Macon’s H&H named most iconic restaurant in Georgia

H&H Restaurant, a Macon culinary mainstay with ties to the city’s music heritage, has been recognized as the most iconic restaurant in the state.

Thrillist.com, a food, drink and travel website, awarded H&H the Georgia title. The list, “The Most Iconic Restaurant in Every State (And D.C.)” was published online Sunday.

“Macon, a charming Southern town about an hour and a half outside of (Atlanta), is where the Allman Brothers Band lived, partied and recorded in the early ‘70s,” the write up on Thrillist.com states. “As legend has it, they stopped by H&H when they were broke and starving, and one of the co-owners, Mama Louise (Hudson), fed them. She became the legend after that and continued to feed legions of Southern musicians who stopped by.”

H&H closed in December 2013 but reopened in August under the new ownership of the Moonhanger Group. Hudson still helps out in the kitchen.

Keith Steele, general manager at H&H, said Hudson is there almost daily, tasting the food and making sure it’s up to her standards.

“I do understand the significance of a restaurant like this,” said Steele, who is from Florida. “Being that it was owned by an African-American back in ‘59 (when H&H opened) was iconic in itself.”

Steele said news of the list is making its way around town, and he expects it to positively impact business as more people hear about it.

“We’re just really excited and happy about (being named to the list),” he said. “We feel really privileged.”

Other famous guests to H&H include Oprah Winfrey, who stopped at the soul food restaurant in November 2007 when she came to Macon to film an episode of her TV talk show. Winfrey met with Hudson and then-co-owner “Mama” Inez Hill. Hill died a month later.

To qualify for the Thril-list.com list, a restaurant had to have been around for at least 30 years and still be a crowd favorite. H&H was also named in December to Thrillist.com’s list of 13 iconic restaurants restored to their former glory.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Jennifer Burk, call 744-4345.

This story was originally published January 5, 2015 at 10:48 AM with the headline "Macon’s H&H named most iconic restaurant in Georgia ."