Meet Mike and Jessie Martin! Mike and Jessie are the owners of the new Revival Tap Room in Jefferson. They opened the tap room in Jefferson to serve as a community living room for Jackson County.
“We were in a season a couple years ago and felt God was stirring, it was the end of another chapter…professionally we just felt like it was time to move on,” said Mike, former pastor at 12 Stone Church in Gwinnett County.
The couple sold everything they had, moved their family of six to Jefferson and bought a historic home before they opened Revival in July.
“For us, the tap room is a way to serve people but also a tool to have people come in, get to know us, get people trust us and get to enjoy the space and then we want to do events that we call ‘Marking and Meaningful.’ These will be events that help marriages, parenting, business and coaches,” Mike said. “It’s a tap room, you walk in and people see ‘Serve people, bless the city,’ it’s called Revival, but it unlocks a new way of thinking about business.”
Revival plans to offer live music, food trucks and other events in Jefferson with a focus community and good, local brews and wines.
“The community has been craving something like this and we’ve had nothing but a great response since we opened,” Jessie said.
We want to thank Mike and Jessie for spending time with us recently and telling us more about their life and love of Jackson County.
Question: What is one of your favorite restaurants in Jackson County?
Answer: (Jessie) “Probably Local Station in Braselton, we go to Gringo’s in Jefferson a lot too.”
Q: What was one of the first movies we ever saw in the theater?
A: (Mike) “The first movie I saw was ‘Batman Returns.'”
Q: What is your favorite thing about Jackson County?
A: (Mike) “We are so in love of Jefferson the city. The history, too. We bought a historic home…and then you have the Crawford Long Museum and we love that the kids can ride their bikes to downtown, go to the pharmacy. It’s that small town feel that much of America has lost.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
A: (Jessie) “Somewhere at a beach, I could go to Panama City and be just as happy as the Bahamas.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: (Mike) “I want to meet Michael Jordan.”
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: (Mike) “I’ll say, this would be my default, that the way God works is not the way you think he would work. Life is difficult, life is hard, life’s not going to be easy with God…when you read the scriptures, God is working through everything even if it is hard. There’s not a story that is easy without complication, lean in to those times.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: (Mike) “We would like to have a big impact on Jefferson specifically, owning a couple stores and being a part of creating the culture downtown.”
Q: What three words mean HOME to you?
A: “Family, Community, Faith.”
The Faces of Jackson County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email abernathycochran@gmail.com.
