Restaurant owner, water board chairman Gibbs leaves legacy

Mike Gibbs, a longtime local restaurant owner and water authority board chairman, is being remembered for his witty personality and dedication to his business and appointed post. 

Gibbs passed away Friday, Sept. 15. He was 72.

“He was comfortable talking to anybody about anything and kidding around with them. He was pretty direct, but he had fun with everybody. He had a big heart under that gruff exterior and would give you the shirt off his back,” said friend Billy Rowe, who’s the water authority board’s assistant chairman. 

Gibbs lived here for much of his childhood, then in Chamblee and Chatsworth, before eventually returning to Ellijay where several members of his family still lived, remembered friend David Westmoreland, a former Ellijay mayor and city councilman. 

Westmoreland said Gibbs, a die-hard Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Atlanta Braves fan, was, himself, a strong high school athlete.

“He played football at Chamblee High and at Murray County his senior year. He was a great punter and a very good athlete, both in football and as a high hurdler in track and field,” Westmoreland said.

Gibbs had background in the restaurant business and worked in food sales before running Mike’s Ellijay Restaurant, a popular spot on Tails Creek Road known for its country cooking. 

For several years, different family members including his uncle, Gary Green, and mother, Catherine Green Humphreys, had helped run the Ellijay Café, which was near the town square in the space where Ellijay Woodfired Pizza now operates.

“Mike’s,” as many regulars call the restaurant Gibbs ran for more than 20 years, was John’s Ellijay Restaurant before and during the time that Gibb’s mother and stepdad, Thornton Humphreys, ran it. 

Gibbs, who then worked as a food sales broker, helped out and cooked at the Tails Creek restaurant on weekends. He eventually bought the business so his parents could retire, noted daughter Angela Gibbs Reynolds. 

“(In his food sales job), he represented a bunch of different companies. He went to the different Army commissaries in the Southeast and sold them new products and reordered the products they needed,” added Reynolds. “He used to come up (to Ellijay) after he was done working through the week to help my grandaddy. He’d been around it his whole life, and they wanted to keep (the restaurant) in the family, so he bought it from granddaddy and got off the road. He had to travel a lot for his job, so that was big for him.” 

Daughter Holli Gibbs remembered how the name of the restaurant was finally changed.

“My Uncle Junior owned a printing business that was over by the Piggly Wiggly. He printed the order tickets for the restaurant, which, for the longest time, had been John’s Ellijay Restaurant. He printed some tickets one time that said Mike’s Ellijay Restaurant instead. Dad didn’t want that. He wanted it to (stay the same),” Holli said. “My uncle said, ‘You’re out of luck, because these are the tickets I’m making from now on!’ He did it to surprise my dad, his baby brother. Dad didn’t like it at first, but it just kind of stuck.”

At one time, Mike’s Ellijay Restaurant was one of many local country cooking or “meat and three”-type places in town. Today, it’s one of a small handful, but it still has a very loyal following. Much of that has to do with its southern menu staples, like fried chicken, which Gibbs prepared and perfected over the years, noted Reynolds.

“Everybody used to love to come get the chicken livers or the half fry, which was like half of a fried chicken. We had this one little group that would come all the way from Blairsville for the trout. People raved for years about the salad bar (because) everything on it was homemade,” she added. 

The restaurant continues under the leadership of Gibbs’ son, Matt Teague, the fourth generation of the family to follow that path. 

“Its just a comfortable place where the locals eat and can see their friends. It’s a familial type atmosphere,” said Rowe. “A lot of the regulars know the menu as well as Mike or Matt. They know what to expect on certain days, and it better be on the menu board on that day!”

Gibbs had been Ellijay’s representative on the water and sewer authority board since 2000 and its chairman since 2013. He was re-elected as chairman in August.

“I was really impressed by his work with the water authority board, running it professionally and doing things the right way,” said Westmoreland.

Rowe said Gibbs weighed the overall impact of decisions and how they would affect the county as a whole. 

“He was a steady hand in keeping the county going forward, but, at the same time, being fiscally responsible,” he added. “We’ve got a lot to be grateful for (with that). He always put the customers first and was a fairness-for-all type of chairman, not just for any special interest group.”

Gibbs’ time as chairman saw many system improvement projects come to fruition, including expansion of the water system and the authority’s first system interconnection with Pickens County, noted Tony Whitaker, the water board’s assistant secretary/treasurer. “He was an outstanding citizen for the county and a great steward for the water authority,” added Whitaker. “If we had an emergency (situation) or something and couldn’t have a called meeting, he would always call each one of us and (let us know what was happening). He was always on top of things.”

Both the Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority office, located at 1023 Progress Road, and Mike’s Ellijay Restaurant have announced that they will close Wednesday, Sept. 20, for Gibbs’ funeral. 

Since that day is a bill due date for water authority customers, the due date will be extended until Thursday, Sept. 21, and late penalties won’t be added until Friday, Sept. 22, said a statement from the water authority.