MLILY Mattresses in Macon, GA

Macon Burger Week kicked off Monday with 27 restaurants participating downtown and across Macon-Bibb County, and six of the restaurants are competing for the first time.

“I truly don’t know who’s gonna win because some of them are just so creative and like blending different kinds of fusion flavors together,” said Caitlin Jackson, the checkoff program coordinator for the Georgia Beef Board. “It’s not only going to be a challenge to pick like one from all 27 but also to go to all 27.”

The participating restaurants have creative new ideas for their burgers, Jackson said.

Some of the first timers are new to the Macon scene entirely, and others are local staples that are throwing years of experience into the ring.

Here are the new competitors.

H&H Restaurant was founded in 1959 by Inez Hill and Louise Hudson and serves soul food for breakfast and lunch. In accordance with their soul food traditions, the restaurant is serving the Collard Green Patty Melt for Macon Burger Week.

With a 7 oz. certified Angus beef patty, the patty melt has a slice of white American cheese and H&H’s signature collard greens on toasted, country buttermilk, white bread.

JAG’s Pizzeria and Pub opened in Mercer Village after Sauced closed in December 2019. As a pizza place, JAG’s decided to create a burger-specific pizza to compete in Macon Burger Week

The “Good Burger” Pizza has a chili base as well as ground beef and a blend of mozzarella and cheddar cheese. The pie is topped with diced onions and mustard.

Liliana’s made its debut this year as the permanent food truck at Society Garden, a beer garden in the Historic Ingleside Village. The food truck serves Italian street food, including pastas, sandwiches and unique side dishes.

For the competition, Liliana’s created the Gusto Italiano Burger with a beef brisket short rib blend patty. The burger is served on a soft Italian roll with arugula, prosciutto, burata and tomatoes slow roasted with a balsamic reduction and truffle oil.

This story was originally published November 13, 2023, 11:59 AM.

Editor’s note: This article is part of an occasional series — “Middle Georgia Delicacies” — bite-size homages to fine food offerings, from the unsung to the iconic, at eateries across our region.

When you order, call them what you will — garlic knots, dough knots, garlic twists, bread bites. The folks at Ingleside Village Pizza will know what you mean.

Just do not insist that they are called garlic knots. Because they are not. The menu says so: “Bread Sticks.”

For $4.95 you get a serving coated in Italian Rose garlic spread, sprinkled with shredded Parmesan cheese and accompanied by a plastic cup of pizza sauce. For $2 more you get the sticks unceremoniously slathered in extra garlic goo, which in the establishment’s lingo makes them “Sloppy,” or supremely drenched in said goo.

Whatever their name, these fresh-baked wonders are anything but boring-sounding breadsticks, the likes of which appear to have first emerged locally in the 1980s, marketed by national pizza chains, often in the form of such as goofily dubbed creations as “Crazy Bread.” They had, in various forms, previously been served at fine Italian restaurants.

At Ingleside Village Pizza, the breadsticks begin as strips of dough that are later parbaked. Cooks fashion them by hand, picking up two corners of the strips and twirling them into tightly spun sticks a few inches long. You could call them dough logs or mini buns or bread swirls.

Their origin was by happenstance around the time the restaurant opened in 1992.

“They totally came as a fluke,” the eatery’s owner, Tina Dickson, says. “They were not intentionally gonna be on the original menu. But the small little crew that we hired, two of the guys were just kind of playing around when they noticed that we didn’t have any kind of appetizers. These two cooks came up with it.”

Three decades later, Dickson can’t believe how many orders she has sold.

“Literally,” she says, “they are my bread and butter.”

She also confirms that the restaurant’s doughy delights are, in fact, called breadsticks.

“I had a woman one time, she got really mad at me,” Dickson recalls. “She said, ‘Y’all used to call them ‘dough knots.’ And I’m like, ‘No. No, ma’am, we didn’t. But if you did, we knew what you were talking about.’”

And so it goes, Dickson says, call them whatever you like.

“We’re not gonna give you a hard time. I’m not gonna correct you,” she says. “I will take your money and sell you those things.”

