A Mercer University art professor recently told me that “if you can make it in Macon, you can make it anywhere.” His theory is that the cultural scene here is quietly competitive, so by the time its contributors reach a national stage, they’ve already fought the aesthetic battles required to produce something worthy of wide appreciation.
He cited The Allman Brothers Band and Otis Redding. But he could have pointed to Mangham Edward Griffin, the founder of Mrs. Griffin’s Barbecue Sauce.
Born in Taylor County in 1899, Griffin as a boy helped his father cater barbecues for Masons. Years later, his origin story was adjusted to emphasize family meals on July Fourth, but whether the guests were relatives or fraternity members, the Griffins had to negotiate a regional divide.
Some of their patrons were partial to the mustard-based barbecue sauce that’s popular east of Georgia. Others preferred the ketchup-based barbecue sauce that prevails west of the state.
So, when Griffin opened Griffin’s Barbecue Bar on a Macon thoroughfare in 1949, he put both condiments in the mix, along with a pinch of dried corn syrup and a healthy dose of vinegar. He bottled the sauce and put his wife’s name on it, because—as he told The Macon News in 1983—if the label “says ‘Mrs.’, you’ll go ahead and read it.”
Etta Busbee, immortalized under her married name, died in 1959. But the sweetish sauce is still bottled in Macon—and figures prominently in locals’ childhood memories, much as the Masonic Lodge loomed large for M.E. Griffin.
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