down payment.
But we did it and um it's beengoing strong.
Now we're in our 29th yeardowntown in the same location.
The building itself was um uh uhbuilt in the in the 40s, late

(11:14):
late 30s, early 40s, and it wasoriginally a um sales place for
case tractors, and then rightafter World War II, Jeep
Willie's.
And then it became the uhSullivan and Buick Pontiac
dealership until about 1978.
And that's when he said, I'mmoving out to Clemson Boulevard,

(11:38):
Belvedere Plaza, and um GeraldShore had a photography studio,
moved it into the front half ofthat building, and his son Greg
Shore, who's our coroner now,started his ambulance service
out the back door.
So um yeah, I we bought it in1996, um, and the owner of the

(12:00):
foundry in Steele um bought itfrom from Gerald.
Yeah so at some point there wasa newspaper printing shop in
there as well.
Um the Anderson Examiner, Ithink, for a little while.
But it's uh it's a solidbuilding, which is good, but you
know, when you buy somethingold, you gotta make it new

(12:21):
again.
So we literally gutted thebuilding and put in a restaurant
that wasn't there.
So that's a it was a bigundertaking in a short period of
time.

SPEAKER_11 (12:29):
But so how did you get from there to being an
auditor?

SPEAKER_09 (12:34):
Yeah, that's um I had I'd actually run for county
council in 2010 and 2012 almostsuccessfully.
And then decided for districtone and decided now it's just I
don't think I could do it again,and I'm not gonna run if the
person that's actually in officeis doing a good job.

(12:54):
There's no point in doing it,and plus it's difficult to beat
an incumbent.
So I put I put that off andsaid, maybe maybe the State
House one day or something likethat, but I'll focus on my
business, which is what we did.
So um in 2021, uh I have acouple of customers that would
come in and eat dinner and justbother me with the question, you

(13:15):
think you're gonna run foroffice again someday?
And I said, I don't know.
And he said, you know, you mightwant to think about the
auditor's position because hemay retire.
And I'm like, Well, what's thatdo?
And he we talked about it, andhe worked next door in the
assessor's office.
And so I said, Well, I'llconsider that.
I'll pick I'll pick his brand,I'll make an appointment and

(13:36):
talk to Mr.
Mr.
Hunter and and see if if that'sa shoe that fits.
Because at that time I had mydays free.
We weren't doing lunches at therestaurant.
Okay, and um I was at home withSam, who was our son, who was
two years old at the time, andI'm like, well, if I get him
into a preschool program, Istill have my days free.

(13:56):
I need to do somethingproductive, I just have to.
And um unfortunately I didn'tget the opportunity to talk to
Mr.
Hunter because he passed inearly February.

SPEAKER_06 (14:06):
He did.

SPEAKER_09 (14:06):
And that was um big loss for the county.
But I did in the meantime learna lot about the job itself.
Um so I filed in March and uhwon my primary in June, and then
was appointed by the governorfirst of July to take over and
get started because you reallycan't work unless you're
appointed to that.

(14:27):
That's right.
I would have had to wait to thefollowing July first without his
intervention.
But to to John, to to answeryour angstful question about
auditors, uh I feel the sameway.
Being in business, I don't wantto be audited.
I've been through that one timeand it's no fun, but that's not

(14:49):
the job.
The title is kind of uh it's anancient holdover from really the
1920s, 1930s, when the officeswere first established in the
state to actually provideoversight for land management
transactions to ensure thatsomebody wasn't owning a piece
of property that wasn't theirsor paying taxes on a piece of

(15:11):
property that they shouldn'thave been.
So, um, more or less it wasdesigned to be an oversight
function and then work inconjunction with your treasurer,
and in our building is on oneside, and the next office is the
assessor's office.
So anything that's real estateconnected in Anderson County

(15:32):
begins and ends in thatbuilding.
So when you sell a property orbuy a property, you get a deed
for it, it's recorded in theRegister of Deeds office, and
then it goes electronically downto the assessor's office, and he
puts a value on that.
Or I sold it for$120,000, that'sthe new basis for it.

(15:52):
And then that creates a propertytax record that gets transmitted
to my office once a year.
So we collect all of thatinformation from him as a value.
I assign the millages to it, andbasically we become the billing
department for local government.
And then you pay that bill nextdoor at the treasurer's office,
so he's the collectionsdepartment.

(16:14):
And um it's like in business,nothing happens until you make a
sale.
It can't.
And in local government, nothinghappens until a bill's created.
Right.
So hopefully people will paythem.

unknown (16:26):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (16:27):
Um but that's that's essentially a job in a nutshell.
So Bob handles anything realestate, and I'm talking about
Mr.
McLean, um, real estateconnected.
Everything else that's personalproperty is also subject to tax
in South Carolina, and thatincludes cars, trucks, boats,
planes, uh mobile homes, uh, orrather motor homes, uh, business

(16:54):
personal property, manufacturingproperty, manufacturing personal
property, utilities, railroads,and I'm probably missing
something else.
But there's a lot more to thatthat we bill.
If we don't do it monthly, mostof those are annual bills that
go out.
Why that's important, that hasto be accurate.
It has to reflect the millagefor that particular district

(17:15):
that that person is eitherresiding in or the property is
located.
And then um it's very regulatedby state code.
There's on there's some thingswe can do and some things we
can't do.
There's not a lot of latitude,it's either late or it's not, so
pay on time or pay early.
Um but really it makes me themost um at times uh disliked

(17:39):
person in in all of AndersonCounty.
But I'm fortunate that I have 45other auditors that you know we
can commiserate about that acouple times a year.
Um so my name is on your bill.
Uh my contact information isthere.
If it's not correct, of coursewe'll we'll be happy to fix it
and make it right.
Um human error is still a partof our process, but it's a

(18:03):
process and it's something thatuh, you know, if I'm not there
tomorrow, it still has tocontinue.
You know, somebody has to dothat job, the wheels or the
wheels come off.
So elections are are importantthings to making sure that the
process of government continues.
And um we could probably, youknow, if you open up the phone

(18:24):
lines and take 10 phone calls,you'd have 10 different opinions
about maybe what isn't rightabout what we're doing with it,
but at least you have theconfidence to know that the
process is honestly run.
We put a lot of integrity andpride into that.
And our number one goal is 100%uh customer service.
It's a customer service-drivenjob at the front windows.

(18:46):
So um you might imagine um ittakes a certain kind of person
that can say that can handledifferent personality types and
different emotions.
Um but it doesn't necessarilyhave to get to that point where
our goal is to to fit if there'sa problem, let's let's work with
the taxpayer on how to fix it.
Um the other part of that job islegislative.

