Fayette is home to state’s first movie commissary

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Joe and Jim Hanna have worked for years in the motion picture catering business. What began with their own business in 1997 has led to the presence of Hanna Brothers Extreme Motion Picture Catering Service in New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta and now at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayetteville.

With offices already in the New Orleans area and more recently in Miami and Atlanta, co-owner Jim Hanna said the move to Fayetteville was a logical choice. And the move to Pinewood Atlanta Studios on the city’s west side includes the company’s first commissary in the state.

“We heard about Pinewood and it was a good fit,” Hanna said.

Hanna said catering for the film industry requires being on the road the majority of weeks in a year.

“You’ve got to go where the work is,” he said. “We hope with being at the studio, some of the work will come to us instead of us going there.”

Hanna said his company currently employs 25 people in Georgia, with 15 of those working at the Pinewood Production Centre (the former Rivers Elementary School) at Pinewood Atlanta Studios. Hanna said he also brought several key staff from other company locations.

Some of those have moved to Fayette County, he added.

When it comes to the people behind the studio project, Pinewood and Rivers Rock LLC, Hanna said it was the quality of the people and the quality of their character and their intention to make Pinewood Atlanta the premier studio in the world that made his company’s move to Fayetteville so desirable.

“Character is everything. We try to operate in an honorable way, to be credible and of high moral character,” Hanna said. “Pinewood had to select us and we selected them. Each of the businesses here, while trying to be profitable, are promoting the studio as a whole.”

In 2004, the brothers moved their main office to Slidell, La., near New Orleans, to service the growing film industry in Louisiana and the Southeastern United States. They designed and built a commissary which they continue to operate.

The brothers later opened offices in Miami and Atlanta.

Today, Hanna Brothers provides film catering, event catering and disaster relief catering.

As for their new home in Fayetteville, Hanna said, “We’re not here for a short-term project. We’re here for the long-term.”

A taste of the menu variety offered by Hanna Brothers can be found weekdays from noon until 1 p.m. in the Studio Cafe located in the Pinewood Production Centre on Sandy Creek Road.

Lunch is served for the general public.

To locate the Studio Cafe enter through the building’s front door.

For more information on Hanna Brothers and for a look at the menu visit www.hannabrothers.com of visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/HannaBrothers.