For more than half a century, anyone who has traveled to Lake Martin from the Birmingham/Shelby area has known Old Hickory Barbecue Restaurant in Sylacauga.
If you’ve taken Highway 280 to an Auburn home football game, you may have stopped by Old Hickory and bought some unique barbecue for your tailgating.
Barbecue was so rare that some people would make special trips just to eat at Old Hickory. It has become a destination.
Sylacauga’s Old Hickory Barbecue was famous for decades for its unique flavor, but it has been closed since the 1980s and its barbecue recipes are presumed lost.
Enter Sylacauga native Lamar “Maul” Humphries. This retiree (’66 Sylacauga High School graduate) took on a mission to find recipes and recreate his old hickory barbecue.
He did it. He found the original recipe, blended the sauce, and used it to barbecue. Voila! The taste and feel of old hickory is back.
He then made 17 gallons of Old Hickory Barbecue Sauce and gifted it to friends in pint bottles.
Today, the Mall, as it is widely known throughout East Alabama, takes people on a journey back in time to the days of Old Hickory. This gastronomic nostalgic journey will take place on Saturday, April 27th at Blue Bell Central Park in downtown Sylacauga. The mall brought in Old Hickory Sauce, set up a giant commercial smoker, and is offering free food to all visitors.
Mole will start serving from around noon.
No tickets, attendance, or money are required. Just show up and get in line. First come, first served. Many people who come that day bring all sorts of side dishes: baked beans, potato salad, potato chips, coleslaw, and dessert.
This is the return of Old Hickory.
Blue Bell Central Park is located across the street from the classic entrance to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory at 436-498 North Norton in downtown Sylacauga.
Bluebell Central Park.Four Square City Guide
Moll Humphreys’ free barbecue opportunity is the annual “Frosty Inn Reunion.” After 40 years, Frosty’s, a beloved meeting place for teenagers of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, has closed, but yesterday’s teenagers still remember and recreate the golden days of their youth every year. doing. Frosty alumni will gather again at Bluebell Central Park on Saturday, April 27th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
2024 will be the 14th yearth Every year, these baby boomers reunite for a “frosty reunion.” This is the first time they and everyone else there will eat Old Hickory BBQ for lunch in the park.
For decades, thousands of Alabama residents drove past Old Hickory Barbecue every day. The restaurant was located on what was then Route 280 and Route 231 across Fort Williams Street in downtown Sylacauga. Route 280 was the main route from Birmingham through Lake Martin and Auburn to Phenix City/Columbus, while Route 231 was the route to Montgomery. Both passed through Old Hickory and parted ways just south of Sylacauga.
Routes 280 and 231 were then rerouted to a new four-lane road west of Sylacauga, but Old Hickory remained for another 20 years.
This isn’t the first time Moll Humphries has run the second mile for his old Ute friends. He was known as “Mole the Music Man” and preserved the music of the 1960s first on reel-to-reel, then on cassettes, and finally on his CDs. For the past five years, Mohr has been giving out free CDs of the music he grew up with at his gatherings. Generous.
The mall naturally grew out of a love of 1960s music. His family owned a music/record store in downtown Sylacauga in his 60’s. It was a great place to go, browse, and listen.
So how did Mole Humphreys discover the recipe for Old Hickory Barbecue and fulfill another obsession: to give everyone a free meal on April 27th? From the Grill Ask him while taking out the meat.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about people, places, events, groups, and notable deaths in Alabama. He is a former Alabama Civil Service Commissioner and State Auditor. For comments, contact ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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