(19:08):
And one thing that um I've foundis I knew less about local
government than I thought I did.
And I paid attention to politicsmost of my life.
But you know, you've got you'vegot the national budget and
you've got the national politicsof it at the state level.
But at the local level, anythingthat we're doing with Ad Valorum

(19:30):
or or value added property valuetax is it's levied locally, it's
collected locally, and it'sspent locally.
So none of that goes, none ofthat that we collect here goes
to the to the state in any way,shape, or form.
Or or anywhere outside of whereit's allocated specifically in

(19:50):
the budgets that your schoolboard, your county council, your
city council, your towncouncils, they they decide what
you're saying.
So it's I'm a numbers guy, so itfit me in the customer service
business, so that did as welltoo.
Um I like working with peopleand I've got a fantastic office.

(20:12):
Um I've got 28 employees in youknow, seven days a week, and
I've got 12 awesomeprofessionals the other five
days a week who were therebefore I got elected, and we're
out they're actually doing thework of running that office.
But uh you have to have a goodright-hand person, and I do.

(20:33):
And um one of the things Inoticed right away, because I'm
not a let's just clean house,that was a question that did
come up.
Are you gonna fire us all?
No.
And bring in your own people.
I'm like, I don't I don't havepeople.
Um and then um let's work withwhat we got and see if if we

(20:53):
have opportunities forimprovement.
Let's focus on those.
Otherwise, if it's not broken,let's not fix it.
But one of the things that wasglaringly obvious to me, um,
being in business, noticing thatyou you know this this person
only knows how to do this, andnobody else has to know how to
do what she does.
Well, that's no good.

(21:13):
Because if she goes on vacation,somebody's got to backfill that.
So we began um and and are stilldoing it continuously now is
cross-training.

SPEAKER_03 (21:22):
All right.
Great explanation.
Now we know we know.
Uh, when we come back, much morewith John Banka.
We'll be talking about uhMcGee's Irish Pub some more and
his media star son.
Look at his story uh coming up.
It's the Boone Show on My FallsRadio.

SPEAKER_00 (21:42):
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SPEAKER_04 (22:42):
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(23:04):
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SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
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(23:36):
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SPEAKER_05 (23:42):
What happens when the mind breaks free from the
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SPEAKER_06 (23:48):
Don't watch experience on Monday at 1 p.m.
at mypulseradio.com.

SPEAKER_03 (23:54):
Welcome back to the Moon Show on MyPulse Radio.
Our special guest tonight, JohnBenka, and he is the owner of
McGee's Irish pub.
Been there a long time.
Yes, it has.
And you know, I've never beenthere.
I've gone by it a hundred timesand I've never stopped in.
But now I I have to.
Yeah, I am smiling at you.

SPEAKER_09 (24:13):
Inside I'm saying, I hear that a lot.

SPEAKER_03 (24:15):
Yeah, really?
Oh, good.
Because uh I want to stop bybecause I I was reading about
the menu and it's like, yeah,that sounds like a lot of stuff
I like.

SPEAKER_11 (24:22):
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (24:22):
But I just haven't, for whatever reason, have never
stopped in before.
Um, so you told us about some ofthe history, that that building
that has just about every kindof business has been in there at
one time or another.
Um, the name comes from yourwife, right?
That's her maiden name, yes.
Maiden name McGee.

SPEAKER_11 (24:39):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (24:40):
That is talk about a country name now.
Come on, Dixie McGee.

SPEAKER_11 (24:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (24:44):
Yeah, it was she's a country girl, isn't she?
She is.
Yeah.
Um, and how did she be?
In a good way.
Um, hey, I married a countrygirl too.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Um, but you said she had, youknow, um, what was it?
Uh lawn what was her degree?
Landscape architecture.
Landscape architecture, that'sright.
But now she's the chef at uh atthe restaurant.

(25:06):
How did that come about?

SPEAKER_09 (25:07):
Well, it we it it was actually well, we had a
third partner uh originally umfor about a year and a half, and
we're still friends, but it waswhat do you want to do?
Well, I'll do this, and okay,well, I'll do that.
No, I was a numbers guy, so Isaid I'll do the bookkeeping and
um we'll split the bartendingduties and then we'll all

(25:30):
rotate.
But after a few weeks, it got tothe point where somebody really
has to focus on what happens inthe kitchen.
She says, I'll just do thatbecause honestly, I'm not as
good out front.
Or I'd rather not, if unless Ihave to.
Now, don't get me wrong, she'sgot a great dynamic, outgoing
personality when but but it'sit's not what she wants to do.

SPEAKER_03 (25:53):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (25:54):
So let's gravitate to the things that were were
strongest and kind of go fromthere.
What what she does now is itfulfills a bit of her creative
side.
So she hasn't lost thatopportunity.
I mean, when I met her, she wasdesigning ball gowns and things
like this, and that's just I'lldesign it, I'll do this, and

(26:16):
that's what I'll wear in thatpageant, you know, that kind of
thing.
So um with aspirations of goingto New York and going to one of
the fashion houses.
And I'd like to tell people thatI didn't dissuade her from that,
or she just didn't have you knowa taste for that anymore.
She's got other outlets to beable to be creative with now.
Um so that from a culinarystandpoint, I mean, the world is

(26:39):
essentially your oyster.
You just pick the ingredientsand then figure out something to
do with them.
Or I'd like to say anybody canfollow a recipe, but they really
can't.
And um creating something fromscratch and have it taste good,
look good, and have somebodywant to come back and try that
again is a is a great deal ofjoy and satisfaction in that.

(27:00):
So uh she took it upon herself,like she does everything.
If she wants to go ahead andlearn something, she just dives
in a hundred percent and justit's immersion, learning by
immersion.
And that led to well, if we'regonna go eat someplace, we
should eat someplace we're gonnalearn something at.
So almost every time we go outto eat is an RD trip.

(27:21):
You know, if we go out of thecountry, which we do from time
to time, um, it's with purpose.
You know, so we line somethingup or find we we get restaurants
at a uh reservations at arestaurant with a set chef that
we want to meet or try theircooking.
Not with the net necessarily theidea of coming back and then
putting that on our menu, butlearning a technique.

(27:41):
It's all about technique andfeel and touch and smell and
sound.
It's really uh all senses ondeck type of an opportunity if
you're gonna be a chef.
Um so you've got chefs thatmanage restaurants, you've got
chefs that actually managerestaurants and cook in
restaurants, and she's veryhands-on, but along the way, she
developed systems that make ourrestaurant run profitably and

(28:03):
our kitchen run well andefficiently.
So it's allowed me to be able tofocus on the other stuff.
The other thing that she does dofor us is our social media and
our marketing, and it's youknow, she's not doing that,
she's sitting down there, like,what event do we have to come up
with next, you know?
And believe it or not, we'realready talking about St.

