We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Doug Pellum a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Doug, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

One day I went to do a table visit of one of our regular customers and I asked him how everything was. He said it was great but he wanted something different tomorrow. I asked him what and he replied that he want a southern plate lunch, fresh peas, cornbread, fried okra butterbeans and a homegrown tomato. Those are not things on our menu and I knew he was just joking but I got one of my managers to go to the local farmers market and gather all the items. The next day when he came in I had the server take his order just like normal but when we delivered the food , he had what had requested. The smile on his face was priceless and he never missed another day eating at our restaurant until he passed away.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I graduated from college with a teaching degree in 1985. I taught the last semester of my senior year and realized that I had gotten in the wrong field. I started waiting tables after college and it turned into management a couple years later. I decided to open my own place in 2001. What sets us apart from other restaurants is our involvement in the community. Whenever there is a tragedy Zachary’s is always willing to step up and lead the way in fundraising. We have raised over $250,000 over the last 5 years. These fundraisers range from people needing medical bills paid, funeral expenses, local humane society benefits, and many other reasons. The biggest fundraiser is a yearly event for our local humane society that occurs around St Patricks day. The large majority of the fundraisers are for medical bills of people in need.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The way our fundraisers got started was there was a local musician that suddenly died one night from a heart disorder. On the day he died he had a 8 day old baby and a toddler. This young man played music at our restaurant occasionally and his family was very close to a lot of our staff. Zachary’s along with other local restaurants got together and put the event together. We were able to raise over $35,000 in 6 hours. I realized that day that a restaurant can make a difference in the community. The community sees what we do and in return shows us support daily in patronizing our establishment.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

On April 26, 2019 we had a fire at Zacharys. It was a total loss. The only thing standing were the brick walls. Instead of terminating all my employees I continued to pay them because I knew I needed them to reopen the restaurant. They were paid each week but had to do community service in order to receive their check. We contacted over 20 organizations and scheduled them just like they would have been scheduled at Zachary’s. Community service in included volunteering for YMCA camps, kids with cancer camps, soup kitchens, Salvation Army, local humane society, city clean up day and many more. We built such a bond with all these organizations and the city saw our employees out helping as we rebuilt. The city and another restaurant even did a fundraisers for our employees that raised over $50,000. When we reopened the community showed their gratitude for what we did by the amount of business we received. We were so busy that we did not hook up our phones for 2 weeks because we could not handle Togos.

Contact Info:

• Website: eatatzacharys.com
• Instagram: zacharyscolumbus
• Facebook: Zachary’s
• Other: We also offer catering and our Facebook page is Zachary’s Catering, a mobile bar that can be found on instagram tipsy bronco. A couple years ago we opened a private tavern event space called The Tavern and most recently opened a coffee shop in Starkville, The Coffee Depot.