Don’t expect a lot of changes at McCreary’s Irish Pub on Franklin’s Main Street even though longtime owners Darryl & Annie McCreary have sold the store, which opened in 2002, because the new owner is a familiar face to customers.

Natasha Smith has worked at McCreary’s since it opened, but her history with the McCreary family goes back 12 years and she said she considers the sale “all in the family.”

“They gave me my first job when I was 15,” Smith said as the tables in the small restaurant began to fill up with regulars and visitors. “I had wrecked my Dad’s car and I had to walk to the interview.”

That was at the former Jammin’ Java, which was located near where Zolo’s Italian Restaurant is today on Fifth Avenue at Fair Street.

Born in Columbia, Smith has lived most of her life in Franklin although she recently bought a house and moved back to Columbia. In December, she graduated from Middle Tennessee State University, saying her journalism degree gives her “something to fall back on.”

From Jammin’ Java, Smith helped to open Franklin Mercantile, owned by Graham McCreary, and then on to McCreary’s.
It is not that Smith has an affinity or deep love for the food service business.

“There is nothing in particular about the restaurant or food service business. It is this place,” she said. With exposed brick walls and long, wood tables, the restaurant only has 40 seats, but sometimes the crowd spills over that number and then out onto café tables outside.

“There is something about this place, the community and the people,” she said. “They have been my family. This has been in the works since last year. I always wanted to own my own business so this wasn’t out of the blue.”

With the assistance of Cadence Bank in securing the financing, Smith’s dream has come true and she doesn’t see it changing.

“Everyone asks me, ‘What are you going to do? What are you going to change?’” she said. “I tell them not much. The name McCreary’s means something and that is not just about business.

“Every single person has been supportive and happy,” Smith said. “It is kind of like Cheers — everybody knows your name and knows what you are doing.”

And while additional duties come with ownership, Smith has a lot of experience in every aspect of running the restaurant, but don’t expect her to let ownership go to her head.

“I am still going to be waiting tables for the next year or so,” Smith said. “I don’t want to lose touch with the people.”
McCreary’s is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday, noon to 3 p.m.

 

Posted on: 3/5/2009