(28:23):
Patrick's Day and have been fora month now.
Oh yeah.
Um, so it's a it's a one-off umonce-a-year thing that can last
an entire weekend like it didlast year.
But um after it's uh all saidand done, and 2,000 people have
left your building, you're like,oh, I can't wait to just get
back and cook a order of fishand chips as far.

(28:45):
Get back to normal.
But it's it's not why we did it.
Um she's Scot Irish, and um mostof the heritage of this part of
North of South Carolina andNorth Carolina's Scott-Irish by
descent.
And that's different than Irish,and it's different than a 100%
Scotsman.

(29:05):
And no, it's not a mashup of thetwo.
It's actually a group of peoplewho migrated from Scotland to
Ireland to Northern Ireland, andthen from Northern Ireland to
the United States when it was acon when they were colonies, and
then migrated down through theAppalachian Mountains and up
from Charleston into this partof Appalachian in the foothills.

(29:27):
So a lot of the names, if youopen up, if you had a phone book
to open up, you'd see theMurphy's and the McGee's and the
O'Malley's and the, you know,it's it's quite I think I'm
Irish, is what I hear a lot.

SPEAKER_02 (29:39):
My mom tells me I am.

SPEAKER_09 (29:41):
But Irish cooking's very much home cooking.
Um, and we've been to Irelandseveral times and I'm like,
yeah, we we're doing it right,but we're doing it like our
grandparents cooked.
Like Irish stew is not Irishstew everywhere you get it, or
shepherd's pie certainly isn't,but fish and chips is probably
The thing that keeps the roof onour over our head.

SPEAKER_11 (30:02):
Your shrimp and grits are on spot.

SPEAKER_09 (30:05):
You see, that's why I have to go secret lunch.
And I'll tell you that probablythe biggest secret to that is
the grits themselves.
Do you do local grits?
Um sometimes we do.
We use so much of it.
We've done Tim's Mills.
But um so when we can we do.

(30:27):
Um and we source uh productsfrom local farmers.
Um we get beef from one of hercousins who's got uh an Angus
farm and uh short horns, andwe'll get a cow or two a year,
which is a lot of meat, andgetting specific cuts, then
we'll use those for featuredspecials for for beef because

(30:50):
we're a meat and potatoescountry.
That's right, and this is a meatand potatoes county.
Yeah, so everything on our menuis not just Irish.
We have what we call the bigfive that have to be on any
Irish pub menu anywhere inAmerica.
And um, so we have those, andthat includes the Shepherd's pie
fish and chips, the Irish stew,bangers and mash.

(31:10):
Um so those and then beef, Iwould assume, too.
Corn beef and cabbage.

SPEAKER_10 (31:15):
I never get anything but a shrimp and grass, just
saying.
But then uh we have oh they dohave these chips with uh um
stuff on top of them, um likecheese and yeah, the the loaded
cheddar.
Okay, that's it.

SPEAKER_09 (31:28):
We have things that aren't good for you too.
Yes, those two.
But we do offer vegetarianoptions and gluten-free options
and things like that.
We've evolved as the culinarylandscape has, and um, she's
been front and center with withmaking sure that we're
approachable to people that mayhave certain allergy or diet
dietary.

SPEAKER_08 (31:48):
Um I've seen some of the reviews, uh, some were
complaining about not many drinkoptions options.
Have y'all changed any of that?

SPEAKER_09 (31:55):
Wow, Danica, because that's a first for me, but uh
well, understand when when whenwe opened, um the only other
Irish pub in the entire statewas down in Charleston.
And uh I called those guys upand said, Hey, I need to get
Guinness.
I'm thinking about opening anupper Irish pub here.

(32:17):
And it took me a year to get thecontact and get them to believe
that this was happening toactually get Guinness beer out
of Charleston and up to theupstate.
So we started with Guinness andBass and a couple of other um
Irish and British um offerings,and then the domestic things,
because that's what people weredoing at that time.

(32:38):
We didn't have to be a whole lotof flavors, but we've grown our
whiskey selection, we've grownour um the beer selection to 17
taps, and for a while there wehad the most taps in in
Anderson.
Um, and for a while the onlyGuinness you could find anywhere
outside of Charleston.
And creating that market andthat when people would come in

(33:01):
and say, hey, you know, thatthat's interesting, or I, you
know, I had that in Atlanta, Iwant to try it here, you know,
or here it's different here thanit is in Ireland, it's the same
product, okay.
But okay, it's context, right?
In Ireland, of course,everything's gonna taste better
there.
You know, if you go to France,it's gonna a French meal is
gonna taste the best, right?
Sure.

(33:21):
So we imported um a culinaryculture into this part of the
state, and now you find iteverywhere.
Yeah.
And I'm like, well, you'rewelcome.
But um, we practically had todrive to Charleston to get that
first keg for St.
Patrick's Day.

SPEAKER_10 (33:36):
So what's your favorite meal there?

SPEAKER_09 (33:38):
Uh there, oh wow.
I had something new today.
She did a um, oh, it was cornchips and chili.
It's like a Texas chili thing.
It was nuts.
Um, I'm like, yeah, I'll havethat in a salad because I'll
feel better.
But I love our I love our Frenchonion soup.
Um, I'll always get a salad.

(33:59):
And then um I like our Irishwhiskey steak, which is which is
a marinated um New York strip.
Medium, medium rare, loadedmashed potatoes on the side, and
whatever the vegetable day is.

SPEAKER_07 (34:14):
Okay.

SPEAKER_09 (34:15):
Okay.

SPEAKER_07 (34:16):
What would what would you write the loaded
fries?
Because I've seen them, theylook really good.

SPEAKER_09 (34:21):
The loaded fries, I think that's our probably our
number two best-selling umappetizer next to the fried
mushrooms.

SPEAKER_03 (34:28):
Oh, I love them too.

SPEAKER_09 (34:29):
Yeah, me too.
Um so it's been it's been a it'sbeen a journey, I'll say that.
And to be able to to figure outthat we're the kind of people
that just don't quit.
You might call that stubborn,pig headed, or dumb, but uh um
we've had a few recessions we'vewe've lived through.

