by Don Wilding
In every phase of the business from the pit to the table, Dale cares about quality. On the tables, he insists on providing customers with name-brand condiments, such as Hunt’s ketchup. He declared, “If you cut corners, you lose business and lose integrity.”255
Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q
For forty-nine years, Wilbur Pettit worked for Tip Top Bread Company with his friend Bob Sykes. They delivered bread to the Birmingham area. When the company moved to New York, Bob and Wilbur both needed to find new careers. They both got involved in the restaurant business.256
During World War II, Bob and his wife, Maxine, contributed to the war effort. Bob served in the military overseas as part of the U.S. Army Air Corps in Italy and China. Eventually, he became a staff driver. Meanwhile, Maxine worked as a wiring inspector at an aircraft assembly factory in Birmingham and Atlanta. “My mother enjoyed getting a paycheck and working,” explained their son, Van. She picked up extra shifts and worked overtime and saved a large sum of money, which she used to purchase and operate a grocery store after the war.257
Upon returning home, Bob went back to work at Tip Top, but Maxine lost her job in the defense industry. Like many families in postwar America, they bought a house and a car, so they desperately needed a paycheck to keep their new purchases. Then, Tip Top moved their headquarters to New York City. “I can assure you that my father had no intention of moving to New York,” explained Van. Instead, they sold the car and put up the house to secure a lease on a small restaurant.258
In 1956, Bob and Maxine leased the Ice Spot, a small restaurant in Birmingham on Fifty-Seventh Street. “They wanted to do something together because they spent the first years of their marriage apart,” explained Van.259 Maxine managed the restaurant. Bob cooked hamburgers and sold milkshakes. “As my mother used to say, ‘I was the worker and he was the entertainer,’” he recalled. Maxine took menus to the nearby construction sites to attract business to the restaurant. They also sold T-shirts to help advertise their business. Within a year, they had a loyal following.260 They soon set out on their own.
Bob had learned to love barbecue from his experiences on the farm in Cumberland City in central Tennessee. On the farm, Buck Hampton, a black man, barbecued hogs for the black sharecroppers. Bob watched Hampton cook barbecue in an earthen pit and became fascinated with the method and the taste. “It stuck with him for the rest of his life,” explained Van.
At an early age, Van Sykes had already started taking orders at his parents’ restaurant. Elaine Lyda.
In 1957, Bob and Maxine Sykes opened their first restaurant. They offered curb-side service and a menu of hamburgers and barbecue. Elaine Lyda.
Bob, Maxine and Van Sykes stand proudly outside their restaurant. Elaine Lyda.
From 1961 to 1964, Bob and Maxine took over a failed barbecue business and operated Bob’s Hickory Bar-B-Q near Birmingham’s Central Park. They sold breakfast, fish, steaks and more. The Sykeses employed Dot Brown, who cooked. “She worked a lot of the recipes we still have today,” explained Van, referring to menu items such as the pies, onion rings, baked beans and more. He added, “She never measured a damn thing. She based it on feel and taste.” After a couple years, Maxine pointed out that the restaurant did not have enough money because it had become known as a teenage hangout. They could not shed that reputation, so they sold the restaurant.261
For less than a year, Bob and Maxine invested in a root beer business, and Bob also worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Maxine had decided that she would never wait tables again. At Kentucky Fried Chicken, Bob learned how to manage a restaurant without wait staff. With a new idea for a restaurant, they looked for a new location. When the owner of local restaurant the Igloo wanted out of the restaurant business, the Sykeses jumped on their chance.
In 1965, Bob and Maxine reopened their barbecue restaurant as Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q in the Five Points West neighborhood of Birmingham. They encouraged people to take their food home to the family dinner table based on the model of KFC. “It was revolutionary at the time,” explained Van. Soon, Bob mounted an old radio from a battleship outside, where customers placed their orders. It was the first drive-through restaurant in Birmingham.262 For one year, they ran the restaurant in one of the highesttrafficked areas of the city. Soon, buyers came looking to buy out their lease. In 1966, the Sykeses sold their lease for $80,000.263
In 1957, Bob and Maxine Sykes opened their first restaurant. Now, their son Van Sykes owns and manages this restaurant in Bessemer. Author’s collection.
