Joel's Restaurant
Joel's Southern Kitchen, originally Joel's Restaurant, is a local chain of meat and three southern home cooking restaurants, open for lunch hours only.
The original restaurant is located at 312 Main Street in downtown Trussville and was opened by Joel and Peggy Rickles in 1983. It closed in September 2019. The building was razed in November 2020 to make way for Rodney Scott's BBQ.
The Rickleses retired in 2016 and sold the restaurant that June to Charles, Michele and June Matsos, who also own the Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Irondale. By 2018 they expanded the chain with five additional locations, including a franchise location in Brewton. A planned Pensacola, Florida location never opened.
A store location in Gardendale was announced in 2018, but it was owned by a different group and they were forced to change their name to Joella's. However, the new name was too closely related to "Joel's" and they were forced to change their name again to Emma’s Southern Cuisine.
Locations
- Trussville: 312 Main Street, (1983-2019)
- Vestavia Hills: 633 Montgomery Highway in Vestavia Hills City Center, opened 2017
- Brewton, opened February 2018
- Pinson: 4437 Pinson Valley Parkway, opened February 2018
- Moody
References
- Gorman, Gene. (May 5, 1999) "New restaurants battle for Trussville appetites." The Birmingham News
- "Joel’s Restaurant targets Pinson area for 4th location." (January 25, 2017) Trussville Tribune
- Thornton, William (March 21, 2018) "Joel's Restaurant coming to Gardendale, Moody." The Birmingham News
- Davis, Rachel (April 8, 2019) "Gardendale Council gets restaurant timeline update, honors Science Olympiad teams" North Jefferson News