MACON, Ga. — We started with 64 restaurants and your votes at home named Jim Shaw’s the overall number one restaurant in our MUNCH MADNESS bracket challenge.
We went inside the kitchen to find out what makes the seafood here Central Georgia’s favorite.
"I’m overwhelmed that we were voted the best," said Skipper Zimmerman, owner of Jim Shaw’s Seafood Restaurant Grill and Bar. Zimmerman is feeling pretty good these days, but he’s not letting being voted the big fish in our small pond of restaurants go to his head.
"I don’t know that we’re the very best, I think that we’re a very popular restaurant," he said.
He may not be taking the bragging rights bait of a newly crowned title, but his cabin crew isn’t surprised that Jim Shaw’s reeled in the win.
"I knew our fans and customers would come through," said Sydney Johnson, who is a bartender at the restaurant.
Customers like Steve Norris have been coming to the restaurant for 15 years with no plans of abandoning ship, any time soon. "The food is always excellent. Skipper, the owner, goes out of his way to get the very best seafood," he said.
"We have six deliveries a week and twice a week we go pick up seafood," said Zimmerman. The helmsman and his crew drive hundreds of miles a week, even out of the state, to bring the freshest seafood possible into the galley.
Jim Shaw’s couldn’t be number one, without the support of its shipmates.
"Our food’s good, but a large part of this restaurant is the people that work here, we have over 225 years on staff. It’s the staff here that really makes Jim Shaw’s what it is," Zimmerman said about the restaurant's staff.
He also had a message for the restaurant's school of customers.
"To everybody that voted for us, we appreciate it and we hope we never let them down and if we do just let us know and we’ll take care of it. "
Jim Shaw’s is open Monday thru Saturday for dinner. For more information about Jim Shaw's and its hours, click here to visit its website.