The Sykeses reopened in Bessemer on U.S. Highway 11. At the time, Highway 11 served as the major connection from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa and Gadsden. “It was the longest lighted highway in the South,” described Van.264 For more than forty years, Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q has remained in Bessemer.
At Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q, customers can choose from a large variety of menu items. They sell pork, beef, ribs and chicken as plates and sandwiches. They also sell chicken filets, hamburger steaks, roast beef, hot dogs, burgers, salads and more.265
Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q Southern Coleslaw
⅓ cup heavy mayonnaise
1½ tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 head of cabbage
2 whole carrots
Mix mayonnaise, vinegar and sugar in a large bowl. Add cabbage and carrots; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate up to 4 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Can add parsley or paprika before serving. Makes 4 servings. the sauces and voted. Finally, Bob re-created a version of the winning sauce, which they continue to use today.266
Van Sykes tends to pork butts, which cook on one of Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q’s two pits. Author’s collection.
For twelve years, Martin Vacca Lima has been the pit master at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q in Bessemer. Author’s collection.
Like most barbecue restaurants, the Sykeses continue to take pride in their original-recipe tomato-based sauce. According to Maxine, her husband could not find a sauce he liked. “We traveled all over Tennessee and tasted every barbecue sauce,” she explained. “He would get samples and bring them back to our business and set them up in a jar.” Then, customers tasted
In June 2016, Van Sykes presents a check for $2,200 to the Clay House Children’s Center, a private nonprofit agency focused on intervention and treatment programs for child abuse victims. Elaine Lyda.
Since 2009, Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q has organized and sponsored the Bob Sykes BBQ and Blues Festival in downtown Bessemer. Author’s collection.
Since 2009, Van Sykes has hosted the Bob Sykes BBQ and Blues Festival in Bessemer. They have used the festival to raise money for local charities. In the first seven years of the festival, they donated $15,000 to local charities. In 2016, they collected $2,200 for the Clay House Children’s Center, a nonprofit child-focused intervention and treatment center for child abuse victims.
Demetri’s BBQ
During World War II, Demetrious Nakos, from the Greek island of Corfu, enlisted in the Greek military to fight fascism in Italy and Germany. “He called in air strikes against enemy ships in the harbor,” explained his son, Sam. After World War II, Greece broke out in civil war between the Greek government and communist insurgents. In the Greek civil war, Demetrious enlisted on the side of the Greek government, which defeated the communist threat. After the war ended, Demetrious left Greece to join some of his family members in the United States.267
Upon arrival in America at the age of twenty-eight, Demetrious worked at Oakland Barbecue, a restaurant in Ensley. His brother owned the property leased by the restaurant. “He started off working at the Oakland Barbecue and got a good taste for the bar business and restaurant business—and barbecue,” explained his son Sam, who now owns and runs the business.268 Oakland Barbecue stayed open late and sold plenty of beer to Birmingham’s steel workers. Demetrious wanted to get out of Oakland Barbecue and find work more suitable to family life.
In 1961, Demetrious opened a barbecue restaurant named El Rancho located on Main
Street, present-day Eighteenth Street South, in Homewood. At the time, Birmingham did not have the Red Mountain Expressway. Instead, commuters from the southern part of Birmingham had to come right by El Rancho. Travelers from Mountain Brook to Birmingham passed by the restaurant as well. “It was a landmark—a little joint,” remembered Sam.269
In addition to the commuter traffic, El Rancho also attracted the business of the employees at nearby city hall. Demetrious served many police officers and firefighters. Among them, Captain Al Evans, who eventually became Homewood fire chief, had his construction company build Demetrious a new restaurant. In 1974, Demetrious opened Demetri’s BBQ immediately across the street from city hall, where it has remained. At the new restaurant, Demetrious used the same recipes, many of them based on family recipes.270
Since 1972, Demetri’s BBQ has served breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sam Nakos.