(34:50):
Um nobody saw this pandemiccoming, so that was new.
Um a hurricane and uh a tornadoin the same year.
Right.
Um it's I don't want to ask theuniverse what's next.
But each one of those things, ifif you work through it, I don't
want to say live through it, ifyou work through it and you uh

(35:12):
you put your head down and say,you know, we're not gonna quit,
we're gonna figure out how tomake this work differently now
and evolve as you go along,you're a little bit stronger and
a little bit better prepared tohandle the next thing that may
come along.
So let's hope nothing else does.

SPEAKER_03 (35:27):
Um restaurants can't say that they've been around for
almost thirty years.

SPEAKER_09 (35:33):
Not with the same owners.

SPEAKER_03 (35:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (35:35):
No, well that's true, nothing with the same
owners.
And I'll tell you, it it couldbe a marriage killer.
It really can.
So um to the the the fact thatsomebody said, Well, how do you
how how do you work with yourwife?
And and I'm like, why is that astrange question?
I went into business because Iwanted to spend more time with
her.
And if we were doing the samething, I already enjoyed working

(35:56):
with her in other people'sbusinesses.
So I'm like, no, this is this iswhat we want to do.
And if she had said no at anytime during the you know, the
initial process of it, weprobably would have just hung it
up and moved on to somethingelse or go to work for Bosch or
I'd go back to doing that.
Um I should mention as well,too, that you know, talk about

(36:18):
hats you wear, when the when themarket was going through its
correction in 2011 and 2012,when everything was upside down
and you know, the bottom fellout of this, that, and the other
thing.
I went and got my real estatelicense.
Oh wow.
Because I thought, what ifnobody wants to come out and eat
anymore?
You know, somebody's gonna haveto sell the properties.

(36:40):
So I've kept that now for 13, 14years.
And that's been real helpfuljust from a knowledge standpoint
with what I deal with in theauditor's office as well.
So there's some crossover there.
Also, my experience in businessand what you need to do in the
state of South Carolina to starta business and the forms you
need to fill out and the taxesyou need to pay.

(37:01):
I I'm better equipped to be ableto help those business owners
you know, chart those waters,you know, if they want to do
things on the up and up.

SPEAKER_11 (37:09):
So, really, the most important question to this
entire statement and your entirehistory, professional history,
are you a yellow jacket?
Are you a bulldog?

SPEAKER_09 (37:21):
He's a bulldog, or are you a tiger?
I'm afraid I've I'm the I'm abulldog 100%.

SPEAKER_11 (37:27):
Okay, okay.
Yeah.
Wasn't sure, you know, sinceyou're not sure.
I'm a rabid bulldog.

SPEAKER_09 (37:32):
It's it's better if I watch Georgia at home than any
place public.
Okay.
And and Sam likes him too.
Sam's a whole different story,but he's a bulldog.
We're coming out to talk to Sam.

SPEAKER_03 (37:45):
Yes, we're gonna do that right now.
That's a good segue.

SPEAKER_09 (37:47):
Good segue.

SPEAKER_03 (37:48):
Tell us all about Sam.

SPEAKER_09 (37:50):
Sam.
Sam's uh, yeah, as I mentionedto you, uh, you know, off the
air, it's um we're olderparents.
We spent 25 years building abusiness, always wanted to have
a family and start a family.
That's part of our we agreed onthat on the front end.

(38:11):
And fortunately andunfortunately, it just never
happened for us the way itconventionally does.
And after a fashion, we said,well, you know, what we went
through meeting with doctors andwhatnot, and the news wasn't
positive, and we went, well, youknow what?
Still there's kids out therethat need a home.

(38:31):
So we got in touch with thelawyer and uh an agency over in
Spartanburg that does good workat placing um infants, babies,
kids with appropriate families.
I say appropriate because hetakes it a step further.
He'll ask a birth mom, what whatare your needs and wants?

(38:54):
Where would you want?
You know, but they they approachhim and say, I'm in school, this
is my story, and and this isjust too much, and I'd rather
have a child in a good home.
And then they do that withprospective birth parents as
well.
So they draw up a uh basically amatrix, and when um a mother

(39:18):
comes to the agency, they sortthe most likely ones that meet
her needs and vice versa.
So that was a process.
And it it took about a year toget off of or to get onto the
wait list.

SPEAKER_10 (39:38):
Oh wow.

SPEAKER_09 (39:38):
And then about another year to get off the wait
list to an active, what he callsan active list, where he's only
shopping a smaller pool and he'sgot a really good a really good
system, and very successful withwith how things turn out.
So he's like, Well, do you knowwhat you want?
I'm like, I don't care, as longas ten fingers, ten toes.

(40:00):
Happy.
And so we forgot about it.
And um, I got a phone call,literally forgot about it
because life just moves on.
And he called me up on a Fridaynight, and that Sunday was St.
Patrick's Day that year.
And I went, Who's this?
And he says, It's Jim.

(40:21):
And I said, Do I owe you money?
He says, No, no, no, no, no,just check it in.
I'm like, Well, we're we'redoing fine, what's up?
Got a busy weekend.
Yeah, just want to let you knowthat if you're still interested,
a birth mom picked you.

SPEAKER_02 (40:36):
Wow.

SPEAKER_09 (40:36):
And I went, what?
So um I said, hang on a second.
And I made Dixie get in theoffice and listen to that as
well, too.
And I had to think about it, Isaid, Do we still want to go
through with this?
Because now we're we're reallythe business was picking up and
all this.
And she says, Yeah, we're in fora penny, we're in for a pound.
So um we said, yeah, when when'sthis happening?

(40:59):
Oh, next Wednesday.
Great.
I can get through this weekend,and um, and I'm thinking, how
much am I gonna owe them on theback end, you know?
Because it's there's a cost toit.
And he said, Um, don't worryabout it, they'll do this on
Wednesday.
Just come down to Columbia andget a hotel room and we'll bring

(41:20):
you in to meet.
You can meet them if she wantsto meet you guys.
But first, if you could talk toher on Saturday, and I'm like,
how am I gonna do that?
I'm like, okay, absolutely, youjust name the time.
So we did that, and it was alovely conversation, and sure
enough, she was on her own, youknow, not a great family support

(41:44):
system, in school and doingwell, taking care of her younger
brother and paying for anapartment, doing all of that,
and so um I'm like, great, we'llsee you.
We'll see you Monday.
Hung up the phone.
And then had you know, recordbreaking Friday, record breaking
Saturday.
I'm like, this is and we'rebeat.

(42:07):
And Sunday is St.
Patrick's Day, and I'm leavingthe house, and the phone rings
again.
It's a social worker going, youguys are still planning on
coming Monday, right?
And I'm like, Yeah, is theresomething wrong?
She goes, No, no, no,everything's fine.
I'm like, good, okay, yeah, no,I gotta get to work.
And she goes, Well, the babycame last night.
And I went, I'm shutting the pubdown.

