Other than eating, the first thing that we did in Tuscaloosa was visit the campus of The University of Alabama for our daughter, and the next thing that we did was visit The Children’s Hands-On Museum for our son. We had such a good time here! Like the similar, but unrelated, Hands-On Museum in Johnson City TN, this is a two-story museum (three in the summer) that took over some old, unused storefront space on the main drag in the city. Continue reading “Taco Casa, Tuscaloosa AL”
Tag: alabama
Rama Jama’s, Tuscaloosa AL
We’re keeping things very low-key and stress-free with our daughter, who is wrapping up her sophomore year of high school, but I decided that we should incorporate some walks around colleges with our road trips, so that she can look around and get a feel for a place outside of the formality, and pressure, of actual campus visits. So since I wanted to go back to Tuscaloosa, we planned to spend a couple of hours on the incredibly attractive campus of The University of Alabama. Continue reading “Rama Jama’s, Tuscaloosa AL”
Archibald’s Bar-B-Que, Northport AL
There are, of course, hundreds of barbecue restaurants this side of Texas that we have yet to visit, but it’s fair to say that we have not heard about most of them yet, and that there are only a handful left with a huge reputation – a “you must eat here” footprint that most everybody in the barbecue hobby knows. Payne’s, Sweatman’s, and Stamey’s come to mind, and so, for a long time, did Archibald’s, which has been on my short list for about five years thanks to so many glowing reviews from the regulars at the Roadfood forums. Continue reading “Archibald’s Bar-B-Que, Northport AL”
Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, Irondale AL
For our final stop on this road trip, we visited one of the oldest restaurants in the southeast. Golden Rule Bar-B-Q is on at least its fourth set of owners, and the current home of its flagship store is, again, at least the fourth, but it traces its history back to 1891, when a family named Williams opened the original stop on the long Alabama to Birmingham highway. In the late 1930s, a gentleman named Jabo Stone, who had married into the Williams family, became the owner. He sold it in 1969 to Michael Matsos, and, in 2010, CM Foodservice, LLC took over Golden Rule as well as Matsos’s popular Michael’s Steakhouse. They run a few other small brands with locations dotted around the southeast, including La Paz, which, until recently, had a store within walking distance of my childhood home in Vinings GA. Continue reading “Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, Irondale AL”
Gus’s Hot Dogs, Adamsville AL
On Sunday afternoon in Memphis, our daughter bought a very nice blue dress. On Monday, she wore it and received more compliments from the crowd at Gus’s Hot Dogs in Adamsville than the local homecoming queen probably got last fall. There’s a whole bunch of really friendly people in this town, and by 11.15 each day, they’ve swarmed into Gus’s. We were lucky to find a table. Continue reading “Gus’s Hot Dogs, Adamsville AL”
Bama Boys BBQ, Henagar AL
Three of the four times that we’ve visited Scottsboro, we have next driven east across the beautiful BB Comer Bridge, and thought that it must surely be the final time because they keep threatening to dismantle it. Fortunately, the Alabama DOT is slow, even slower than their counterparts in Tennessee, and they haven’t got around to it yet. You can see a couple of photos from our last trip back in August, when we were hopeful that the locals could preserve the bridge for pedestrians. I keep an eye on their progress, because I love the beautiful old thing, and encourage all our readers who are interested in preservation and history to check out the Friends of the Comer Bridge on Facebook. Continue reading “Bama Boys BBQ, Henagar AL”
Payne’s Sandwich Shop and Soda Fountain, Scottsboro AL
We absolutely love old businesses, and enjoy celebrating restaurants that opened a really long time ago. For a while, we thought that Tony’s in Gastonia NC might be the oldest restaurant that we’d find – it’s a century young this year – but to our huge and pleasant surprise we had a snack at a place that is approaching one hundred and fifty freaking years of continuous operation. It’s called Payne’s and it originally opened in 1869. Continue reading “Payne’s Sandwich Shop and Soda Fountain, Scottsboro AL”
Marie, Let's Eat! 