Popular restaurant owner has full plate these days

Alfreda “Me Maw” Lockett owns a restaurant.

Last week, she had a full plate. Her calendar was piled high, hanging over the sides and smothered with gravy.

But it was all sweet.

On Sunday, she was interviewed for an upcoming story in Southern Living magazine. On Monday, she attended the ribbon cutting for the new recreation area on Log Cabin Drive named after her late father, Filmore Thomas. On Friday, she and her family served free lunches to veterans in observance of Veterans Day at Me Maw’s Restaurant on Mumford Road. And today is her 65th birthday, a milestone for those of advancing age.

Life is good, just like the legendary buttermilk pies she pulls out of the oven to cool. To know Alfreda is to love her, and there’s a lot to love about someone who can flat-out cook.

Filmore Thomas was a brick mason and disabled World War II veteran. A community leader and activist, he was known as the Mayor of Bellevue.

“He was like a father to everyone,’’ Alfreda said. “We lived on Bayne Street, and when anybody had problems or concerns, they would go see my daddy.’’

Her mother, Georgia Thomas, was one of the finest cooks ever to wear an apron. She was always baking, stirring, frying and feeding every hungry belly in Bellevue.

“She cooked. My uncles cooked. If anyone wanted a meal, they would come to our house,’’ Alfreda said.

Alfreda’s love of cooking was passed down from her mother. And her mother inherited it from her mother.

Willie Mae Simmons lived on a farm in Monroe County with her husband, Horace. They worked the land, raised their own chickens and made their own butter.

Alfreda has memories of standing on the hill above her grandparents’ home. When the dinner bell rang, she never needed to look at a menu.

“I could always tell what my grandmother was cooking, because the smell of the food was infused in the air,’’ she said. “I knew if she was baking a sweet potato cake or cooking collards.’’

Alfreda was one of the first African-American students at the all-girls Miller High School in Macon. She enrolled in the 10th grade.

“We were young and vulnerable,’’ she said. “It was difficult. We were put through a lot.’’

She graduated from Miller in 1969, the year before court-ordered integration. That same year, she married Richard Lockett, who worked construction and is now a local minister. They have three children — Richard Jr., Daphne and Georgina.

Alfreda had a 30-year career at BellSouth, starting as a telephone operator. She retired in 2000 to take care of her aging parents. She and Richard were always opening their doors and feeding the masses — just like her folks did. They cooked for big crowds and church groups. Food was their mantra, their ministry.

In 2006, they opened a neighborhood market they called LG, short for “Locket Girls,’’ across from Bethel AME Church on Mumford Road. They brought in a few tables, and Alfreda started cooking up and offering such mouth-watering staples as fried chicken, collards, livers, peas and yams. She tweaked her mother’s macaroni and cheese recipe and took it to another level.

“People would come over here on Sundays and love it,’’ she said. “We had a couple of booths, but most of it was to go.”

The store was open seven days a week, and the grueling schedule began to wear her down. She was exhausted and, at her son’s suggestion, she closed the doors to “retool’’ herself.

She enrolled in culinary school at Helms College, which is part of Goodwill Industries. She now attends Middle Georgia State University, working on her associate degree in psychology.

It has been a long time between classes. She started her college career in 1972 at Macon Junior College, then quit school to work and raise her family. Now she’s back as a nontraditional student and a grandmother of eight. The junior college is now a university.

Two years ago, Alfreda and her husband reopened the tiny building with the dirt parking lot as a restaurant. They call it “Me Maw’s at LG.”

They had a yearlong “soft opening,’’ experimenting with the menu. The kitchen is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and every first and third Sunday.

She is the head chef, and Richard is her cuisine co-pilot. He smokes all the ribs, chickens and turkeys and even bakes the cakes.

Alfreda talks a lot about how food brings folks together. They come to the table to break bread. She has had a front-row seat to its universal power.

“What I love to see is the people,’’ she said. “I love to see their smiles and hear their comments about the taste of the food. It means I must be doing something right.’’

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Popular restaurant owner has full plate these days."