Ribs Up, Bones Down
Memphis Mac Enterprises, Inc.
2785 Larkspur Ave
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana 70805
225-256-6398
In the city of Memphis, Tennessee, Carlos Thomas grew up loving barbecue. In 1989, he began his four-year running-back career for the football team at Vanderbilt University. He played for coach Gerry DiNardo, who later hired him as an academic advisor for the Tigers after they both made their way to LSU. While earning his master’s degree, he taught African American studies at LSU in the evening. In 2003, he was asked to return to LSU to teach classes and earn his PhD in Information Systems and Decision Sciences. Thomas was also a professor at Southern University from 2007 to 2018.
Thomas met his wife, Kerii, and they later had two children, Landrii Thomas and Carlos Mayo. Both children went to Baton Rouge Flaim, which is a local foreign language immersion school in the East Baton Rouge parish. In 2012, Carlos began to share his love for barbecue when he and several other dads cooked barbecue lunches as a fundraiser for their children’s school. Their delicious meals quickly became the talk of the town, and the fundraiser grew from hundreds of meals to over a thousand.
In 2018, Thomas’ wife got a job in Los Angeles, California, and he began teaching at the University of Southern California. He carried his barbecue skills to the west coast and cooked for his friends there. After serving Californians, Thomas realized his belief that people in the South take food for granted.
“We can go to a gas station and get a three-star meal,” Thomas said.
Thus, the man with five degrees decided to pursue and share what he loves: barbecue.
The Thomas family returned to Baton Rouge in 2019, and Thomas started building his dream restaurant: Memphis Mac. He found an old building that was formerly the 25-year-old home of Sky Hook Café. Barbara Nolan owned the café and worked alongside her husband and son. However, she found it very difficult to re-open the café once she lost both of them. Thus, Thomas began renovations of the building once he bought it in December of 2019. In February of 2020, Memphis Mac was officially opened. Thomas kept two Sky Hook Café employees, Mrs. Claudine and Mrs. Gracie, in order to keep some of its menu items present in the new restaurant.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Memphis Mac to close its doors soon after its unveiling. Thomas decided to use his information technology background and social media to keep his business firing. Thomas offered online ordering and curbside pickup, and he had friends and family ordering all around the U.S. Those friends and family eventually started paying Thomas for meals to give to those in need. The donations grew and grew, allowing Thomas to feed many Baton Rouge residents.
Memphis Mac recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, and plans to open a second location at Millennial Park. Thomas continues his community outreach by working with Hoopla Buzz to help businesses deliver to Baton Rouge neighborhoods.
Michael Strain, IT Analyst with LSU Athletics, met Thomas while helping with the Baton Rouge Flaim fundraisers.
“By the time I came on the scene, Carlos’ ribs were already legendary around the school. He was already using his passion to support and lift up the people he cared about long before it became a business. His skills and enthusiasm were able to raise thousands of dollars for the school. When he came back to Baton Rouge and chose to start his own business, people in our school community were ecstatic that we could have his cooking more than once or twice a year. Since opening Memphis Mac, his las leveraged his skills to help several schools in the city as well as lifting up those around him. He gives selflessly to those he sees who need his help while giving others the opportunity to work and provide for themselves. Despite leaving his formal role as an advisor, he continues to be an inspiration in every life he touches.”
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