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Greenville Business Magazine

#YeahTHATAgenda: No Super Bowl Chick-fil-A, EMS Shortage, SC Docs Say No to Medical Marijuana, Boeing's Flying Car

Jan 23, 2019 11:29AM ● By Chris Haire
The Chick-fil-A at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be closed on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3. That information comes from an individual providing information on behalf of the beloved Georgia-based fast food chain.

The company has long maintained a closed-on-Sunday policy, much to the dismay of its fans, and that policy applies to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. 

While it may seem counter-intuitive to have a restaurant that closes on Sunday at a stadium whose primary draw is Sunday football, Chick-fil-A explains there are plenty of other non-Sunday opportunities to serve hungry attendees at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. 

“We’re open for about 100 events a year that happen right here at the stadium,” says Jonathan Hollis, franchise operator of the Chick-fil-A at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a statement the company issued in 2018. “We have Atlanta United soccer games, concertscollege football games, high school football games, band competitions and more. We even have a monster truck rally!”

The press release also notes: "As a matter of fact, Hollis and his team serve so many guests during each event that they begin preparing nearly four hours before stadium doors open. For Hollis, having the chance to run a Chick-fil-A restaurant in a venue like Mercedes-Benz Stadium not only gives him an opportunity to serve customers, but to also be a part of their event experience."

The first restaurant in what would become the Chick-fil-A chain opened in 1946, and it's a drastically different operation than all other restaurants in the franchise family. 

Called The Dwarf House, the mother hen of the Chick-fil-A empire is located in tiny Hapeville, Ga., population 6,500, and it serves costumers 24 hours a day.

Not only is The Dwarf House open all-day, six days a week--there's that never-on-Sunday policy again--the restaurant serves steaks, hamburgers, BLTs, and the eatery's signature Hot Brown, an open-faced chicken dish covered in cheese, bacon, mashed potatoes, and gravy. They also offer a more traditional meat-and-three selection of sides, from fried okra to collards and sweet potato casserole. 

You're thinking about a road trip now, aren't ya?


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Sunshine generating new investments in Spartanburg County (Herald-Journal)


What Utilities Can Do to Strengthen the Power Grid (WSJ)


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Keith Coker 
Green Cloud
Co-Founder & CEO

Keith Coker thrives in a constantly evolving complex tech environment and is proficient in all fields of telecom including cloud, managed services, wireless, and networking. He has served in many executive level technical capacities, including chief technology officer at two telecommunications organizations. 

In 2011, he started Green Cloud Technologies with Eric Hester and Charles Houser, and today is CEO of one the largest independent channel-only cloud IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) providers in the country offering SMBs, enterprise-class organizations, and expansive suite cloud-based products based on Cisco and Vmware technologies. 

When Coker isn’t focused on building partner networks and providing customers with world-class servers and backup and recovery solutions to meet his customers’ IT needs, he spends time with his wife and three children.

 
Eric Hester 
Green Cloud
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Eric Hester has spent more than 20 years professionally in the technology field. An entrepreneur since his teenage years, he has built several successful ventures, including a regional internet service provider in the late 1990s and the infrastructure teams at NuVox Communications. 

In 2011, Hester co-founded Green Cloud Technologies with Charles Houser and Keith Coker to create a successful business model completely focused on building partner networks and providing customers with world-class servers and backup and recovery solutions. 

Outside of work, Hester can be found flying drones, building solar panels, or spending time with his wife, Candice, and two children, Lilly and Evan. Hester also gives time to many organizations and schools in Greenville such as Green Charter School and the Brickyard.

 
Charles L. Houser 
Green Cloud
Founder & Executive VP, Sales & Marketing

A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Charles Houser brought 18 years of experience as an entrepreneur and senior manager in the telecommunications industry to Green Cloud. Before co-founding Green Cloud, Houser led sales and business development for the $180 million per year Integrated Communications division of SYNNEX Corporation (NASDAQ: SNX).

Houser also co-founded NuVox in 1997, an integrated communications company where he served in various sales and marketing roles, and helped grow the company to more than $500 million of annualized revenue and 1,000 employees.