A familiar face returns to Warner Robins to open a restaurant with her family

Macon native Teresa Cohen is known for her Southern cooking, especially her turkey wings.

She’s previously owned and operated three restaurants over the years in Middle Georgia.

Most recently, she’s returned to Warner Robins to open and operate a new restaurant with her family. Two brothers and their wives co-own the restaurant with Cohen. Her sister and other family members also work alongside her.

Creative Cooking at 1244 Watson Blvd. opened Sept. 2 in the former Top Wok location. The restaurant’s logo is “where the food tastes good, looks good and is good!”

Breakfast, lunch and an early dinner

The restaurant opens early on most days for breakfast with varying options such as omelets, eggs cooked to order, chicken and waffles, fish and grits, shrimp and grits, salmon croquettes, and homemade biscuits.

Lunch and early dinner options also change up daily with multiple meat choices such as turkey wings, meatloaf, salisbury steak, chicken wings, oxtails, fried pork chops, catfish, whiting, tilapia and flounder.

The baked turkey wings were huge sellers at Cohen’s former Macon restaurant.

A variety of vegetables are also available and vary from day to day, such as collards cabbage, sweet potato yams, rutabagas, fried peas, lima beans, green beans with red potatoes, fried cream-style corn, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and cheese casserole, yellow rice, white rice with gravy, and dressing with giblet gravy and cranberry sauce.

Although the restaurant has a menu, Cohen said she rarely follows it after feedback from customers who like the line-style service with a variety of meat and vegetable options. Many order vegetable plates.

Cohen generally offers six meat choices and multiple vegetables. The rutabagas and sweet potato yams are popular. She usually offers dressing with giblet gravy and cranberry sauce twice a week.

Desserts that also vary from day to day include slices of homemade cakes such as red velvet, key lime, chocolate, strawberry, pound cake and butter cake as well as banana pudding and peach cobbler.

Cohen learned to cook by watching her grandmother, Sarah Smothers. Cohen recalls first cooking at age 7.

“I remember everything in my head … I do not use a measuring cup or anything,” she said.

Cohen knows what it means to persevere

Warner Robins residents working near City Hall may remember Cohen from her first restaurant, Creative Home Cooked Meals on Manor Court, which opened in 2008.

Two years later, she moved to Covington and opened a restaurant. But that venture didn’t work out and she returned home to Macon. She didn’t have the capital to open a restaurant on her own.

In August 2019, Cohen opened Ma Duke Southern Cookin’ on Rocky Creek Road in Macon with business partner and co-owner Robert Jones. Cohen insisted he try her cooking first before investing in the restaurant, she said.

As with her former Warner Robins restaurant, the new Macon restaurant was popular. But it was a struggle.

The first week Ma Duke Southern Cookin’ was in business, Cohen’s youngest son was shot during a break-in at his home. Montenez Cohen, 33, died from his injuries months later on April 23, 2020.

While mourning the death of her son, Cohen was also struggling to keep the business afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By late March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had been declared a mass casualty event in Georgia, with emergency orders from local governments temporarily closing restaurants for dine-in.

Then, in December 2020, Cohen’s business partner died.

Through it all, Cohen worked to keep Ma Duke Southern Cookin’ open. She got a boost when then Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams stopped by her restaurant and helped her out. Cohen also appeared in a campaign ad for Abrams.

In May 2023, Cohen decided to close the restaurant. She next opened a Ma Duke Southern Cookin’ restaurant in Milledgeville that same year but closed it after about a year-and-a-half because of problems with the building’s roofing.

Family owned and operated

In March of this year, her brother Johnny Goff Jr. encouraged her to open another restaurant, and this time, it would be a family affair.

Creative Cooking in Watson is co-owned by Cohen, Goff and his wife, Judith, and Cohen’s brother, Bryan Goff, and his wife, Jacquette.

Cohen’s sister, Bridgett Goff, also works at the restaurant, and Cohen’s friend, Jason Curry, helps cook the food.

Cohen’s hopeful that with her family involved, the new spot will stand the test of time.

“It means a lot, and the most important thing is family,” she said.

The restaurant has brought the family together, with Cohen and a brother raised in Macon by their grandmother and other siblings in Florida by their mother and father, Bryan Goff said.

Goff got his passion for cooking from their mother, Ethel Goff.

“We’re all looking to do a service from this end of town because the mayor is actually trying to revitalize downtown Warner Robins, and we’re about two minutes away from that area,” Goff said.

“That’s our goal … We’re striving to be the best that this restaurant can be for this community,” he said.

The family aims to create a nice, warm family atmosphere, said Goff, noting that he’s a people person.

“I think it’s only going to help with the people that come through these doors,” he said. “You never know when somebody just needs a five minute chitchat, you know, to make their day.”

Goff believes that the restaurant is “just a blessing from God for the family.”

The restaurant, which can seat 52 people, offers dine-in and takeout. On a recent visit, most customers got their food to go.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The number is 478-236-2169.

This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 6:00 AM.