(42:28):
So I said, Hold on to thatthought, and um, and let me call
you back because I live abouttwo minutes from the pub.
So ran over there and grabbedDixie, and that made her mad.
I need you in the office andshut the door.

SPEAKER_10 (42:41):
And you don't have time for this.

SPEAKER_09 (42:44):
Exactly.
And I said, You have time forthis.
And I called it up.
I said, Okay, tell her what youjust told me.
And she did, and um and then shesaid, It's a boy.
You know, tears are flowing, andis he okay?
Yeah, the boy's okay, she'sokay, but um I said, I'll come

(43:05):
down there right now.
No, no, no, no need to do that,just be here in the morning.
So we drove to had a great St.
Patty's Day.
And after all was said and done,the um the um, and you never
know the the you know, God worksthe way he works, right?
Not the way you plan it, not theway you think about it, even the

(43:25):
way you pray about it, or when,right?
But um we got down to Columbiaand uh spent the entire day
there, got to spend time withher one-on-one while they were
cleaning Sam up.
And then a few hours later we'rein the car.

SPEAKER_11 (43:41):
With Sam?

SPEAKER_09 (43:42):
With Sam.
I had to buy a car seat.
And you should have seen us gothrough Walmart that morning.
I bet.
It was like this shopping carts,she's catching things in the
shopping cart, and wait, we needbaby wipes, which are the
greatest invention ever, by theway.
Um, so and got down to Columbiaand five o'clock, traffic in
Columbia is nothing, it's nofun.

(44:02):
And we're pulling out of the umhospital there, and I said, No,
now what do we do?
How do we do that?
And she's like, just drive.
She sat in the back seat withthem, and we drove back.
I said, You think it's a goodtime to call our parents and let
them know what happened?
So, um, and that's what did youget to name him?
Yeah, well, we you know, wehadn't thought about names since

(44:24):
um 1989.
Um so on the way down, um, wegot about down to Lawrence, and
I'm like, you know, we we've gotabout one hour to think of a
name.
We gotta put on a birthcertificate.
And she's like, You're right.
And so uh then you go blank.

SPEAKER_03 (44:41):
Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_09 (44:42):
And then I'm like, you do what my family did.
When you got four boys, youstart with all the apostles'
names, and then you start, thenyou go through the let's go
through the prophets, you know.
And she goes, I so part of itwas she she wanted to have him
to have a name, to be the kindof a guy when he walked into a
room, he can just go up to youand say, Hey, I'm Sam.

(45:03):
Yeah, it's an easy, short, easyto remember, and it's friendly.
And so Sam, yeah, that's good.
But we hadn't come up with Sam.
It was Zach, we went withZachariah, that Zach, you know,
and and so on and so forth.
And um, and I said, What aboutSam?
What about Samuel?
Samuel was a prophet, right?
Pull it up on your phone, let'sread up on that.

(45:25):
So, Samuel, if you know thestory, was was born to Hannah.

SPEAKER_03 (45:32):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (45:33):
Hannah was beyond her years of having a k of a
child of her own.
Gave him up.
Gave him up.
But the name Samuel means moreor less uh God heard my prayer.
Right.
So I'm like, that's it.
He shall be John Samuel.
So he's got my first name.

SPEAKER_11 (45:51):
But you call him Sam.
Yeah.
Very cool.
That's awesome.
And how old is Sam now?

SPEAKER_09 (45:57):
Sam is now six and a half.

SPEAKER_11 (45:58):
And he probably runs your house.

SPEAKER_09 (46:00):
He believes he does.
This morning was a challengegetting up and going.
But uh it it is for me too, somemornings.
But everything changes.
And when we came back fromColumbia, we're like, okay,
we'll figure it out.
We figure everything else out.
But our you know, just theschedule's gotta change, dot dot

(46:22):
dot.
So I was um Mr.
Mom for for the first two yearsfor a couple hours a day, and
she'd go in, do some stuff, andthen come on over, and um it was
awesome.
But um, but we had thought aboutyou know, now we gotta save for
college, now we gotta thinkabout schools, now we gotta do
this, and now we gotta, oh mygosh, there's T-ball.

(46:45):
And uh so he's right now he'd behere tonight as I as I told you,
except for the fact he's gotkarate now.
That's his latest thing.
But he took two years of dance,t ball, soccer.
And I wanted him to try.
And I encourage parents to dothat, don't fixate on it
necessarily one activity, letthem gravitate to the thing that
is gonna interest them, andthey'll be the most successful

(47:06):
with.
Uh it doesn't mean he won'tchange his mind.

SPEAKER_03 (47:09):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (47:09):
But somewhere along the way, when he was one, he
grabbed a phone and then startedfiguring out the phone.
And uh so he's my tech wizardnow.
And uh we um have gone throughall of the Paw Patrol and you
name it things, and now he's onto the superheroes, etc.

(47:32):
And uh so I'm I'm the filterpolice.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, notthat version, that's when you're
13 version.
But um so to try to make itconstructive, my wife said, Hey,
why don't we do this togetherand start filming some of the
trips we take and put segmentstogether?

(47:54):
And they came up with the nameof this YouTube channel himself,
and it's Sam Can.
Now there's a lot of Sam Cans dothis and Sam can do that.

SPEAKER_03 (48:04):
Looking up the channel.

SPEAKER_09 (48:06):
So he came up with that.
And what we try to do was takesnippets of where we're at that
if another child his age waswatching it, it would be
instructive and fun andinteresting for them as well,
too.
And that was his goal.
So it's in a in a sea of so muchnot great stuff for kids to

(48:27):
consume, um, he wanted to puttogether something that was
wholesome and good.
Yeah, and those are my words,not his.

SPEAKER_03 (48:33):
I will I will say, Holly, I I've watched several
episodes.
He's a natural.
He is.
I will tell you the uh thepulling the tooth one was a
little cringy.

SPEAKER_09 (48:42):
Yeah, it was oh and then it was like he was he was
such a trooper.
I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 (48:48):
Yeah, exactly.
But it's cool to have mom anddad both there, you know, you're
filming, mom's helping him withwhatever he's doing, or vice
versa.

SPEAKER_09 (48:56):
She's the director.

SPEAKER_03 (48:57):
Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (48:58):
So she'll give him the dialogue and he'll change
it.

SPEAKER_03 (49:01):
But you're you're growing corn, I saw there, and
uh had him pick some corn offthe sticking the stalks and um
And then we went brought itinside and cooked something with
you.

