For nearly three decades, The Deck has curbed hunger quickly for its Marion County customer base.
Owner Brian Stewart, who is also the senior pastor at The Church on Main, and his wife purchased the restaurant, which opened in 1989, from his parents five years ago.
With an extensive menu for a fast food restaurant, The Deck has something for everyone who visits.
“We have cheeseburgers, chili burgers, chili dogs, po boys, baked potatoes, green salads, chicken salads, pimento cheese, which is a little bit more of a specialty menu there, and have some good desserts like ice cream, cookies, hot fudge cakes and milkshakes,” Stewart said. “And now we have a good crawfish po boy and a shrimp po boy as well that has done well for us. We have some good side items, too, like cheese sticks, chicken strips and nuggets.”
Stewart said what makes The Deck unique is its family atmosphere, which extends to the community, and the quality of the products.
“We’re a part of the hometown community, and I think that’s the main thing that makes The Deck special. The owners are there a lot, and customers see familiar faces,” he said. “We treat the people who work with us like family. We try to use good quality food; all of our hamburger patties are 100 percent beef with no fillers or additives. That goes for all of our chicken and beef products. We try to buy the best food we can buy from our food providers and try to pass that on as healthy as we can to the consumer.”
The Deck has always been active in giving back to the community and makes it a point of emphasis multiple times a year.
“We try to do one fundraiser a quarter where we have a volunteer labor pool that comes in, which allows us to donate 50 percent of the sales that day. We’ve probably donated around $12,000 the past two years,” Stewart said.
Stewart started working in the fast food business when he was 11, and he was 19 when The Deck opened. However, he had no plans to run the family business.
“I started pastoring when I was 25, and about five years after that I moved to Tylertown to pastor a church. I figured I would be moving way away from Columbia, but three years later the Lord started The Church on Main. That’s what started the conversations about getting back involved in the family business,” he said.
Stewart said he defines success for The Deck the same way he defines success for himself.
“I believe God has an individual personal calling on each of our lives, and it’s stated three different times in the Old Testament with two prophets and one king. He says I knew you when you were in your mother’s womb and called you when you were in your mother’s womb. Success, to me, is very simple to define: it’s doing God’s will,” he said. “I believe I’m doing God’s will at the restaurant because it’s a mission field in the public eye. You don’t get in an ivory tower and certainly don’t get self-righteous.”
Stewart added working in the restaurant business has helped him in ministry because he deals with all sorts of different people from different walks of life.
The Deck has two other locations on U.S. 98 and in Prentiss and is potentially looking at adding a fourth location, but that isn’t the only advancement the successful chain is looking toward.
“Some time in the near future we’re looking at getting an app developed to go toward an app-based menu to make the call-in order aspect simpler,” Stewart said. “And it would lighten the load on our staff a little bit.”
The Deck is open from 5:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, can be reached at (601) 736-1111 and has an interesting story behind its name. About two months away from the opening date, Stewart’s parents had no idea what they were planning to name the restaurant but took a trip to Hot Springs, Ark., and ate at a roadside restaurant called The Deck. So they decided to have the carpenter build a deck outside, thus naming the business.
Stewart offered a heartfelt message to The Deck’s supporters.
“Over these past 29 years, we just want to thank Columbia and Marion County for being supporters of The Deck. The Deck always wants to be supporters of Marion County and Columbia. We’re super appreciative because we know what makes it special is our surrounding community that does business with us,” he said. “We’ll always say thank you and treat you with kindness and respect.”
Pictured Above: The Deck owner Brian Stewart is joined by staff members, from left, Lilly Baudin, Alice Lara, Shawanna Luter and Monique Varnado. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
