An Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue

by Don Wilding

  In 1891, hot weather doomed many farmers’ prospects for a good year. By mid-August, the New York Times reported out of Mobile that “the plants, being very humid, have been scalded by the heat, and the leaves are withering.”99 According to an Alabama correspondent for Nashville’s The American, hot weather “cost the farmers many hundreds of thousands of dollars” because of its effect on the cotton industry. Due to the weather and crop destruction, “complaint seems more universal than ever.”100

  Despite these circumstances, the farmers “go on and have a good time regardless of bad times.” The correspondent from The American nicknamed 1891 “The Great Barbecue Year” because “more carcasses have gone into the pot this one summer than were popularly supposed to be on hoof.”

  The correspondent believed that the barbecues had an ameliorating effect on the farmers, who otherwise might revolt against the Democrats who controlled the state. The correspondent explained that the “mollifying influences of the glorious dinners that have been spread in every country neighborhood” have resulted in members of the Farmers’ Alliance remaining in the Democratic Party. The farmers “flout all notion of being driven out.”101 As the economy worsened, barbecue seemed capable of lifting spirits.

  When the correspondent nicknamed 1891 “The Great Barbecue Year,” he could not have known that another event in the same year would have a profound impact on barbecue in Alabama. In 1891, the Williams family opened Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Irondale. For more than 125 years, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q has fed hungry Alabamians. Restaurants like Golden Rule Bar-B-Q and many others transformed barbecue in the nation and in Alabama.

  CHAPTER 4

  DIRT FLOORS AND ROADSIDE SHACKS

  The Origins of Alabama Barbecue Restaurants, 1890s–1930s

  Around the turn of the twentieth century, Americans moved from the countryside into the city to pursue job opportunities. Among them, African Americans left the farms to seek better lives in the city. At the same time, immigrants poured into the United States and settled in these growing cities as well. By the 1920s, most Americans lived in urban areas. They worked in America’s factories, either on the assembly line or as clerks or supervisors, and at other jobs in middle management.102

  At the same time, Americans fell in love with the automobile. They traveled more often and greater distances for work and leisure. They took advantage of new paved highways to visit previously far-away destinations.103

  Americans changed their eating habits because of industrialization, urbanization and the invention of the automobile. In previous decades and centuries, restaurateurs catered to the urban elite, who had the disposable income for lavish meals. In each city, wealthy diners only had a few options. After moving from the farm to the city, most Americans now purchased their food rather than cultivating crops or raising livestock. Removed from the dining room table throughout the day, urban workers and highway travelers needed new places to eat their meals. For these reasons, urban residents, workers and travelers generated a concentrated and consistent demand for cheap, quick food. At the turn of the century, restaurateurs opened up cafés, lunchrooms and other quick-service eateries.104

  In the early twentieth century, barbecue moved from the public picnic table to the restaurant. Throughout the country, barbecue’s popularity and ability to efficiently feed large numbers of people made it a promising business opportunity. In Alabama and elsewhere, barbecue restaurateurs opened stands, shacks and eventually full-service restaurants near urban centers. On highways, gas station managers sometimes sold barbecue in this same manner. Or entrepreneurs sold barbecue out of their homes. These original pit masters only used their barbecue skills to supplement income from another job. They cooked barbecue on Thursdays or Fridays and sold the meat until it ran out; then they repeated the process the following week. Locations on major roads fed travelers; those in urban centers served blue-collar workers, mostly men. If successful, these pit masters sometimes quit their regular jobs and made the barbecue business a full-time endeavor.105

  Due to the demands of profit, most restaurateurs had to choose simple menus to avoid spoilage and save money, and their decisions led to the regionalization of barbecue. Before the restaurant industry, barbecues consisted of whatever meats the local farmers had to offer. People brought side dishes and desserts based on the ingredients they had on hand and could afford to spare. Restaurateurs, however, had to choose locally available meats that they could sell customers before spoilage took over. In Texas, barbecue restaurateurs chose beef. In North Carolina, they chose pork. In Alabama, they mostly focused on pork and chicken.106

