Twenty years on Main Street, told by the people who lived it

In 2006, Jason McConnell signed a lease on Main Street before Franklin was the dining town it is today. Plenty of people told him not to. Twenty years later, Red Pony is still here, and the reason has always been the people inside it.

Hosts who became directors. Servers who met their spouses on the floor. Cooks who went on to run kitchens of their own. Parents and kids clocking in under the same roof. Together they've carried this restaurant through a pandemic, a fire, and a return home, with regulars checking in on them every step of the way.

We asked a few of them to tell us how it started. Here's what they had to say.