At Carver’s Country Kitchen on West Marietta, Robert Carver had several very specific duties. His role as prep man was one of the most important, his wife said.
“There were three things he did very well, but cooking wasn’t one of them,” joked Sharon Carver, his wife of 25 years. “He peeled the potatoes, picked the collard greens and made the iced tea.”
Mr. Carver’s son and namesake, Robert “Robbie” Carver Jr., said his dad was the face of the popular meat-and-three, and looked forward to greeting customers each day.
“He sat and talked to people and he knew many by name,” said Robbie Carver, of Atlanta. “And people liked him and responded to him.”
Robert Carver hadn’t been feeling great for the better part of three years, his wife said. In hindsight, she suspects that was when the cancer started to take hold of her husband’s body, but he wasn’t diagnosed until December 2011. Mr. Carver hadn’t been able to greet his beloved customers since the summer months of 2011, and soon thereafter he was hardly able to move around the house, let alone make it to the Kitchen.
Robert Carrol Carver, of Atlanta, died March 18, six days before his 77th birthday, at Hospice Atlanta, from complications associated with cancer. His body was cremated and a memorial service has been planned for 4 p.m. Saturday at the Georgia Tech Catholic Center, located on the campus. The Cremation Society of Georgia was in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Carver has always been involved with food service, said his daughter Melissa “Missie” Coleman, of Roswell. She remembers her father working as a deliveryman for an ice cream company in his hometown of Douglas, Ga. Then there was the corner store, which included a deli, laundromat and gas station, also in Douglas.
“I think he was in the people business, not so much the food business,” she said of her father. “My daddy was just the kind of person who enjoyed people, and he did things that took him to the people, or brought the people to him.”
Mr. Carver opened a corner store on West Marietta Street in 1975, Mrs. Carver said. In the '90s, soon after they married, she asked about converting an unused part of the store into a deli. Soon the formal store was phased out, and the kitchen took over.
In the beginning, it was just the husband and wife team with Mrs. Carver doing all of the cooking and Mr. Carver playing the all-important role of greeter, cashier and errand-runner. As the business grew, they took on staff to help with the cooking, and Mr. Carver spent most of his time on the customer service side of the Kitchen.
Since Mr. Carver's death, scores of customers have stopped by the eatery to pay their respects, said Robbie Carver, of Dacula.
“I’ve gotten phone calls from all over, people saying they visited while they were in Atlanta, and they want to know if the guy behind the register is the one who passed away,” he said. “And I tell them that was my dad, and they go on to say what an impression he made on them during their visit here. I have to say, that’s pretty nice to hear.”
In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Mr. Carver is survived by four stepsons, Joseph Unterwagner of Curlew, Wash., Tom Unterwagner of Denver, Colo., Greg Unterwagner of Woodstock and Darrick Unterwagner of Roanoke, Va.; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
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