One in all Alabama’s favourite meat-and-three/soul meals eating places has quietly reopened in a brand new location.
Supporters needed to know one thing was up when a particular inexperienced cinder-block constructing on Cellular’s Spring Hill Avenue was painted white. Beginning in March, social media posts and small indicators within the home windows suggested followers that Mary’s Southern Cooking was transferring from the Crichton location it had occupied since Mary Smith and her household opened it in 2011.
In latest days, operators posted that the restaurant was open for enterprise at its new residence within the PineBrook Buying Middle on the intersection of Airport Boulevard and McGregor Avenue. A go to on Wednesday discovered that though momentary signage was simply going up, patrons had been having no hassle discovering the place. Patrons started flooding in when the doorways opened at 11, retaining a gradual line for cafeteria-style service over the following hour.
A brief signal goes into place above the brand new residence of Mary’s Southern Cooking on April 24, 2025.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
Loads has modified with the shift from a standalone constructing to a strip-mall storefront. The parking zone on the outdated place was tight, and so was the inside. The brand new area is kind of a bit bigger, with loads of tables and cubicles, and there’s acres of parking out entrance.
What hasn’t modified is the steam-table serving line, which instantly presents guests with some arduous, arduous selections. Entrée choices on this explicit day included chopped steak with peppers and onions (smothered in gravy and served over rice or potatoes as you want), barbecue rooster, baked rooster, fried rooster, turkey necks in gravy, crimson beans and smoked sausage, fried pork chops, grilled pork chops with peppers and onions and rooster tetrazzini.
There’s extra, in a mouthwatering day by day menu rundown posted on Fb. The clip, punctuated with call-outs to common clients, additionally covers the veggie choices: Rice, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cabbage, corn, collard greens, candied yams, inexperienced beans, area peas and lima beans.
Exhausting decisions at Mary’s Southern Cooking in Cellular: From left are mashed potatoes, turkey necks, baked rooster, chopped steak and rice.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
The brand new area feels just like the enterprise remains to be settling in, a sense accentuated on Wednesday by the cherry picker that was parked out entrance, situating a brand new momentary banner proper in the course of the lunch rush. However a glance over the serving line had the identical impact it has at all times had at Mary’s: You’re instantly pissed off since you’re there for one lunch however you need to order three.
The chopped steak was higher than chopped steak has any proper to be, due to the extent of care taken with the peppers and onions and a medium-weight gravy that was loaded with savory taste with out being overpoweringly heavy. A companion went with the fried rooster and located that it too measured as much as excessive Mary’s requirements, crispy on the surface with a light-weight crust, however nonetheless juicy and tender inside.
The candied yams had been beautiful, and the opposite sides we sampled – the mac & cheese, greens, sauteed cabbage and limas – all mirrored the ability of a chef who is aware of taste is one thing you deliver out relatively than one thing you dump in.
Fried rooster at Mary’s Southern Cooking, with mac & cheese, cornbread and lima beans.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
Sure, the departure of Mary’s leaves a spot in Crichton, and the truth that the constructing’s distinctive inexperienced paint job has been lined up serves as a fairly robust indication that there’s solely going to be one Mary’s. (Efforts to achieve Smith had been pending as this story was printed.) However early indications are that the meals has survived the transition.
It additionally seems that the brand new location shall be a beautiful choice for folks working alongside the busy Airport Boulevard hall, each for takeout and eating in. Primarily based on Wednesday’s go to, it appears as if Mary’s hardly wants a giant new signal over the doorway. Simply wait till it will get one.
Mary’s Southern Cooking is at 3966-C Airport Blvd. within the PineBrook Buying Middle. Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. day by day. For updates on hours and day by day choices, go to fb.com/MarysSouthernCooking.
A daring inexperienced paint job made the outdated location of Mary’s Southern Cooking straightforward to identify in Cellular’s Crichton space. The constructing is now a ghost of its former self.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
