Many children dream of what they want to be when they grow up, and many of them act out their fantasies. Of course, most never realize their childhood dreams as an adult.
Trina Hathaway is one of those who did.
Hathaway, now 56, saw her childhood dream come to fruition when she opened the doors to Trinabell’s Diner in Gray May 15 of this year.
The new business owner shared that she opened her first ‘restaurant’ in her mom’s kitchen as a child.
“I remember taking all my momma’s dishes, getting in my momma’s china cabinet and taking all her good dishes, planned my restaurant, and I would get in it big time. I cleared off all the counters, everything. I made her whole kitchen my restaurant. So that’s, it’s just been my dream to own my own restaurant.”
Hathaway lived in Murphy, North Carolina, as a child and was the youngest of five children to June Earwood. “We all have a great relationship with each other,” she commented.
Hathaway moved to Jones County when she was 12. Her dad had passed away, and her mother and other family members located here when an uncle went to work at one of the rock quarries. Forty-four years later, she has raised her own family here.
“I love this little town,” she shared last week. “At first I was like — I love the mountains, I’m a mountain girl all day long — but I love our town and our community.”
Hathaway has four children — Dustin, Brandon, Nikki, and Gage —and she has been married to Gray police officer Paul Hathaway 21 years.
The new entrepreneur is no stranger to the restaurant business. She started working in a café shortly after graduating from high school in 1987.
“I went to work at Chevy’s Cafe on (Highway) 49,” she said, “and I worked there for over 30 years off and on.” She interrupted that career for a while when she worked with the Medical Center in medical billing.
“I went in the medical field for 15 years and still worked part-time at Chevy’s,” Hathaway stated. “I worked at the Medical Center and worked at Chevy’s on the weekend.”
She finally made the move to return to her first love, restaurants, specifically Chevy’s. She worked for Chevy’s Café until the Turners made the decision to move to Gray and open Chevy’s Pizza. She worked there as well.
“They were open 10 years as Chevy’s Pizza,” Hathaway said. “They just closed last year.”
Local developer and downtown Gray advocate Sherri Rollins purchased the building from Turner.
“I think that at first it was gonna be the brewery,” Hathaway speculated. “And I don’t know what happened with that. Then we went to her and asked her if she had a building. She said, ‘I think I have something.’ And then, here we are.”
“After all this time, I own my own business,” Hathaway smiled. “It’s always been a dream of mine when I was a little girl. I always wanted to own a restaurant.”
The new owner credited her husband with the name, Trinabell’s Diner.
“My restaurant name came from Paul. My middle name is Gail, and from day one he has called me Trinabell.”
Once all the work and preparation were completed, the time came to meet the public.
“I was so excited opening day,” Hathaway recalled. “My first customer was my family, who support me 110 percent. I was thankful to God for giving me my next adventure in my life.”
Hathaway did not have to go far to find her number one employee. Nikki is the store manager.
“She started working in a restaurant and waiting tables at 16 at Chevys Café,” her mother explained, adding that Nikki graduated from JCHS and went into finance and then to FedEx.
“She is great at finance andscheduling,” Hathaway shared. “She handles every situation professionally and loves meeting new people. “She is really good at what she does, and she handles it quite well. Takes a load off me.”
Hathaway credits two other people with her road to success.
“My mom was my rock,” she declared. “And my best friend. I hope I am half the woman she was. Her words were, ‘Be better today than you were yesterday.’” June Earwood, who worked for convenience stores in Gray, passed away several years ago.
The other influence in Hathway’s life has been her previous employer.
“Tom Turner and I, we have a great relationship,” she said. “She ismy second mama. She is one of my biggest fans and the best mentor I could ever ask for in my life other than my mama.”
The downtown diner has been a family business from the start. Hathaway said her police officer husband definitely plays a part.
“He’s a supervisor on the midnight shift,” she said. “So, he’s here some during the day, but on his days off he’s usually right here with me. Some days, he’s here before me,” she added. “Him and me. We opened it together, and we’re in it together.
“The boys work parttime when they’re not at their full-time job,” Hathaway said. “They both cook when they’re at the restaurant.”
Hathaway said Tom Turner is still a big help.
“Tom works with me; she was my mentor through all of this,” she declared. “She’ll come in every so often and work and help out. She’s been a big help through it all.”
Hathaway has no complaints about business the first five months.
“It’s been good. I’ve had big support in the community. And I have all my regular customers that I waited on at Chevy’s come in, and they see us, and it’s been really good. I cannot complain. I mean, God’s been good to us.”
Hathaway said the diner specializes in homecooked meals. “We have our daily menu,” she pointed out. “You can get a meat and two vegetables, or you can get a vegetable plate. But,” she added, “we run specials all the time; like this weekend we will run all-you-can-eat shrimp. Our main thing, though, that they come in here for are the vegetables and the fact that they can get home-cooked food.”
Can one get a pizza? “No,” Hathaway responded. “We don’t do pizza. Everybody asks ‘can we get a pizza?’, and I’m like, no, we don’t have a pizza oven.”
Trinabell’s has done some catering, and Hathaway said plans call for more.
“We’ve catered some doctor’s offices and some nursing homes they’ve asked us to cater. And, we’re gonna start catering more. We’ve decided that if they wanted us to cater their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, we are.”
The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, but customers can enjoy the food there earlier on the weekend.
“We have breakfast now. We open at 7 in the morning Saturdays and Sundays,” the owner shared.
While there are now a total of 15 employees who work various hours, the manager and the owner many days, clearly put in more time.
“Nikki’s doing anywhere from 50 hours a week, sometimes more than that,” Hathaway noted, “but I’m usually here just about as much as she is when they’ll let me. They’ll be like, ‘go home; we can handle it.’” While her helpers may encourage her to leave, Hathaway is actually one of the cooks — with her own specialty.
“I’ll do all the peach cobblers and banana puddings and the chicken and dumplings and stuff like that,” she commented.”
Hathaway hopes that the dream she has realized is her last stop in the business world.
“I hope so … until I retire,” she said. “And then I’m gonna turn it all over to them. I’ll do it till I can’t do it anymore.”