  GOLDEN RULE BAR-B-Q

  The Williams Years of Golden Rule Bar-B-Q

  In 1891, the Williams family from Gadsden opened Golden-Rule Bar-B-Q in Irondale, an industrial town outside Birmingham, where Alabamians produced weapons for the Confederacy during the Civil War.107 At the time of Golden Rule Bar-B-Q’s founding, the restaurant sat on a dirt road, but this road eventually became U.S. 78, which served as the major route for travelers between Birmingham and Atlanta.108

  For more than eighty years, the Williams family operated Golden Rule Bar-B-Q. Until the 1970s, Ellene Williams Stone and Ella Ruth Hutchings Mize managed the restaurant. Ruth’s husband, Shorty, worked as a pit man. Ellene’s husband, Jabo, worked as an electrician at his family’s business, the Stone Electric Company.109 Although Jabo continued to work as an electrician after marrying Ellene, he pitched in to help at the restaurant on the busiest days. As an owner of the restaurant, he also negotiated the sale of the restaurant in later years.110

  Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Irondale now has a prime location immediately off I-20. Author’s collection.

  For most of the twentieth century, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q served breakfast and barbecue pork plates, hamburgers, hamburger steaks, hot dogs, French fries and salads but also cigarettes and beer. Sometimes, they also repaired automobiles.111 Under the ownership of the Williams family, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q did a lot of business in barbecue but especially in beer. For many years, travelers had to purchase alcohol in Irondale because only dry counties lay between them and Atlanta. People on the outskirts of the city had to come to Irondale to imbibe.112

  Golden Rule Bar-B-Q earned a reputation in Birmingham for excellent food. As a young man, Michael Matsos, who eventually owned numerous restaurants and hotels in Birmingham, including Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, had visited the restaurant as a patron and eaten the barbecue sandwich. “I used to go to the Golden Rule,” said Matsos. He recalled gathering with friends “just to get some good barbecue.” He added, “I loved their barbecue sandwich the way he [Shorty Mize] did it and everything and the sauce.”113

  Until the 1960s, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q had a segregated dining room, as required by Alabama state law. When Matsos visited the restaurant as a young customer, he remembered the presence of segregation. He explained, “They had a separate dining room in the back for the blacks with their own jukebox.” He added, “I wasn’t used to that, being from up North.”114 In 1964, however, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in public establishments.

  In 1971, Ellene and Jabo Stone wanted to retire, and they sold the restaurant to Matsos and partner Tommy Stevens. The Stones knew Matsos because of his success in the Birmingham area as a restaurateur. “I think he saw how we were doing at Michael’s downtown, and he used to come over there and hang around there,” explained Matsos, referring to Jabo Stone.115

  When Stone sold the business, he did not want any money down but instead wanted royalties. In the sale contract, Stone required Matsos to open another location as part of the deal. “Jabo Stone got the best of me,” admitted Matsos. “I think he outsmarted me. I think he made lots more money in twenty years than what he would have got with a cash offer upfront.”116 Under the ownership of Matsos, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q spread throughout the state.

  Michael Matsos: An Alabama Restaurant Legend

  Born in 1918 in New Bedford, Massac
husetts, to Greek immigrants, Matsos lived most of his early life in Brooklyn, New York. Toward the end of the Great Depression, Matsos packed his bags and relocated to Tuscaloosa, where he enrolled in the University of Alabama. “I realized that the University of Alabama Commerce School, at the time, with Dean Bidgood, was the best buy for the money,” explained Matsos. He excelled at the university, but his career in business would have to wait a few years.117

  In 1941, the United States entered World War II. Upon graduation, Matsos recalled, “I got a degree in one hand and a report to Fort Benning in the other.” During the war, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps from Alabama, part of the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy. After the war, he worked as an air traffic controller in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1947, he returned to the Birmingham area, where he entered the restaurant business.118