Joe Kovac Jr. writes about local news and features for The Telegraph, with an eye for human-interest stories. Joe is a Warner Robins native and graduate of Warner Robins High. He joined the Telegraph in 1991 after graduating from the University of Georgia. As a Pulliam Fellowship recipient in 1991, Joe worked for the Indianapolis News. His stories have appeared in the Washington Post, the Seattle Times and Atlanta Magazine. He has been a Livingston Award finalist and won numerous Georgia Press Association and Georgia Associated Press awards.

Johnifer Barnwell was found in Augusta in a home on Alpine Drive. The FBI, says he had a large amount of drugs they suspect to be fentanyl, heroin, meth, and weed.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Another Bibb County escaped inmate is captured. Sunday morning's arrest means there is only one more inmate on the loose.

Just after 8:00 a.m. the FBI, along with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office Gang Unit and the Richmond County Sheriff's Office found 37-year-old Johnifer Barnwell at a home in Augusta.

Law enforcement found him in the 3000 block of Alpine Drive with a large amount of drugs. The FBI suspects it to be meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, but that has not been confirmed by a lab.

The FBI originally arrested Barnwell because they had reason to believe he was the leader of a drug trafficking organization. Just 14 days before his escape, a jury found him guilty on six counts of drug trafficking charges.

He is guilty of possession with plans to distribute drugs like fentanyl, heroin, and meth.

121 miles away from the Bibb County jail, Barnwell was the farthest of the escaped inmates, so far.

At the end of October, 11 days after the search started, the U.S. Marshals Office arrested 29-year-old Chavis Stokes in Montezuma.

He is looking at a felony escape charge and faces up to 10 years in prison on top of the two dozen charges he already has.

Eight days after Stokes' arrest, The Bibb County Sheriff's, Georgia State Patrol and U.S. Marshal's Office arrested 25-year-old Marc Anderson.

They found him in Buckhead at a luxury high-rise apartment complex called Huntley Apartments.

Anderson has three aggravated assault charges dating back to 2020.

That leaves an accused murderer on the loose. Law enforcement still need your help in finding 52-year-old Joey Fournier.

He is charged with killing his ex-girlfriend Cynthia Berry. It happened in the Barrington Hall subdivision in Macon.

Berry filed a protective order against Fournier in 2021, but in February 2022 she was murdered.

She only lived in the home for a month, and her family told 13WMAZ she moved there to get away from Fournier.

13WMAZ reached out to BSO to see what they are doing to find him, and if there were any updates in that search. They said they could not release this information.

We also asked them for more details on Barnwell's arrest like what his connection to the home in Augusta is, and how they knew he'd be in Augusta, but those questions could also not be answered.

Anyone with information on the possible location of 52-year-old Joey Fournier should call the FBI’s tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI(1-800-225-5324), the USMS at 1-877-WANTED2. Tips may also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov or USMS Tip App.

A strong 2023 season for Northeast High School came to a disappointing end amid dreary weather Saturday when the Raiders fell to the Appling County Pirates, 49-0, in Macon in the first round of the Georgia High School Association playoffs.

Rain poured down at Thompson Stadium as the afternoon game kicked off, and Northeast’s offense struggled in the poor conditions. Appling County thrived on the other side of the ball, feeding their strong running backs throughout the first half to make the game a blowout.

“We just got off to a rough start with the rain and a fumble they returned, and we had trouble stopping the run,” said Northeast head coach Jeremy Wiggins. “We just had a bad draw, and we didn’t play our best football tonight.”

The Raiders were without star running back Nick Woodford, who was the focal point of Northeast’s offense for much of the year until a knee injury sidelined him late in the season.

“It shows us how we can adjust without Nick, but it also shows us how powerful we are with him when we get him back next year,” Wiggins said. “We’ll be glad to have him back next season.”

Even when conditions improved in the second half, the hole was too much for the Raiders to climb out of, as the passing game never established itself and Appling County continued to dominate on the ground.

The loss was just the third of the year for Northeast after they finished the regular season 8-2 and second in their region. The matchup against Appling County was an unlucky one — many rankings listed the Pirates as one of the top five teams in 2A despite them ending up third in their region.

“I’m proud of our guys, you know, they came out in the second half and fought, they played a great season. It’s gonna be hard losing some of these seniors who have been here since the sixth grade, but we’ll be ready to work,” Wiggins said.

