Day in the Life: Serving food he likes keys restaurant owner's success
Colin McArthur didn't make it past the rank of sergeant in the Army.
But folks around Laurinburg call the 62-year-old "General."
That's because of the restaurant on the south side of town that bears his name. For more than 20 years, he's run General McArthur's, a home-style buffet restaurant.
And he has the Army to thank for his career choice.
"When I was drafted, I was made a cook," McArthur said, relaxing on the porch of his restaurant. "Now, I didn't know the first thing about cooking. I figured they made a mistake.
"It turned out to be a blessing in disguise."
When he came home to Laurinburg, he settled on the family farm and went to work. Farming, he learned, was a lot tougher than cooking.
"I began a little catering business on the side, cooking for friends and church events," he said. "People kept asking me to cook, so I said, 'What am I farming for?' "
He opened his restaurant on Barnes Bridge Road, built from two old sharecropper homes and a tobacco barn. The rest is history.
"I have the kind of food I like to eat," he said. "Good country cooking. And I've got good people working with me."
And has he ever heard from the descendants of the real Gen. MacArthur, who shares a fair resemblance with the porky mascot of the restaurant?
"Honestly, I thought we'd get some static, but we never have," McArthur said.