Like Birmingham’s other Greek restaurateurs, Demetrious had a knack for the business and especially for cooking. Sam takes pride in the success of the Greek immigrants in Birmingham. “God gave Greeks a palate and I think he also gave them a very, very hard work ethic,” he boasted. Among them, he views his father as one of the best. “He had a great palate,” declared Sam. “He just had a good cooking ability.” In Greece, Demetrious learned how to barbecue lambs. “Barbecue is not unusual in Greece because they cook over open charcoal or open wood,” he described. In the United States, Demetrious translated those skills into hickory-smoked pork, chicken and ribs.
The Nakos family worked together in the restaurant. At the age of eight, Sam got his start washing dishes. “On Saturday morning, I would wake up and sit down on the carpet and turn on the television to watch cartoons. I was the happiest kid in the world. Then, the phone would ring. The dishwasher didn’t show up,” recalled Sam. He added, “I didn’t know if the dishwasher actually didn’t show up or if my dad wanted me to get to work.”271
Despite Sam’s initial protests, he came to love the restaurant. “I’m glad I paid the price at a young age. Now, I enjoy what my father and I built,” he
Demetrious Nakos immigrated to the United States from the Greek island of Corfu, where barbecue has long been a key part of culinary tradition. In this picture, Demetrious poses with his famous lamb roast. Sam Nakos.
Under Sam’s leadership, Demetri’s BBQ has expanded its menu. He added grilled chicken, coconut and chocolate pie, wings, omelets, French toast and more. “We saw the competition on the horizon,” he said. To compete, they needed a broader menu. said. Sam worked alongside his father for decades learning how to manage money, make financial decisions and cook.272 As a young adult, Sam started cooking in the restaurant, making pies, cutting meat and eventually cooking barbecue.273
Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Demetri’s BBQ has a diverse, award-winning menu. Sam Nakos.
Demetri’s BBQ has a full breakfast menu. In 2014, Playboy honored Demetri’s BBQ as the best breakfast in the South and listed them among 101 other fantastic breakfast spots in the country. According to Playboy writer Jason Horn, “There’s no signature dish or unusual flavor combinations, just the most perfectly prepared omelettes, French toast and pancakes you’re apt to find in Alabama.” As the best breakfast in the South, Demetri’s BBQ beat out many famous restaurants, including Café Du Monde in New Orleans.274
Sam has a lot of pride in Greece’s food reputation, but he also has an enormous amount of respect for the food scene in Birmingham, especially as it relates to barbecue. “I feel like Birmingham is a very strong area for barbecue,” he stated. He added, “We’ve helped shape and define barbecue for the whole South.” He would put Birmingham barbecue up against any region in the country. “I really think we could go to Memphis and show those boys how to do it,” he declared. “They have a big national recognition and reputation, but they don’t have anything on Birmingham.”275
TENNESSEE RIVER VALLEY
During World War II and the Cold War, Huntsville and the nearby areas of Madison, Athens and Decatur boomed. In 1941, the U.S. Army created Redstone Ordnance Plant in Huntsville, which served as the home to a missile research program. In 1943, the government renamed the facility Redstone Arsenal. In the 1950s, rocket engineers, including German scientist Wernher von Braun, moved to Huntsville to commence work on the nation’s space program. In the 1960s, the government opened the Marshall Space Flight Center, a part of NASA, based out of Redstone Arsenal. There, scientists developed the rockets that took astronauts to the moon. Due to the presence of these government agencies, many defense contractors have relocated to the Huntsville area. It remains a major hub of the technology industry in Alabama. Huntsville also sits on major highways between Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis and Birmingham.276
At the same time, Florence and Muscle Shoals, also known as the Shoals, experienced growth. Before World War II, the Shoals benefited from government investment in the Tennessee Valley Authority. Beginning in 1933, nitrate plants manufactured fertilizer and dams provided electricity to the region. During World War II, the Shoals grew. Among the hundreds of new industries, Wise Alloys produced aluminum for war planes. After the war, the Shoals served as the home for FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. At these two recording companies, major music stars, including the Rolling Stones, produced countless award-winning and bestselling albums.277
From Hollywood to the Shoals, the Tennessee River Valley serves as the home to many of Alabama’s oldest barbecue restaurants. After World War II, restaurateurs opened barbecue joints throughout the valley. The barbecue in this region features two notable ingredients: hotslaw and white sauce.
