Jeneane’s, a home-cooking institution, closes in downtown Macon

Regulars at Jeneane’s Café had to get their coffee and breakfast somewhere else Friday morning.

Joe Allen and the “Breakfast Club” met at Hardee’s on Gray Highway, since their downtown hangout normally closes for a week around the July 4.

But Allen got a call from attorney Lester Miller, who found the note announcing Jeneane’s was closing for good.

“It floored me,” Allen said.

The typed letter was posted on the front door at 524 Mulberry St.

“With deep regrets we must inform you, as of July 1, Jeneane’s Café will be closed. It has been our joy and honor to have served our loyal customers for all of these past years,” read the notice signed by “the Staff and Management of Jeneane’s Café.”

No further explanation was given. The management couldn’t be reached.

At Jeneane’s at Pinebrook on Forsyth Road, another note indicated that location would reopen July 10 after the holiday break.

Proprietor Jeneane Barber was the latest restaurateur to serve food downtown at Macon’s longest-running restaurant location, halfway between the county and federal courthouses.

A plaque next to the door says the first eatery opened in 1892 — M.G. Putzel’s Crystal Café, said to be Macon’s first business with electricity.

Ed Loh took it over in 1902, and marked the sidewalk with red and white tiles that are still there.

In 1995, Barber moved her restaurant there, just down a few doors from her spot near where Michael’s on Mulberry anchors the corner of Second Street.

Jeneane’s hosted regulars each weekday from 6 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

The late J. Taylor Phillips held court each day at his regular table with Allen and others.

Each had their assigned chairs as the “Liars Club” chewed the fat at lunch time.

Allen believes the crowd dwindled after a health inspection score of 62 was posted in late March, but the report from earlier this month showed Jeneane’s scored 100.

Acting U.S. Attorney Pete Peterman was shocked to hear the news of the closure.

He has been eating in that spot for about 30 years, and also noticed dwindling crowds in recent years.

Many attorneys have moved away from that block, he said.

“I don’t know where to go now in downtown for good vegetables,” Peterman said. “It was home cooking in more ways than one. You knew those people.”

One day he hadn’t cleaned his plate, which drew the attention of the server, who asked: “What’s the matter, didn’t you like that?”

“I felt like I was home with my mother,” he said.

Peterman said he never went in Jeneane’s without seeing someone he knew.

Connie and Syl Thuente, who are regulars at Pinebrook for dinner, frequently ate breakfast and lunch downtown at Jeneane’s.

She remembers when you had to wait in line to get your meal.

“It’s interesting how the restaurants come and go in Macon,” Connie Thuente said. “I’m just sorry they closed. That’s an important part of our town.”

After daily Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Syl Thuente sometimes joined other parishioners, like Sue Sinksen, for breakfast a couple times a week.

Sinksen will miss the staff’s attention to detail.

“They knew what you were going to have when you walked in,” Sinksen said.

Strangers and tourists also felt right at home, she said.

“When we celebrate birthdays, sometimes we’d have 40 people in there,” Syl Thuente said.

“You’d see everybody there,” Connie Thuente said. “If I were a politician, that’s where I’d go.”

Allen’s election flier for the Macon-Bibb County Commission run-off against Ed Defore was still in the window.

He and the Thuentes hope another place will open in the same spot.

“It was not just a restaurant. It was the restaurant and it’s a sad day,” Allen said.

This story was originally published July 1, 2016 at 11:23 AM with the headline "Jeneane’s, a home-cooking institution, closes in downtown Macon."