Finding Family at the Rusty Bike Cafe

One of my very favorite songs of all time is by Kenny Chesney. The song is entitled Freedom, and it talks about how, regardless of our circumstances or socioeconomic status in life, we are all searching for the same thing… freedom. The line I love best states,

People always tell me their life story
Love they lost, their taste of glory
He sat next to me at the counter in the diner
Said I used to be wall street, but this is much finer.

I have taken this song and these lyrics to heart many times as Sean and I have changed our goals in life to increase the experiences that Jackson and Lucy attain.

The Rusty Bike

On a recent trip, I featured a cafe in Clayton, Georgia, called the Rusty Bike Cafe in our article, Exploring the North Georgia Mountains. Eating at the restaurant in July, we watched a waitress pay for an elderly gentleman’s meal. The waitress was not boastful, but the gentleman was at the booth behind us, and we heard the story. Then, as the gentleman left, the waitress told him that she would see him tomorrow.

With this encounter, I realized that the Rusty Bike was more than a restaurant. Kindness is all too often uncommon these days. Seeing the kindness firsthand restored my faith in people.

When you want to find a place to dine and belong, look beyond the food. Listen to the customers, listen to the staff, and listen to the emotions of the restaurant.

If you are in the mountains of North Georgia, I invite you to visit the Rusty Bike Cafe. The bar and dining rooms are always filled. You will find the most delicious and unique food in the county, but you will also find far more.

The Owner

Meet Joel Johnson, owner of the Rusty Bike. If you visit, there is a good chance you will see him behind the bar, serving customers and laughing with the employees. Joel’s story actually began with breakfast and a motorcycle, and it has come full circle, back to breakfast and a motorcycle.

Joel Johnson moved with his family to Rabun County in 2008 to manage a private real estate development club on Lake Burton. Unfortunately, due to the economy during the era, Joel lost his job. Joel’s family loved the town, so he completed odd jobs to stay afloat for the next year, from cutting grass for folks to washing cars. About a year later, Joel’s next-door neighbor asked him to manage a cafe just across the state line in Highlands, North Carolina. Joel accepted the position, and he began managing a soda shop.

At first, Joel was in shock to transition from the pinnacle of his career to waiting tables and washing dishes at a lunch counter in a pharmacy. However, as Joel reminisces, he states, “What I realized after I got over myself is that the job was really fun.”

After a few years at the soda shop, friends asked Joel to open a restaurant. The friends stated that they would financially back Joel with the endeavor. However, the friends backed out of the deal at the last minute, leaving Joel’s restaurant future hanging.

Joel informed the property owner, and together, they worked out a plan with the bank where Joel was the sole owner, and he didn’t need financial backers.

When Joel was 15 years old, he worked at an International House of Pancakes to save for a motorcycle. As he reflects on his life, Joel laughs, saying that he is back to breakfast and a motorcycle once again.

In asking Joe about his business, he states that he abides by the Richard Branson motto, “Take care of your employees, and they’ll take care of your business.”

Joel’s mentality has worked because I have never seen such a close-knit group of customers and employees. While waiting to be seated, we watched Joel interacting with some tourists. The interactions and conversation made it hard to distinguish if they were from out of town or his relatives.

The Family

In all families, you have a mix of personalities with distinct character traits. The Rusty Bike is no exception. No matter who you are, and no matter what you believe politically or otherwise, you are welcome.

At the Rusty Bike, the family aspect comes from the relationship between the customers and the employees. Together, they give the Rusty Bike its charm.

The Employees

You can’t have a family when someone new is always waiting on you each time you visit. At the Rusty Bike, there is minimal turnover. We live out of town, so we would not expect to have the same wait staff each time we visit. However, we have the same waitresses, and they are always so friendly and inviting.

The employees seem genuinely happy to be at work. They have the camaraderie to joke with each other as family does, and their happiness permeates throughout the restaurant.

Joel told me that he is most proud of building the restaurant because he and his staff have created a strong business that can give the working mothers who comprise the wait staff a fair living wage. His employees do not have to work nights or work at bars. They can drop their children off at school, come to work, and be off in time to pick their children back up from school. Many mothers who work at the Rusty Bike and do not receive financial support from others can hold their own in life.

Our waitress, Lisa Soto, was awesome. She had a fantastic personality, and we enjoyed watching her interact with the customers and fellow wait staff. If you visit, ask Lisa her nickname!

As the customers leave, you can hear the “bye friends” and “see you tomorrow” that would make anyone want to return. Joel and his employees have created a place where you can come home to your family. Whether it is your first time or your 200th time at the restaurant, you will want to visit again.

The Customers

The Rusty Bike draws people of all ages. On our last visit, there was a young couple, maybe 20 years old, sitting behind us, and then on the other side was a couple who must have been married for 50+ years, plus all of us that fall in between.

