Venu Puttagunta, one of the owner’s of Mack’s Highway Market, stands by an impressive collection of vintage beer cans the store has acquired through the years during a free cookout, Friday, celebrating 65 years in business.
Mack’s Highway Market celebrated 65 years of business in East Ridge by hosting a cookout for its patrons on Friday.
Audra Tatum, who normally handles bookkeeping in the venerable old store, was busy pushing free smoked barbecue sandwiches and drinks across the counter of a little mobile trailer that was parked in front of the store. As of lunch time on Friday, Audra had served up 100 sandwiches and was concerned that her husband, Nick, who was doing a fine job keeping tabs on the pork inside a nearby smoker, would run out of pork before the party winds down at 6 p.m.
Audra pointed out an old picture of Mack’s as it appeared in the early 1960s that was front and center at the storefront during the party.
“We want to keep the same tradition as having the coldest beer and the cheapest beer in town,” she said as she asked a reveler if they wanted slaw with their BBQ. “We added a beer cave a couple years ago and now we’ve got draft beer where you can buy a ‘growler’ or bring your own jug.”
Mack’s is a locally owned neighborho
Cold beer is still the star of the show at Mack’s, which was purchased by Venu Puttagunta and Sreenu Pamidi three years ago from Bruce Paulhamus. But Sreenu, who has a Masters degree in Engineering and Business Administration from Harvard, says check cashing is the biggest money maker.
The natives of India, who had successful careers in information technology, wanted to change direction and get into small business.
“We wanted to do our own thing,” said Venu as he mingled with the small crowd in front of the store and pointed out the impressive collection of vintage beer cans the store has accumulated. “My wife took a job down here and we moved with her.”
The two men are building a small-business empire of sorts, as they are also major investors in East Ridge Transmission down the street.
Venu said Mack’s has nine employees, most of them holdovers from when Paulhamus owned the business. Venu pulled himself away from the cookout to cash a check for a man inside the store.
Sreenu said running Mack’s is a good fit for the guys with a desire to grow a small business.
“This place is iconic,” Sreenu said. “When people remember East Ridge, they remember this store in East Ridge.”
Soon, the store will have even more to be remembered by, said Jon Pitner, a longtime Mack’s employee.
“We’re going to be getting ‘high gravity’ beer in January,” Pitner said. “That’s beer with 10.1 percent alcohol content. Now it’s 6.3
“Nowhere in East Ridge can you get high gravity beer.”
And nowhere in East Ridge do you get the kind of ambiance that Mack’s provides. The owners and employees claim that having been in continuous operation for 65 years makes Mack’s the oldest store in town.
And if it’s not the friendliest, giving away free smoked pork sandwiches to celebrate its longevity is a big step in the right direction.
Audra Tatum, left, an employee of Mack’s, takes time a little time to hang with Santa and a customer during the free cookout celebrating the business’s 65th anniversary, Friday afternoon.