  In 1948, Matsos partnered with Greek chef Bill Demoes to open La Paree, which served steaks, seafood and Greek fare to Birmingham’s upscale residents and visitors. They opened the restaurant on Fifth Avenue North near the Tutwiler Hotel, where Matsos attracted lots of customers. He offered free meals to the Tutwiler Hotel’s doorman to persuade him to direct hotel guests toward La Paree.119

  In 1953, Matsos sold his share of the restaurant to Demoes and opened Michael’s Sirloin Room in the Holiday Inn in Bessemer, but he soon opened other locations of this restaurant throughout the state. At Michael’s Sirloin Room, Matsos served customers many of the same recipes that he had served at La Paree. Later in the 1950s, Matsos opened new locations in the Holiday Inn in Huntsville and the Ramada Inn in Madison. In 1958, Matsos opened another location in the Southside neighborhood of Birmingham near Legion Field. Due to this location’s proximity to the stadium, it became a huge success. At this location, Matsos’s restaurant hosted many celebrities, including Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.120

  At Michael’s Sirloin Room, Matsos partnered with some of Birmingham’s future chefs and restaurateurs, thus making an imprint on Birmingham food that has continued after his death. In addition to the restaurants, Matsos owned Birmingham’s Hyatt Regency, where Frank Stitt worked as a beverage director. Stitt has become an internationally famous chef and winner of numerous James Beard Foundation Awards. He now operates Highlands Bar and Grill, among other Birmingham favorites, such as Chez Fonfon, Bottega and Bottega Café.121

  Two Greek men who have partnered with Matsos have gone on to own and operate some of Birmingham’s other favorite restaurants. In the 1980s, George Sarris from Tsitalia, Greece, founded the Fish Market, which sells fresh fish as well as Greek-inspired seafood dishes. Connie Kanakis, who partnered with Matsos at Michael’s Sirloin Room, also partnered with Matsos to open Rossi’s Italian.122

  Birmingham has many Greek restaurateurs, including many of them in the barbecue business, but Matsos believes he became one of the best because of his university training. “They were dedicated, and they were willing to work,” commented Matsos, explaining why Greeks in Birmingham had an affinity for the food industry. Like him, these Greek restaurateurs benefited from a Greek lineage that emphasized quality food. Matsos explained, “They understood cooking because it was sort of handed down from their grandmothers and mothers and so forth, and they kept the recipes. Up to this day, some of the recipes are really hard to beat.” Unlike them, Matsos had a business degree. “I had an edge on them because I was a university graduate and I understood the business sense,” he explained.123

  Sammy Derzis and Michael Booker

  In 1974, Matsos and his business partner, Stevens, needed a manager for the Irondale location of Golden Rule Bar-B-Q. Sammy Derzis took the job, where he has remained and become a partner in the business. “Tommy Stevens and I grew up together. We were best friends,” Derzis explained.124

  When Michael Matsos purchased Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, he hired Sammy Derzis to work as the restaurant’s manager. Derzis now owns a share of the business. Author’s collection.

  Born in Birmingham’s Norwood neighborhood, Derzis has Greek ancestry and has worked in the restaurant industry since his youth. His maternal and paternal grandparents came from Sparta, Greece, and immigrated to the United States. His mother, Kay, came from Chicago. His father, Gregory, worked in the restaurant industry as a partner in two restaurants: Knotty Pine and Jeb’s Seafood House.125 At these restaurants, Derzis got his start cleaning floors and busing tables. “When you got old enough to go to work, you went to work,” explained Derzis, in the matter-of-fact way that people of Greek descent approach their work.

  After attending Jacksonville State University, Derzis joined the navy and traveled around the world. From 1968 to 1972, he visited Cuba and the Mediterranean on the destroyer USS Allen M. Sumner. After a brief stint working for the Social Security Administration, he left government work and found a home in the restaurant industry. He simply stated, “I was tired of government work.”

  Upon quitting government work, Derzis went to work at Joe Namath’s Restaurant before joining the team at Golden Rule Bar-B-Q. In its heyday, Joe Namath’s Restaurant attracted top musical acts, such as B.B. King, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis and other performers. “They needed a bartender, so I became their bar manager,” explained Derzis.126 At Joe Namath’s Restaurant, Derzis met cook Michael Booker.