SPEAKER_09 (49:11):
Yes, yes, yeah, and uh he's done he's been cooking
since he's been three.
You know, not with sharpobjects, but he wants to be
wherever you're at and he'sabsorbing that like I did with
my dad, under you know, changingbrakes on a car.
And um he's very hands-on andhe's very wants to try to do it

(49:31):
all himself if he can.
And then he asks for help.

SPEAKER_03 (49:34):
How long do you think he'll have this channel?
I mean, it it could go onforever.
It could.

SPEAKER_09 (49:43):
So am I.
I'm like, why not?

SPEAKER_03 (49:45):
Um I saw him celebrate his uh 50 subscribers.

SPEAKER_09 (49:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (49:49):
His first little monetary.

SPEAKER_10 (49:51):
He's got a lot.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (49:53):
It's it's we've actually took a little bit of a
sabbatical from that for thelast several months, and then we
realized we really need to makesomething else.
We've gotten so busy with onceschool started.
But um the daddy spaghetti'sact, that's actually something I
make every Thursday at home.
Pro tip, dad's if you're lookingto make your spaghetti something
and and fast, saute up a hot dogand throw that in there.

SPEAKER_02 (50:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (50:18):
And that's a daddy spaghetti.
Okay.
But he had all the ingredientsset out, you know, because he'll
watch cooking shows with my wifeand all, except he he's not a
big fan of uh who's the oldlady.
Uh joy of cooking.
I just drew a blank.
Julia Child's.
Oh, Julia Childs.
Oh my goodness.

(50:39):
Dick'll be rolling through theold all the way the black and
white ones.
He'll roll his eyes and then uhgrab your phone and then find a
video.

SPEAKER_11 (50:47):
So it's not just Sam Kahn, it's Sam Kahn with an
expedition.
Exclamation book.
That's what's at Sam Witch.
That's what makes it easier toSam with S C.

SPEAKER_09 (50:57):
Samwitch is also the morning hug.
He's in the he's the middlepiece, and we're the bread on
the outside.
That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 (51:04):
I mean, that's and hey, if you want to bring him by
the studio anytime, let him do ashow.
He loves microphones.

SPEAKER_09 (51:11):
He likes being in front of the camera.
And he's he gave me an ask.
He said, you know, I like RyanReynolds.
I think I want to be an actor.
And I'm like, well, if you wantto be an actor, Ryan Reynolds is
probably your model.
He's a good-looking guy, andhe's done a lot of great stuff,
and he's pretty wealthy.

SPEAKER_03 (51:28):
I don't know about that one, yeah.
But um, it that's that's reallya cool story about the adoption.
Um, as everyone knows, I wasadopted myself as as a as a
baby.
And we adopted two, and one ofthem's name is Sam.
And he was only, I think, twoyears old when we got him.
Um one question along thoselines I wanted to ask you is uh,

(51:53):
when do you think you'llapproach that subject with Sam?

SPEAKER_09 (51:57):
We already have.
Oh, good.
Actually, we can it's kind ofbeen probably about a year or
so.
Um I mean, the books will tellyou, and I've read them, you
know, wait till they're seven oreight or that type of thing.
And I'm like, the question'sgonna come up in school.
Sure.
You know, what's your dad do?
Where are you all from?
You know, it's it's sooner orlater.
Um so Dixie handled it.

(52:17):
We we discussed it, and I'd comehome from uh closing the
restaurant up one night, andshe'd already she said, uh we
had we had the talk, and I said,Okay, how do you take it?
And uh she said, Well actuallyhe asked me, Really?
He goes, you know, when you pickme up is what he says.
Um what was it like?
And so she went into that withhim.

(52:38):
And then um she was verypositive about it.
It's a closed adoption, so um at18 should he choose to, and and
she wants to, they can meet, youknow.
But between now and then, shegets an annual update from us.
We put together a letter andphotographs and p a story for
the past year and sent itthrough the uh through the

(52:59):
agency to her.

SPEAKER_11 (53:00):
Is that something you choose to do or is that a
requirement?

SPEAKER_09 (53:03):
Um it's something they asked us if we wanted to,
okay, and we've chosen tocontinue to do it.

SPEAKER_11 (53:08):
Gotcha.
So what any time you can choosenot to do it.

SPEAKER_09 (53:11):
Yeah.
Okay.
But we won't.
We we gave our word and and uhwhether she reads them or not,
we don't know.
Right.
But we keep a copy of that andit's a nice chronicle of his
childhood.
So I need that because I forgotwe did some of that stuff, you
know.
So yeah, it's uh and it wasn'ttoo long after that, John, that

(53:32):
that he's he sat he sat down inmy lap and we were watching TV
or something one night.
He said, Um, yeah, I want to Iwant to thank you for picking me
up and bringing me to your home.
I'm like, Well it's your homenow.
He goes, Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 (53:49):
So how did he how did he know though that that you
picked him up?
I mean she told him obviously hedidn't remember.

SPEAKER_11 (53:54):
I mean, she said you're adopted.
She said, We chose you.

SPEAKER_09 (53:57):
We chose we chose you.
We went to a hospital and we wechose you, and somebody else
chose us to take care of you forthe rest of your life.

SPEAKER_03 (54:06):
And so, yeah, like me, when I found out, when I
found out, no regrets at all.
I was like, I'm in a greatfamily.
Yeah, I don't, you know, thisdoesn't matter.
Now, of course, later in life Igot to meet my parents.
Um, but I thank my my adoptiveparents every day for the life
that they gave me.
Yeah.
Um, and I'm sure he will, andeven when he's a big media star

(54:28):
and has uh his monetized channeland that's right five million
followers, and he's like theTruman show, and he has a whole
life uh out on uh out on videothat he started when he was uh
what six or seven years old.

SPEAKER_09 (54:45):
So uh the the going I mean going to Boston was a lot
of fun for me.
That's that's my favorite city.
Okay.
So we broke that into threeparts, and um, you know, I'm
like I'm a Red Sox fan.

SPEAKER_03 (54:57):
Now, how did that develop?
Did you have Boston?

SPEAKER_09 (55:00):
I started my my dad was stationed up there when I
was like 10.
And so when I started playingLittle League, you were in the
Red Sox.
I was stuck, it was 1975.
Yeah.
And they were in the WorldSeries, and everybody up there
was just forget about it.
That's what you do.
That's who you are now.

SPEAKER_03 (55:16):
Yeah.
And then you finally hit thatgood streak of winning a bunch
of World Series after notgetting at anything.

SPEAKER_09 (55:23):
Yeah, well, my dad's a Yankees fan.
He was born in the Bronx.

SPEAKER_03 (55:25):
Yeah, so it's how do you guys coexist?

