CLAYTON -- When Michael Smith began hanging out at the local pizza joint in High Point after school, he thought it might be nice to get paid for it.
Smith, who was born one-handed, was hired as a dishwasher. From then on, the restaurant didn't need a dishwashing machine, because Smith was one. At the ripe old age of 17, Smith, who had fallen in love with the in-house, fresh ingredient restaurant philosophy, was made manager.
Only 10 years later -- after being literally recruited into managerial jobs at McDonald's and later Zaxby's -- Smith became the owner of the restaurant that, after this award, seems to have outrun Smithfield's Chicken & BBQ as Clayton's favored fried chicken spot.
After serving as Zaxby's district manager, Smith and his wife bought the Clayton restaurant. Smithfield joined the family-run business one year later.
While Smith has to give six percent of of his profit to the Zaxby's franchise each week, he and his wife who co-operate the two locations have been able to make the restaurants their's.
Smiths' unique level of customer service and community involvement is the reason Zaxby's - which many think of as a chain - won the Clayton Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award at the 61st annual chamber banquet last Tuesday.
Derrick Thompson, Smith's vice president of marketing, introduced the winner at the banquet by describing his self motivation and his many charitable endevaors. Nearly the whole room looked at Smith as Thompson spoke of how engaged a certain business owner has been with area charities, town events and chamber activities.
"He stole our hearts with amazing customer service, and good food," Thompson said. "He stole our hearts by helping every group that exists in Clayton."
If walls could talk
In any given franchise restaurant, the walls are often covered with false reproductions of small-town glory. Whether they were people once loved by their communities or not, no one eating beneath thesoccer team photos knows who they are.
At Zaxby's on U.S.70 West in Clayton, local Civitan Club baseball leagues, Rotary members, Clayton Police and fire department employees all smile down at their community as it partakes in Zaxby's famous southern, fried chicken fingers.
And while smiling, honest managers and staff, fresh food and a community atmosphere is important, Smith and his wife don't stop at the doorstep of Zaxby's.
As one exampleof many, this past Christmas, Zaxby's collected gifts and food to give local families a Christmas they couldn't afford.
Smith, who grew up on a horse farm in Mount Airy, is a son of southern hospitality and the affiliated community mentality.
But his belief that community members should help one another out - especially businesses that have the means - comes from personal experience.
Missing one of his hands, schoolyard bullies to friends and coworkers constantly told Smith he couldn't do this or that. But he's done everything he's set his mind to.
"I didn't like it when someone told me I couldn't do something and judged me for what I have or didn't have," Smith said. "I kept in my heart that I was never going be someone who was that way."
Smith gives to Clayton Civitan, which works with Special Olympics and the Miracle League of Johnston County. Both organizations give disabled children the chance to be athletes.
"Some of the people I've had the pleasure of working with over the years were very stingy. "They didn't care about the average person. I never wanted to be that way. I can't do it."
Giving back
Smith has been a Clayton Chamber of Commerce champion, having joined the chamber the day he opened Zaxby's. In the last three years, as his commitment to the chamber became consistent, he has donated trays of food to Chamber events week in and week out.
"I believe in taking care of your neighbor, and other business owners and people in the chamber, they're neighbors," Smith said.
Those neighbors include everyone in town - a town Smith has no intention of leaving.
Smith took over the business at the start of the recession, and folks in Johnston County were hurting just like everybody else. Many are still hurting.
"Your money goes to the organization, and it goes right back out," Thompson said before announcing that Smith had won business of the year.
In two weeks, Zaxby's has 40 tickets to take under-privileged families out to dinner at the restaurant and into Raleigh for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the RBC center. Smith thought about giving the tickets to his friends, but as usual, he began to consider the less fortunate.
That consideration for others is what led the Chamber to award him with best business, and also what led to a genuine standing ovation when he went to accept the plaque.
"I have two young kids. if anything ever happened to me and my wife, I hope that someone would be there to pick up the pieces," Smith said. "That's who we try to be. We try to be the people who pick up the pieces."