  For about four decades, Michael Booker has worked as the pit master at Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Irondale. Author’s collection.

  Born in Evergreen, Alabama, Booker attended Ramsay High School in Birmingham. As a high school student, Booker cooked steaks at Joe Namath’s Restaurant. After graduation, he joined the army and served eight years as a cook in Germany. “I kept in touch with Sammy when I was in the military,” explained Booker.127

  When Golden Rule Bar-B-Q needed a new pit man, Derzis reached out to Booker. After Booker joined the staff, he learned how to cook barbecue from Pancho Simms, one of the pit masters who had worked for the Williams family and continued to work there after the restaurant changed ownership. “He took the time with me because he saw that I wanted to learn.…It was a different experience than cooking steaks,” explained Booker, who had to transition to cooking pork.128

  Although Golden Rule Bar-B-Q has expanded across the state, the management and staff still view the restaurant as a family. In fact, Simms’s cousin Deborah also worked at the restaurant as an expeditor, keeping cooks and wait staff on the same page and ensuring food moves from the kitchen to the tables in a timely manner. At Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, Booker met Deborah, and they hit it off, married and started a family. “These are some great people to work for,” he said. “I go to their homes on holidays, and that means a lot.”129

  The New Golden Rule Bar-B-Q

  Once a small restaurant on a dirt road, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q has become regionally famous and recognized as one of the oldest operating restaurants in America. Under the ownership of Stevens and Matsos, Golden Rule Bar-B-Q has expanded in terms of menu offerings and locations.

  The cooks at Golden Rule Bar-B-Q prepare custom-made sandwiches. They will mix inside and outside meat to your preference. Author’s collection.

  In the mid-1970s, Matsos and Stevens relocated the site of the restaurant and changed its atmosphere. They moved the restaurant to its current location just off I-20. Matsos explained, “I was lucky enough to get the piece of property right across the street from the exit.”130 In the new location, the management wanted a different vibe. “We wanted to present more of a family atmosphere,” explained Derzis, commenting on the decision made by the owners. The management of Golden Rule Bar-B-Q moved away from alcoholic beverages and put more emphasis on food.131 Over the last thirty to forty years, many barbecue restaurateurs who also owned restaurants on major highways between large cities made the same decision to focus on food.

  With a renewed emphasis on quality food, Matsos believed strongly in keeping the kitchen area in the center of the restaurant, just like it had been at the old location. Matsos explained, “One of the things I kept up was having the pit in the din
ing room, where the customers see that it’s fresh—that there’s nothing hidden in the back.” They do all the cooking and carving in the center of the restaurant, where every customer can watch. “The only thing in the back of the house is the dishwashing machine and maybe some prep area of getting things ready,” boasted Matsos.132

  In the early hours of the morning, employees put the pork shoulders in a smoker. At daybreak, Booker comes to work and removes the meat from the smoker and finishes it on a pit. Matsos explained, “We start it in the smoker because with the smoker you sort of are cooking from the inside out.” This way, the meat reaches perfect doneness.133

  When Michael Matsos took over the restaurant, he moved it to this location off I-20. Author’s collection.

  Then, the cooks carve each sandwich to order. Matsos boasted, “We make a custom-made sandwich.” They prepare each sandwich with sliced or chopped inside meat, outside meat or a mixture, according to customers’ wishes. “We have customers that are more or less spoiled,” remarked Matsos.

  When the sandwich arrives on the plate, it has many things in common with other pork sandwiches in the Birmingham area: a red, tomato-based sauce and sliced pickles. Matsos explained, “Our sauce is the main thing, too, because ours is a tomato-based sauce, and people like it in this area.”134

  Over the years, the new ownership team made many changes to the menu. Golden Rule Bar-B-Q now sells barbecue chickens, loin back ribs, turkey sandwiches, beef brisket, baked beans, French fries, potato salad, barbecue salads, green beans and more. In addition to these various offerings, Golden Rule Bar-B sells fresh pies, such as lemon icebox and coconut, and banana pudding.135