Jersey Mike’s holds ribbon cutting for LaGrange location

Published 9:40 am Thursday, February 29, 2024

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On Wednesday morning, the new Jersey Mike’s held a ribbon cutting hosted by the LaGrange-Troup Chamber of Commerce.

The new sandwich shop is owned by LABE Restaurant Group, which is part of McDonald Oil Company. Readers may be familiar with McDonald Oil Company, which has operated various convenience stores throughout Troup County, including Frisky Whisky in West Point. The company is probably most known for its Summit stores locally.

The company was founded by John and Gail McDonald founded the company. Their daughters, Laura Huff and Beth Knight, are also owners.  The company has three generations working in their home office in LaGrange.   

Tim Huff, President of McDonald Oil, said the company has been around locally since 1972.

“We opened up 56 convenience stores. We’ve been Amoco, BP, and Shell all these years in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida all around. We’ve still got some convenience stores down south. We still operate Frisky Whisky down in West Point, so we do a lot of things,” Huff said.

Huff said they have exited a bit from the Georgia convenience store market and have reinvested in Jersey Mike’s franchises.

“My son, Michael, we call Jersey Michael because he brought the program to us,” Huff said.

Huff said he hadn’t even had Jersey Mike’s until around 2018. The following year they sold a bunch of convenience stores and ownership began to invest in the chain.

“In December 2019, we brought our first Jersey Mike’s to Tigertown in Opelika and then we started building them, and we’re all the way from Canton, Georgia down to Orange Beach, Alabama, and everywhere inbetween because we believe it’s a great concept,” Huff said.

Several representatives on behalf of The Exceptional Way were also on hand to celebrate the ribbon cutting. The Exceptional Way is a day center for adults with intellectual and developmental abilities.

The group joined in the celebration because Jersey Mike’s has chosen The Exceptional Way as a local charity for their 14th annual Month of Giving in March, which culminates in their Day of Giving on March 27, where sales proceeds go to local charities.

Since Month of Giving began in 2011, Jersey Mike’s has raised more than $88 million for local charities.