Mud Creek Fishing Camp Restaurant
On the shores of Mud Creek, a section of the Tennessee River in Hollywood, Alabama, Lester Carver owned a fishing camp and boat shop. Lester’s business failed, but a new opportunity soon presented itself. In 1946, his son, Bill Carver, completed his wartime naval service and returned home to his wife, Nell. In the same year, the three Carvers founded Mud Creek Fishing Camp Restaurant, which features spectacular waterfront views and excellent food. They also operated a boat shop next door.278
The Carver family hired a member of the family, Shorty Bishop, to work as their pit master. During World War II, Bishop had served in the military. In 1944, he returned from the service and became chief of the Scottsboro Volunteer Fire Department. “He learned to cook whole pigs in the ground in Hawaii during the war,” explained Billy Carver, the third-generation owner of the restaurant. “He created the sauce and the yellow coleslaw.”279 In 1967, Bishop died in an automobile accident with a fellow firefighter on the way to a fire emergency in Hollywood.280 In the restaurant, Bishop’s legacy lives on in the form of these recipes.
Just off U.S. Highway 72 in Jackson County, travelers and sportsmen can find Mud Creek Fishing Camp Restaurant and grab some excellent barbecue. Author’s collection.
Currently, Billy Carver owns and manages the restaurant. He continues to use the same methods used by his parents and grandfather. “We burn hickory down in fifty-five-gallon drums and then use the coals to hickory smoke our meat,” explained Carver. They serve chopped butts on a bun with two pickles. They also serve smoked chicken. In the 1980s, the Carvers added fried catfish to the menu, and it has become a customer favorite. Recently, they also added pork ribs. To complement the meat, the Carver family offers two sauces: tangy North Alabama white sauce and a spicy vinegar-based sauce.281
At Mud Creek Fishing Camp Restaurant, customers adore the side items. First, most patrons dig into one or two or more baskets of their homemade hush puppies. They come perfectly fried with a balance between light crispness and a touch of greasy goodness. When the meal comes, they have many options for side items, including staples such as French fries. The restaurant features mustard-based coleslaw. This type of coleslaw pops up in the Tennessee River Valley, especially in Florence and Muscle Shoals. In fact, many restaurants in the region top their barbecue and hot dogs with it. At Mud Creek Fishing
Camp Restaurant, the mustard-based slaw comes as a side item. They also offer a pineapple salad, which consists of a pineapple slice, lettuce and mayonnaise. Carver joked, “Our old timers demand it.”282
Although the restaurant industry has changed, Billy Carver stays true to the original way of doing things. “We’re very much a family restaurant and work to be affordable and have a friendly atmosphere,” explained Billy. He added, “That’s how we’ve always been.”283
Dick Howell Barbeque Pit
In 1948, Dick and Amelia Howell, a black couple, opened their own restaurant on North Pine Street in Florence. Like many black restaurateurs in Alabama, they opened their restaurant in a period of segregation. For four generations and more than seventy years, Dick Howell Barbeque Pit has remained in the Howell family. In 2008, Kevin Ingram took over the business that bears his great-grandfather’s name.284
From the beginning, the Howell family has featured spicy mustard-based slaw in their restaurant. They were the first restaurant in the Shoals to offer it. The mustard in the hotslaw excellently accompanies barbecued pork and ribs but also hot dogs. Unlike Mud Creek Fishing Camp Restaurant, Dick Howell Barbeque Pit serves the hotslaw directly on the sandwiches.285
As the owner of the restaurant, Ingram has worked to keep his family’s methods intact while adapting to a new era. He continues to cook like his parents and grandparents. He boasted, “I’m still using my greatgrandfather’s recipes.” At Dick Howell Barbeque Pit, Ingram cooks pork over an open pit. He explained, “We cook pork about 16 hours on hand-cut hickory wood.” Although the method has remained the same, Ingram has made a few changes. In 2010, he added smoked chicken. Like Decatur’s Big Bob Gibson, Ingram smothers his smoked chickens with white sauce.286