With Woodford recovering and a long offseason ahead, the Raiders will look to retool and defend the region in 2024.

“We got a lot of stuff we gotta work on in the offseason, just technique stuff, strength stuff, and coaching stuff,” Wiggins said. “We’ll be in the weight room, just keep getting in there and we’ll get better for next year.”

The Raiders entered the matchup after finishing second in their region despite just one region loss. Appling County came into the contest as one of the best 2A teams in Georgia. The Pirates went 8-2 with losses to powerhouse Ware County and region foe Toombs County but finished third in their region because of a tiebreaker.

With a heavy rain and some strong winds setting in just before the 3:15 p.m. kickoff, the Raiders struggled to score throughout the first half. Appling County took advantage of the rain, with Jamarion Williams striking on the ground for multiple touchdowns.

The Pirates also took advantage of miscommunication between Raiders players when they snagged a fumbled Northeast handoff and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown. The lopsided first half ended with Appling County leading 35-0.

Hopes of a second-half comeback for the Raiders were dashed on the very first play of the third quarter when Appling County took a screen pass 64 yards for a score. The final two quarters went quickly from there, as the Raiders failed to score despite entering the red zone a few times.

This story was originally published November 11, 2023, 7:12 PM.

The Jones County Greyhounds kicked Georgia high school football playoffs off with a bang Friday night when their explosive offense led the way to a 42-21 win over the Northside-Columbus Patriots in Gray.

The Greyhounds continued their scoring ways thanks to their elite wide receiver corps. Star wideouts Zion Ragins, Tyler Stewart and Javion Solomon all reached the end zone in the first half as quarterback Devin Edmonds finished with 292 passing yards, all of which came in the first half after the backups came in for the third quarter.

“You get guys that can run like our guys can run, good things will happen,” Jones County head coach Mike Chastain said. “Good gracious, we’ve been blessed with that speed. It’s awesome to have that.”

Even with all the offense, Jones County’s defense stole some of the spotlight. Led by dominant linebacker Ched Smith — dubbed “Boogie” by the Greyhound faithful — they held the Patriots to just one first-half score that came on the game’s opening drive.

“Those guys on defense, the whole staff, they work hard every week and put it together,” Chastain said. “They work hard every week, I can’t say enough about the staff on both sides of the ball.”

Northside-Columbus looked strong to start the game but could not keep up with Jones County’s high-octane offense. The Patriots also lost the battle in the trenches, allowing multiple sacks and tackles for loss in the first half as they fell behind.

The first-round victory comes after a solid season for Jones County and keeps their championship hopes alive. The Greyhounds were bounced from the playoffs by the eventual champions in each of the past five seasons.

“Just gotta get over the hump, man. To be the best, you gotta beat the best,” Chastain said. “Let’s go wear ‘em out.”

Jones County will face a tough matchup in the second round when it travels more than two hours to face Coffee County, one of the top teams in Georgia’s 5A classification.

Jones County came into the matchup at 7-3 thanks to a mid-season winning streak that lasted five games, until it was snuffed out by region champion Warner Robins. The Greyhounds boasted a strong offense all year, led by breakout quarterback Edmonds and the wide receivers.

Northside-Columbus entered the contest 6-4, though it played a tough schedule against teams like Northgate and Harris County.

The Patriots won their final two games of the regular season to secure a playoff spot, but also entered the game with three key players hurt, including senior receiver Aaron Osborne.

It looked like the game could be a shootout when both offenses made scoring look easy on their opening drives in a 7-7 game. Jones County quickly put those notions to rest, however, scoring five more touchdowns before halftime and holding the Patriots scoreless for the rest of the half to make it 42-7 at the break.

Two of the Greyhounds’ six first-half strikes went for more than 60 yards, including an impressive 84-yard rush by Ragins that all but cemented the win.

Northside-Columbus came out fighting in the second half thanks to running backs Kingston Rivers and Jai Jackson, but a running clock doomed their comeback chances despite two third quarter touchdowns and Jones County using backups on offense. With no scoring in the fourth quarter, the Greyhounds’ 42-21 went into the books.

Scores will be updated as they become available.

This story was originally published November 10, 2023, 10:04 PM.