Why one of Huntsville’s best barbecue restaurants has closed permanently

Their lease was up in June, and it was selection time. Following 4 many years in South Huntsville, ChuckWagon BBQ co-owner Stephen Holley elected to close that spot. Their last day open was July 2. ChuckWagon’s flagship Madison cafe stays open.

Holley chalks up the SoHu closure to “the COVID hangover.” He states, “I really do not know how else to place it. We have found a rather massive minimize in targeted visitors, and a ton of individuals are teleworking now. That form of altered the dynamics of that region for us, with lunches currently being a minimal slower than they utilized to be. And lease goes up every single year. We decided to connect with it quits and reduce our overhead.”

Current financial inflation causing a lot of persons to tighten their household budgets was also a component. “The very first matter most people cuts out is food stuff and enjoyment,” Holley says.

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Staffing was also “a enormous issue,” according to Holley, as it has with lots of eating places these days. “We’ve had two or 3 genuinely good ones that seriously went all the way by means of it with us. But as much as getting new persons that were being any type of top quality, we just could not come across them.”

Holley isn’t just certain why acquiring and maintaining top quality personnel is these a difficulty in the company industry now. But he has a pair theories. 1, he believes some dining establishments that reduce team through the pandemic “handled it incorrect and likely harmed our trustworthiness a tiny little bit as a restaurant industry.” And two, there are several extra work selections now in a developing metropolis like Huntsville, which is now Alabama’s most populous. “There are just so several work going into the location that are higher-spending jobs,” Holley suggests.

Pre-pandemic ChuckWagon Southside employed about a staff of all over 10. The last yr, that selection was down to just three. Holley says Southside workforce ended up specified a two-week observe just before announcing the impending closure on the restaurant’s Facebook site.

Workers were being given the solution to do the job at the Madison location, in accordance to Holley. But that generate, about 35 minutes from the Southside site, was just also prolonged for them they stated. Specially with gas costs what they’ve been lately.

He suggests the Southside workforce have all uncovered other work or, in the scenario of some younger staff members, discovered internships. “Everybody’s taken treatment of,” he claims. Considering that closing, ChuckWagon has also presented hours to those people who wished to assist breakdown the equipment and get the cafe prepared to shift out of its Southside room, which was in the Redstone Ridge strip shopping mall, address 11700 Memorial Pkwy. S.W., guiding a Chick-fil-A.

ChuckWagon closing is a blow to neighborhood barbecue fans. It was conveniently a single of the city’s finest barbecue joints. The Texas-design brisket, pork ribs, sausage and pulled hen were aces. The sides, specifically the smoky Southwest mac-and-cheese and confetti-colored vinegar slaw, have been rad way too. ChuckWagon’s closing leaves Boarhog’s Barbecue as the apparent numero-uno for Huntsville ’cue now.

My household commonly obtained takeout from ChuckWagon Southside. My sweet brilliant mother in specific was a significant admirer. She was crestfallen right after I told her they have been closing. She built sure to go by their past working day open to get some pulled pork, rooster and fixings for our July 4 household get-collectively.

ChuckWagon’s closure is a key bummer for South Huntsville’s eating scene. Whilst that working class component of the town is household to a number of mom-and-pop gems, those people are vastly fewer than what is offered downtown, the health-related district or West Huntsville. Hearth & Spice Tex-Mex Smokehouse and Blue Plate Diner, a few other SoHu standouts, have also been pandemic-era casualties.

Holley and wife Kat Holley, who managed ChuckWagon Southside, are previously lacking their former regulars, he claims. “During those people four years or so we created mates that we’re continue to gonna drive more than there to see and converse to. We’re drastically going to miss our client base. They ended up fantastic. We experienced a handful of through the pandemic they would just clearly show up and be like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna support you guys by way of this point.’ They ended up entirely accountable for our survival.”

The inside of ChuckWagon Southside associated a cowboy motif. ChuckWagon’s initial Madison Boulevard area took that vibe all the way. Founder, co-proprietor and Holley’s father Mike Holley would do the job on the line, cutting up pulled pork, ribs, rooster and sausage to order in entrance of buyers. Putting on a cowboy hat and brandishing a substantial knife, the patriarch evoked a Marlboro Gentleman who smoked meat instead of cigs.

Wagon wheel chandeliers and saddle lamps ended up also concerned at that charmingly rustic place. Initially timers in require of a landmark could seem for the big-white letters “BBQ” on the restaurant’s purple roo
f, clearly visible on tactic from Wall Triana Highway before long after exiting I-565.

ChuckWagon opened in Madison in early 2008. A handful of a long time previously, Mike Holley, a West Texas indigenous who earlier labored in oil fields as a petroleum engineer, initial introduced his cafe in Athens, Alabama.

ChuckWagon closed their Madison Boulevard place in January 2019, thanks to a disagreement in between ChuckWagon and the proprietor they leased the constructing from, over which celebration ought to spend for a litany of repairs which include roof leak, local climate manage troubles, and floor harm induced by a tree root rising underneath.

Amid early COVID-period difficulties, it took them about 18 months to open their new Madison area, at 8048 Hwy. 72. That’s about a 14-moment generate from the earlier area. This much more lately made, brick-creating was previously household to a pizzeria.

Even though Mike Holley does not work the line as a lot as he made use of to, he’s even now maintaining busy. He’s guiding the start of a before long-to-open ChuckWagon in Rogersville in the vicinity of the Elk River.

And Huntsville barbecue supporters can take solace in the actuality Stephen Holley says ChuckWagon is eyeing a further Huntsville spot. A thing “more central,” Stephen states. Until eventually then, he stresses the Madison flagship, “isn’t likely everywhere. And I know it is a push, but come see us.”

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