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Interviews and photographs by Amy Evans.
This project sponsored by a grant from Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q
Andrew's
Bar-B-Q
7532 1st Ave. North
Birmingham, AL 35206
(205) 833-9123
CLOSED AS OF 2007
I was chef [at the] Gold Nugget [restaurant], which
was about—seat about three hundred people. And used to cut a lot
of meats--butcher--fish, everything. It was the most exclusive place,
those years. In Birmingham. –Aleck Choraitis
Aleck Choraitis, owner of Andrew’s Bar-B-Q, came to Birmingham from Greece via Venezuela in 1957. He got into the restaurant business the first day he got to town, when he began work at his father-in-law, Bill DeMoes’s restaurant, La Paree. From there Aleck spent some years as chef at another Greek-owned restaurant in town, the famed Gold Nugget (now closed, many maintain that Harry Alexiou introduced fine dining to Birmingham with this restaurant and his popular burnt butter spaghetti). Andrew and Jimmy Morris (also Greek) opened Andrew’s Bar-B-Q in the 1940s, and Aleck bought it from them in 1969. After that, Aleck bought Gus’s Hot Dogs from its original owner, Gus Alexander. (George Nasiakos now owns Gus’s Hot Dogs; Aleck invited George down from Chicago to take over the hot dog stand, since Aleck wanted to devote his time to Andrew’s Bar-B-Q). It’s a family affair at Andrew’s Bar-B-Q and, while it’s definitely a barbecue joint, there are also traditional Greek-style chicken and southern vegetables on the menu. Ironically enough, Aleck’s particular brand of ‘que is always requested by his family when he travels back to Greece, where he also maintains a house and olive farm.
What follows is a portion of the original interview that
has been edited for length. To
download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click this link. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
Subject: Aleck Choraitis, owner
Date: March 10, 2004 @ 2:30 p.m.
Location: Andrew’s Bar-B-Q
Interviewer: Amy Evans
Amy Evans: [W]ere you born in Greece?
Aleck Choraitis: Yes.
Where?
In the south part of Greece, Peloponnesus.
Okay, and when did you come to Birmingham?
Nineteen fifty-seven.
Alone or with the rest of your family?
No, I met my wife. I met my wife in Venezuela, and then I came here.
In Venezuela? What took you to Venezuela?
Because I can’t come straight here.
Okay.
And then, my wife was American citizen, so she have to come down there and marry me, and then six moths later I come here.
And why Birmingham?
Because my wife’s family was here.
Okay. And you just decided to stay.
Right, of course.
And your wife is Greek?
Yes.
Yes. Okay. And you got here, um, did you get into the restaurant b—business immediately?
Right away. The first day.
And where was that?
La Paree restaurant downtown.
Was that a Greek-owned restaurant?
Yes. It was owned by, uh, my father-in-law and his brother, Bill DeMoes…I work there to [nineteen] sixty-three… And then I worked in, uh, Gold Nugget restaurant—for nine years.
And that was Harry Alexiou, right?
Harry Alexiou owned [La Paree]. Harry and John and—everybody. It was three brothers.
The original place burned up. And the other place closed, uh [short pause] let’s see, I came here [to Andrew’s Bar-B-Q in] sixty-nine, about seventy-one, seventy-two, something like that.
------
So was this already established as a barbecue restaurant when you got here?
Yes.
Who was the owner then?
It was two brothers: Mr. Jimmy [Morris], Mr. Andrew Morris.
And they’re—
It was two brothers.
--not Greek?
Yeah. Yeah, it was Greeks.
------
And how—are you—or how were you affiliated with Gus’s Hot Dogs downtown?
Hot dogs? I used to own at one time.
Okay. Did you own these two—those two places simultaneously?
Yeah—no, no, no. Uh, I owned this one, and then I bought that one downtown. And then my son-in-law was there, Jim Morris. And then I sold it to George [Nasiakos] about five, six years ago. -----
The hot dog history in Birmingham is really unique. Can you talk a little bit about running that place downtown.
Well, the hot dog--used to own by a friend of mine…And his wife. And then they moved to Greece, and then I bought it—from them.
Why did they move to Greece?
They wanted to—they didn’t have no kids. They just want to stay in Greece instead here. ------
And how about, um, that famous sauce that goes on all the hot dogs here?
The sauce? It was a one from the guy before [the original owner of Gus’s Hot Dogs]. Which named Gus. That’s where the name comes. He had about two or three place here in town.
Gus Alexander, is that right?
Gus Alexander. Right. Um-hmm.
Okay. And he developed his own recipe for the sauce?
His own recipe for the sauce, correct.
Yeah? And he—he gave that recipe—
To us. Right. Yeah.
------
Okay. And so—how—tell me a little bit about this business and this place and having a barbecue restaurant.
Like I say, this business here is established family business. We got—a—kids. Bring their kids and kids and kids. I used to give them, uh, candy—all those little kids. Traditional stuff here is, uh, banana pudding. We make a big banana pudding every day. We give them first come, first served. No--no charge. The sauce is original.
The sauce?
Yes…The cole slaw is one of the best here in town. And, uh, the sign outside. The running pig they call it.
That’s a great sign.
Yeah…Same pig running for fifty-something years…They call him “Running Pig.”
------
And di—are you the pitmaster in the back? Do you have a—a pit and smoke all the meat?
I got a lady works with me, [she’s been here since she was] sixteen years old. She makes the sauce, she make the pies…She was sixteen year old when was worked for the original person…And she’s still here. She’s sixty-eight years old.
Sixty-eight years old, okay. What’s her—
She’s still with me.
--name?
Uh, Eva Coleman.
------
0f course we’ve got, besides the barbecue, we’ve got like six vegetables. Four meats a day. Change it.
And chicken and potatoes, I see.
Well, this is a Greek-style chicken. [Pounds table]
Uh-huh. Greek-style chicken and—
Honey, we change—we change every day. [Pounds table]
Do you have other items on the menu that are Greek? Or Greek-style?
Oh, once in a while, yeah. Potatoes and [short pause] What else do we usually do? Greek-style chicken, Greek-style potatoes—I mean, not too many. You know.
Uh-huh.
This is not a really Greek restaurant. I just try to mix them up a little bit. Because you’ve got regular people…Like eighty percent. We get a lot of people from, uh, military up here in the airport. And lot of construction people, lot of family people and everything. So they like to change. They can’t eat barbecue every day.
------
So, um, how do you explain the Greek tradition of owning restaurants here in Birmingham? Any insight--
Really, the Greek people, they not only own the barbecue places, they got the good places. You know, real exclusive places, with the Greek dishes and all that. The salad, uh, what you call it—the Greek salad and everything…But most of the Greeks in the restaurant business. That’s what you own.
------
Have you been back to Greece?
Oh, every year almost.
Every year, really?
Yeah, I got a lot of relatives. I got a house in Greece, and I’ve got a farm in Greece. And we go almost every year.
Really? What do you farm over there? [Do] you have olives or—
Oh, yeah. I got about six hundred olive trees.
Yeah.
I got it from my aunt. And I bought me a little condo in Athens.
In Athens.
Athens, Greece. Got a sister live there, and my brother is there. You know, a lot of nephews and everything.
Have any of them visited you here?
Oh, yeah. Once in a while.
Do they like it here?
Oh, yeah! They love it.
[Laughs] Do you feed them barbecue?
Oh, yeah. They eat the barbecue. Matter of fact, when I go to Greece, they want me to cook barbecue too.
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