08/22/2026
Carter Buckner was more than someone who worked at Macky’s.
He grew up here.
He started with us young, and over the years, so many of us got to watch him change, grow, learn, screw up, come back, work hard, make us laugh, drive us crazy, and become such a deeply loved part of the Macky’s family.
Carter gave a lot of himself to this place.
He worked long shifts. Hard shifts. The kind of shifts where everyone is tired, the kitchen is buried, tickets won’t stop printing, and somehow Carter would still find a way to make somebody laugh.
He had a personality you just couldn’t ignore. He was goofy, loud, funny, stubborn, sweet, and completely himself.
And if you ever worked a shift with him, you probably heard him tell you that he made the best ribeye at Macky’s.
According to Carter, there really wasn’t much of a debate.
He was the Ribeye Master.
That little joke means so much more to us now.
Because when we think about Carter, we think about him standing behind that grill. We think about the long nights, the chaos, the laughs, the stories, the inside jokes, and all the ordinary moments that we didn’t realize would someday become the ones we would miss the most.
Macky’s has been around for a long time, and a lot of people have walked through these doors. But every once in a while, someone leaves a mark here that doesn’t go away when their shift ends.
Carter was one of those people.
He gave years of his life to this restaurant, but more importantly, he gave us pieces of himself — his humor, his energy, his heart, and a whole lot of memories.
There are no words that make losing someone this young make sense.
So instead, we are going to remember him the way we knew him.
Behind the grill.
Making us laugh.
Probably arguing that nobody could cook a ribeye better than he could.
Carter, you will always have a place in the story of Macky’s.
And you will always be our Ribeye Master. 🧡
We love you, Carter.
