Nu-Way owner: ‘Waiting to see’ on downtown Macon rebuilding

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – “It bothered me, you know?” said Nu-Way employee Randy Belcher.

In March of 2015, Belcher’s life changed.

“Someone called me at about 3 o’clock in the morning, and I said, ‘No, I’m on medical leave,’ and they said Randy, your place is on fire.”

The Nu-Way Weiners on Cotton Avenue–what has become an iconic restaurant in Middle Georgia–had gone up in flames.

“The closer we got to downtown we could see the flames everywhere,” said Belcher.

It burned in the early morning hours.

“That’s an icon, you know? Nothing will ever be like it again, you know?” said Belcher.

Nothing ever will, but the plan may be to make a new restaurant on Cotton that would at least come close.

“We’re waiting to see what the disposition of the building next door is,” said Nu-Way owner James Cacavias.

Cacavias has certainly considered a rebuild–it’s just taken awhile.

“And we’re also waiting to see what the development plans are going to be with the southern trust building across the street,” said Cacavias.

It depends on everything going on around the old restaurant’s location.

“We decided to just put things on hold and see when the dust settles as to which way we’re gonna go with this thing,” said Cacavias.

Since the fire, Nu-Way opened a new location at Mercer Village in Macon.

“We’ve done a lot of preliminary plans and all and we’re really working with all our neighbors in the whole quadrant of the Cotton Avenue block there, so when we do develop it, it’s to the advantage of all of us,” said Cacavias.

So for now, we have to wait to eat one of those red Nu-Way hot dogs downtown, but Belcher will be ready if the time finally comes.

“The’re going to lay a plan down and how they’re going to have it, and when you walk into Nu-Way on Cotton avenue, when we get it back together, it’s (going to be) like a Nu-Way museum,” said Belcher.

Nu-Way has nine locations around Middle Georgia.