SPEAKER_09 (55:29):
Since 2004, a lot better, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 (55:33):
I bet he still says 27, 29.
He does, he does.
He told me that that year.

SPEAKER_09 (55:37):
I was like, what do you think of that, Dad?
We just saw something that yourdad never saw in his whole
lifetime.
Yeah.
He moved uh from Europe to umthe United States in um 1929.
So, you know, the Sox were doneby then.

SPEAKER_02 (55:51):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (55:52):
So um it was just all the Yankees, yeah, and the
cards.
But uh yeah, no, so moving toAtlanta, uh, it was a desolate
wasteland for professionalsports in the 70s and and much
of the 80s, really, until theBraves got hot.

SPEAKER_03 (56:08):
Yeah.
And I remember what they used tosay about the Braves is that if
you go to a Braves game downthere, everybody gets a free
foul ball.
You did because there is enoughfor everybody, because there was
nobody in the stands.
But uh they've turned thataround.

SPEAKER_09 (56:22):
They have.
Well, they had a rough year thisyear, but uh I still follow them
too.
So I got my National League teamand I got my American League
team.
But when he was six months old,I said, We're going to Boston.
Yeah.
So we flew up there and youknow, in the stroller and all.
And uh I'm a big stroller fanbecause you can stow things in a
stroller stroll.

(56:43):
Yeah, coffee and uh so yeah, wetook him to a Red Sox game as
quick as I could, and they lost.

SPEAKER_03 (56:52):
I've never been to Feds.
I'd love to go to Feds.

SPEAKER_09 (56:55):
It's a treat.
So we we we did it again umrecently, and uh that's that was
part of it.
It got rained out.
Um but we got four we got fourinnings in and they were ahead.
So good fun.

SPEAKER_03 (57:06):
All right.
Well, we're getting close to thetime of wrapping things up.
This has been great story time.
Uh here with John Banka on theBoone Show.
We usually at the very end ofour show we get uh
recommendations.
Now you we're not gonna ask youto recommend anywhere else
except McGee's, but uh I do haveone more question because you
brought up the shrimp and grits.

(57:27):
I was just wondering what youdon't have to give away any
secret recipes, but everybodymakes them a little different.
What are the highlights of yourshrimp and grits?
What do you put in it?

SPEAKER_09 (57:36):
I I can't tell you what's different about the the
grits.
It's how you make the gritsthat's different, and it's
off-putting to some peoplewho've never had them before if
they're not made right becausethey're just it they gotta be
creamy.

SPEAKER_11 (57:50):
Very creamy.

SPEAKER_09 (57:50):
There's your hint and buttery.
But with with the shrimpthemselves, we do them tail-on,
so you get 100% of the flavor ofthe shrimp itself.
We saute them lightly in inbutter, garlic.
We use a uh Trinity, which isyou know what you find in a lot
of Cajun dishes, just a littlebit of Cajun spice and white

(58:13):
wine.

SPEAKER_03 (58:14):
Any meat you put in there?
You put any sausage or okay,bacon?

SPEAKER_09 (58:17):
Yeah, you can put sausage in it too.
Okay.
That would be fine.

SPEAKER_03 (58:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (58:20):
You know, everybody does it, if they're doing it at
home, puts the things in it theywant to, and then it ends up
being more of a jambalaya.
Jambalaya, really.

SPEAKER_03 (58:28):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 (58:29):
But it's it's it's fun to cook.
And and just if you've neverflipped a pan, it's fun to do
that.
Oh, there's one that got out,you know.
Do it at home, have fun with it.
A little bit of wo of whitewine, it burns off.
The alcohol will burn off.
And then it's that just addsanother layer of flavor to it.
And mine, if I'm eating it, Ilike to squeeze a little bit of

(58:50):
lemon on top.

SPEAKER_08 (58:52):
Do you serve the grits with anything else other
than shrimp?

SPEAKER_09 (58:55):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_08 (58:55):
Okay.

SPEAKER_09 (58:56):
Oh, yeah.
And we do brunch on Sundays, Ishould tell you that.
Saturday and Sunday from 11 to3, we do a brunch, a series of
brunch items in addition to thewhole regular menu.
Um, so right now we're sevendays a week, lunch and dinner.
So when do you all sleep?
Right?
Ten to six.
I mean maybe twelve to six.

(59:16):
I mean, I really I get my timein.
I get my six hours.

SPEAKER_11 (59:19):
You know, you work all week, I would assume, Monday
through Friday, and your eightto what, five, four job type
thing.
And then you go to therestaurant.

SPEAKER_09 (59:27):
Yeah, I like to I like to get into work at the
office before everybody elsedoes.
So I like to be it helps me setthe tone for the day mentally.
And then um, because I know thatat 8 30 the phones are ringing,
people are coming in the door,and it's controlled chaos.
Same thing in a restaurant whenyou open the doors and you're
ready for that.
But um, I've got a great team ofpeople, well trained people at

(59:49):
the restaurant, and we've we'vetaken a long time to build that
and go through I hate to saygoing through is not the right
word, but you know, there'speople that just didn't like us,
didn't like what we were doing.
I didn't like our standard.

SPEAKER_10 (01:00:01):
Sure.

SPEAKER_09 (01:00:02):
And uh we've got a standard.
And um so a little bit moreprofessionalism is what we're
trying to teach and what we'retrying to hire in.
And so I don't have to be there.
And neither does she.
So there are some days, ofcourse, we'll be there on
Fridays for for the bulk of thevolume.
I like to see my customers anduh Saturday night I'll come by

(01:00:25):
as well too.
And so I'm there at peak times,but I'm not I've got some good,
dependable, honest people.
No ma'am.
Good.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:34):
Good to have good people.

SPEAKER_10 (01:00:36):
Gotta have that balance.
It does yes.
And it changes when you have akid, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_09 (01:00:41):
It it does.
I'll I'll go back to that realquick because I know we're set
the end of it, but on day three,Sam, day day three of Sam, um,
we had closed for Tuesday andgave the staff another day off
after St.
Pat's and then went right backto work on Wednesday.
And I walked, opened up the barand put them on the beer cooler

(01:01:02):
back there, and I said, Don'tmove.
We don't allow smoking oranything like that, but of
course they sleep all the time.
Oh, yeah.
Beautiful.
We gotta figure this out.
Now I gotta now I gotta getgates and you know, it became a
thing, and then now it's notappropriate to have them there
all the time.
But he knows it's his it's hislegacy and it's his inheritance

(01:01:26):
type of a thing.
If he chooses to and he wantsto, it's it's his.
If not, you know, when the daycomes, I'm not gonna care.