The restaurant is strongly supported by both tourists and locals, and due to customer support, the Rusty Bike not only thrives during the summer months but rather all year long.

Customers appreciate the comfortable atmosphere at the Rusty Bike. You can roll out of bed and grab a bite for breakfast or be in your Sunday’s best, and you will get the same greeting and kindness.

Above the bar hangs a unique array of coffee cups. These are individual customers’ mugs.

Denny Dalrymple, a motorcycle rider and a patron who visits the Rusty Bike 2-4 times a week, comes in to eat or for coffee and pie. Denny will assure you that as delicious as the food is at the cafe, the reason the customers return and become family is due to who is behind the counter. Denny drinks from his Goldwing mug. He also rides his Goldwing and knows that his mug is always ready to be filled at the Rusty Bike.

Jerry and his wife from Franklin, North Carolina, drive down to Clayton to eat at the Rusty Bike frequently. Jerry stated that it is worth the drive to get quality food. He told me which seat at the bar was his.

If you are not a fan of bikes or the representations of the cafe, come anyway. There is nothing that Joel and the staff love more than a good conversation and the spirit of debate. That is what makes the Rusty Bike so unique. You can be the polar opposite of the ideology of the cafe, and you are completely accepted. In an era where people and beliefs are shunned just because “theirs are not ours,” the Rusty Bike has the most welcoming of doors.

If you are interested in the Rusty Bike’s decor, it just so happen to be family heirlooms. As the restaurant opened and gained popularity, customers donated bike and motorcycle memorabilia to the cafe.

It is all in good fun for some, and for others, it is genuinely the passing down of heirlooms so that others may enjoy and appreciate. There is a wall that contains photos of customers and their motorcycles.

Many customers, or framily (friends who are thought of as family), have brought in pictures of their loved ones who have passed away and their rides. Their tribute no longer has to be private; those customers’ contributions and their loved ones’ memories live through the cafe each day.

A sign also adorns the wall of loyal customers who have long since passed. However, in the Rusty Bike family, they are never forgotten.

One of the most striking heirlooms within the restaurant is located to the left, just as you enter the door. It consists of a shadowbox with a policeman’s jacket. One of the first customers of the Rusty Bike was a retired motor cop from Tifton, Georgia. The gentleman and his wife did not have children, and he asked Joel if he could donate his jacket to the cafe. The gentleman’s jacket hangs proudly at the Rusty Bike, and his service is always appreciated.

A customer donated a unique heirloom, a photo taken in Cuba during the 1940s. The image captures a Cuban motorcycle club. It just so happens that a customer at another time recognized her grandmother in the photo!

Just before you grace the doors of the Rusty Bike, you will pass a 1976 Indian dirt bike. Donnie from Detroit, a war veteran, and a 1983 Beirut bombing survivor, donated the bike to the cafe. Donnie had stopped at the Rusty Bike on a trip to visit friends when he and Joel struck up a conversation as Donnie sat at the bar. A year later, Donnie drove eight hours out of his way to gift the bike to Joel and the restaurant. Many people have offered to purchase the bike, but Donnie would not fathom selling it. Instead, he told Joel that it belonged to the Rusty Bike Cafe.

The Food

The Rusty Bike has breakfast and lunch menus, and they are both served all day.

If you think about comfort food, you know there there are no social expectations to enjoying it; you just eat what you love on your terms. The food at the Rusty Bike is just that, comfort food. Joel’s vision of opening the restaurant was to serve good food that he loved making and eating. It just so happens that others love to eat it as well.

The names and recipes are authentic. My absolute favorite is the pimento cheese-covered blackened, fried chicken sandwich that holds the name of Blackbird. The Blackbird’s origins come from Joel’s daughter, Grace, who is nicknamed Bird.

Grace created the recipe for the sandwich, and man, did she do well! Since the chicken is blackened, the sandwich was penned, the Blackbird.

You will find this authentic vibe throughout the entire menu. For example, try the Hog or the banana bread french toast. You will be amazed at the genuine and creative dishes. You can’t buy these entrees just anywhere; they are uniquely Rusty Bike.

If you are searching for freedom, family, or great food, the Rusty Bike has a stool and a hot cup of coffee waiting on you. Like Denny, I believe that the Rusty Bike is far more than a meal. It just so happens that the food is fantastic.

When you are in Clayton, Georgia, or within an eight-hour vicinity like Donnie from Detroit, stop in, pull up a chair, and visit with the family for a while. They will be glad to have you, and you’ll be glad you came!

677 Highway 441 S, Clayton, Georgia, 30525. Check them out by clicking HERE.

Are you interested in reading our article on Exploring the North Georgia Mountains? Check it out HERE!

For family and budget-friendly Georgia adventures, check out 15 Budget-Friendly Destinations in Georgia!