Cancer closed this loved Columbus restaurant. It’s reopening with a monstrous new direction
Last Fall, Columbus entrepreneur Mak Son was getting lunch at a popular restaurant called the Mixed Dish when he heard some interesting news.
The owner of the restaurant was selling the business and moving his family back to their home state of Florida.
Son, a veteran who’s made a life for his family in Columbus with his first business, Fur-Baby Pet Services, found his interest piqued at the idea of owning a restaurant.
As he stood in line at the restaurant, Son began doing the calculus in his head. His son, Jordan, was getting older and interested in working at Fur-Baby. And Son had no plans to leave Columbus as his pet business was approaching its 10-year anniversary.
Owning a restaurant was an opportunity Son didn’t want to miss, so he invested his savings into The Mixed Dish.
The plan was to operate The Mixed Dish alongside family friends, while Jordan and Son’s wife, Anna, took on the labor-intensive work at Fur-Baby.
Son purchased the business in October.
By November a cancer diagnosis derailed Son’s plans, and put the future of his family and the restaurant at risk.
While the Mixed Dish might have been lost along the way, his experience over the last six months gave rise to Son’s new concept Spudzilla Monster Loaded Potatoes & More.
A diagnosis and potential permanent closure
It was a routine doctor’s visit for Anna last fall, Son said. His wife was good about getting regular check-ups and screenings.
The couple were both at Fur-Baby when she told him the bad news.
Son already knew something was very wrong with his wife having observed her changed behavior.
“She is my right-hand woman,” Son said. “She was there in the beginning.”
Anna and Son got married April 26, 2004.
She’d taken charge of raising their kids during Son’s military career as he was repeatedly deployed. Anna helped him recover when the veteran became a purple heart recipient after sustaining injuries from a roadside bomb in 2011.
“She’s my best friend, my everything,” Son said.
Before Anna spoke up, Son sensed she was scared.
She informed Son that the doctor found something suspicious in her breast, and it could potentially be cancer.
In the first moments after learning that Anna could have breast cancer, Son focused on work. He didn’t immediately have time to process the news because Fur-Baby is busy, Son said, and the day doesn’t stop.
But afterwards, panic and fear set in.
Especially after doctor’s confirmed Anna’s breast cancer. This led to him almost immediately closing The Mixed Dish.
Operating two businesses wasn’t something he was mentally or physically capable of doing. Cancer had not run in either of their families, Son said, so they didn’t know what to expect. And the physical labor required at Fur-Baby meant Anna wasn’t able to work there because of limitations stemming from the intense cancer treatment.
“I freaked out mentally to the point where I was abandoning ship because I have to take care of my wife,” Son said. “She’s my priority over everything.”
Changing direction
Doctors found Anna’s cancer early and attacked it, Son said.
After the treatments, procedures and rehabilitation, Anna still has a long road ahead of her. But her health improved enough that Son began to think about how to move forward with the Mixed Dish.
He knew big changes needed to be made for the restaurant.
“There was a lot of waste that was involved,” Son said. “And being a first-generation immigrant, seeing food wasted like that hurt me.”
Another issue was the limited space he had to work with to make these changes. Determined, Son decided to develop the restaurant from “ground zero.”
After brainstorming and developing different ideas, Son landed on one main ingredient: potatoes.
“You can cook it 100 different ways,” he said. “It’s part of many dishes, and has a long shelf life. So, I don’t have to worry about wasting it.”
While developing the menu and product, Son found a supplier for giant potatoes. The first thing he thought about when he saw their size was Godzilla. And thus, Spudzilla Monster Loaded Potatoes & More was born.
A large variety of loaded potatoes will be on the menu, Son said, including Chicken Cordon Bleu Spudz, Cajun Seafood Spudz and Mexican Street Taco Spudz. There’s also an option for The Soulful Spudz, which pays homage to the original soul food cuisine sold by the Mixed Dish.
But the loaded potatoes are only one part of the menu, he said, with the “& More” part of the restaurant name being just as important. Wings, hot dogs, burgers and stir-fry noodles are among the variety of other options on the menu.
“I had to deal with limited space,” Son said. “But through potatoes, I was able to provide a lot more variations and varieties of food. I’m actually more of a mixed dish now through spuds.”
The restaurant opens for breakfast, lunch and dinner with limited indoor seating and more community seating in its covered, outdoor patio area.
In the same location as the former Mixed Dish at 6600 Whittlesey Blvd. near Build Yo Poke, Son plans to open Spudzilla with a big celebration on June 8. The event will double as a 10-year anniversary celebration for Fur-Baby.
One of the biggest takeaways Son has from the events of recent months is how important it is that people keep up with their regular doctor appointments and screenings. Women between the ages of 40 to 74 should receive mammograms every two years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Even through all this, we’re still out here trying to make things happen and serve Columbus, Georgia like we’ve been doing for the last 10 years here in the area,” Son said.