SPEAKER_10 (01:01:33):
Right.

SPEAKER_09 (01:01:34):
But uh I feel like it's our it's my duty and my
responsibility to be a goodsteward of the talents that
God's given me and do the best Ican to provide for my family and
their future.
That's right.
That's all right.
I might enjoy all of it, but Iwant him to have options.
That's right.
That's what I'm saying.
That's right.
All right, and then let's gohere.
You provide and if you don'tmind.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:55):
No, go ahead.

SPEAKER_09 (01:01:56):
This has been an amazing experience for me as an
elected official.
Well good to be able to see whatyou do here, and you're doing
you've got a good foundationyou're offering the students of
District 1 and District 2 totake advantage of and really put
themselves in a position tosucceed in life, and I admire
that and I applaud that.
So thank you.

SPEAKER_11 (01:02:14):
We appreciate it.
We we do provide a lot ofopportunities.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:17):
Yeah, that's what it's all about.
Opportunities.

SPEAKER_11 (01:02:19):
And you know, you you said a key part earlier.
You surround yourself withpeople that make you look good,
and you're always going to comeout on top.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02:28):
It takes a lot for me to look good in the morning
then.
But that is why engaged.
That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_11 (01:02:36):
I surround myself with people that are passionate
about what they do.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02:40):
And then and then let them do it.

SPEAKER_11 (01:02:42):
And let them do it.
Do not micromanage them.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02:45):
Pay attention to the details, but don't micromanage
them.
Don't micromanage.

SPEAKER_11 (01:02:49):
That's right.
Yes.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02:50):
It's tough.
That's tough to do.

SPEAKER_11 (01:02:51):
It's a tough line.

SPEAKER_09 (01:02:53):
But in my office, it's the same way.
I knew there's things I need tostep in on because these are
legal issues or these areregulatory issues we have to pay
attention to and do things theright way in the right sequence.
Sure.
But by and large, we we've gotlatitude where it comes to
things that are appealed come tome and I can make those judgment
calls.

(01:03:13):
And and and I'll leave you withthis because it's funny.
It's it's lonely at the top.
Okay, and I knew that.
The job is what the job is.
I accepted it.
I asked for it, and the peoplevoted me in twice.
So I'm gonna continue to to dothe best job I can there for
Anderson County and continue toprogress it where we can keep
taxes as low as possible,manage, manage what we have

(01:03:36):
coming in responsibly, and helpencourage legislation in the
state house that does the samething.
Um and anytime they're wantingto gut funding, I've I've got to
open up my mouth and say youneed to understand what that's
what kind of impact that's gonnahave back at home.
Because you represent 30,000people, with all due respect,

(01:03:56):
but I represent 225,000.
And I hear all of it.
So they may not call theirrepresentative, but they
definitely give us an earful.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:06):
Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_09 (01:04:06):
So I don't mind passing that information on to
those people so they can makebetter decisions, but uh they
hear it too.
Um but I think you know, Iconsider myself part of Team
Anderson where we're all in thisor hopefully to do to make the
best decisions possible, and I'ma resource where I can give you

(01:04:27):
the information that may helpyou make a better one.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:29):
So that's it.
Um now before we go, we stillhave to get one more
recommendation.
Yes, sir, yes, sir.
The the entertainmentrecommendation, something that
you've uh watched, you know, amovie, uh binged a series that's
streaming or or a book orsomething.
What can you recommend?

SPEAKER_11 (01:04:46):
Yeah, in your free time.
Yeah, in all that free time youhave where you're not sleeping,
watching a kid, watching thekids, raising a son, Sam's not
gonna be a running a restaurant,being an otter.

SPEAKER_09 (01:04:58):
Let's see.
Um I I'm a big fan of historicaldramas and docuseries, so um
being in being in politics, um,I like West West Wing.

unknown (01:05:11):
Okay.

SPEAKER_09 (01:05:12):
Mainly because there's just good snippets of
good speeches in there that I'mlike, oh, that's a brilliant
thought.
You know, I may not disagree, Imay disagree with their
application of it, but I put itover here because one day I'll
need that for a speech.
So but but it was real time.
It was real time drama.
They were writing that as thingswere happening in the country at
the time, and I I don't think wehave that now.

(01:05:33):
And I'm watching The AmericanRevolution by Ken Burns.
Yeah, on KBS.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:36):
Anything by Ken Burns.
But it's funny, a lot of peoplethat you meet that like the West
Wing have watched it severaltimes.
It's one of those things thatyou just don't get tired of
watching, you'll just binge itagain and again and again.
It's one of those shows.

SPEAKER_09 (01:05:49):
That's the same with the with Cheers falls into that
category.
And that's on again right now atmy house because it's funny.
And um, I don't know, just youknow you need something that's
gonna give you a good laughbecause sometimes that's all you
need at the end of the day.
Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:04):
Well, John, thanks so much for joining us coming
by.
We're glad to have you in thestudio.
You can come back anytime andbring uh bring Sam with you.
Bring Dixie with you.

SPEAKER_09 (01:06:13):
We'd love to, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:14):
Uh love to talk I got back with him later today.
He sent me all his all hisinformation.
And I'm like, wait a minute, weshould have the whole family on.
Yeah, yeah.
Because this is really afascinating family.
So we'll have to get Dixie andSam on too at some point.

SPEAKER_09 (01:06:26):
We're we're working in the garden now, and now we're
we're back on gardening.
Winter gardening in the in agreenhouse.
So and that's been that's rathersuccessful, actually.
Cool.

SPEAKER_11 (01:06:37):
Well, I appreciate all you've done for the Career
Center.
You know, we he he sets ourmillage based off of what our
politicians, our locallegislators approve.
And um it certainly um could bedifferent.
And so I appreciate all you'vedone to support us.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:56):
Yeah, you're welcome.
All right, so uh thanks again toJohn Banka and as always Holly,
Danica here.
Um next week we have ourChristmas show.
So we get all in the holidayspirit.
Absolutely.
Merry Christmas to you and yourfamily, John.
Thank you.
Uh the podcast of this show willbe up uh wherever you get your
podcast within the next uh 24 to48 hours.

(01:07:17):
So uh get a listen, tell yourfriends.
You can hear the great storiesJohn told tonight.
And thanks for listening to theBoon Show.
Like, subscribe, share, and allthose things that get more
people to see what we're doing.
Like and subscribe.
There you go.
Have a great night.

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The Boone Show - S6 E10 - John Benca, Anderson County Auditor, McGee's Irish Pub Owner

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Boone Show - S6 E10 - John Benca, Anderson County Auditor, McGee's Irish Pub Owner