Saw's BBQ started as part-time passion
Among his co-workers at Cooking Light magazine, Mike Wilson quickly developed a big following for his North Carolina-style barbecue.
"One of the girls I worked with in the test kitchen loves barbecue, and I made some on a Sunday and brought it in and she just went crazy about it," Wilson says. "So the next thing I know, she bought me a six-pack of beer, some charcoal and a Boston butt so I could cook it for her. "That kind of spread, and I would send out an e-mail each week and say, 'Hey I'm doing barbecue; let me know if you want any.' I ended up with an e-mail list of about 150 people."
In Homewood and beyond, word of Wilson's barbecuing prowess also has spread fast since he opened Saw's BBQ on Oxmoor Road in Edgewood last month.
So fast, in fact, that a couple of weeks ago, Wilson left his job as a test-kitchen chef at Cooking Light to devote full-time to his new business.
"I never thought it would be like this," he says. "I had one guy come in here the other day and he was like, 'You're the talk of the town.'
"I was like, 'What? You must live over here in the neighborhood.'
"He was like, 'No, I live over in Crestwood.'
"I took a two-week vacation to open this place, and I thought I could have people run it during the day until I got off work," Wilson adds. "It just kind of swallowed me whole. Business has been jumping ever since we opened the door."
The 35-year-old Wilson started cooking barbecue with his buddies as a teenager growing up in Charlotte. Although he was raised in North Carolina, most of his relatives live in Walker County.
"Barbecue and Southern food, just because of where my roots are from, have always kind of been a passion of mine," he says.
After earning a degree in restaurant and hospitality management from the University of Alabama in 1996, he went to culinary school at Johnson and Wales University in Vail, Colo., and moved back to Charlotte to work as a sous chef at Dean & Deluca. He came to Birmingham and Cooking Light about 10 years ago.
For the past three years, Wilson has bottled and sold his own Saw's Sauce, a sweet, tangy, vinegar-based concoction he perfected from all those late nights around the barbecue pit with his buddies.
"Saw," in case you're wondering, is his old-high school nickname, an acronym for "Sorry (Blank) Wilson." It is, he says, the perfect name for "a product developed over the course of so many good times with good friends of days gone by."
His Saw's Sauce is available in the Birmingham area at select Piggly Wiggly and Western supermarkets, as well as at V. Richard's, Whole Foods, Overton & Vine and Snapper Grabbers Seafood Market.
Since he was already doing a good side business with sauce, Wilson decided to branch out and open Saw's BBQ when he found out this spring that Broadway BBQ was for sale in Edgewood.
"When this place opened up, I found out about it on a Thursday and bought it on a Tuesday," he says.
Wilson's specialty is pulled pork and smoked chicken, each of which comes served as a sandwich ($4.75), on a plate with two sides ($8.75) and by the pound ($10.25). Ribs are available by the half-slab ($9.95) and the whole slab ($18.95).
"I believe in the old, traditional way (of barbecuing)," Wilson says. "Since I grew up in North Carolina, it's usually hickory wood and the vinegar-based sauce. You just kind of let it cook slow and low. It takes a while."
Saw's home-cooked sides ($1.95) include turnip greens, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, potato salad and coleslaw.
Anastasia Nealey, whom Wilson hired from Broadway BBQ, makes the desserts, including sweet potato pie ($2.75), pound cake with whipped cream and strawberries ($3.75) and a banana pudding ($3.25) that's worth all of the extra calories.
Saw's hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
The address is 1008 Oxmoor Road, and the phone is 879-1937. The Web site is www.sawsbbq.com.
Coffee On Valley Adds Cold Shakes
Just in time for some cool relief from the summer heat, Coffee on Valley has started serving old-fashioned ice-cream shakes.
"We're trying not to use the word 'milk,' because we don't put milk in it," manager John Macon says. "This makes it real thick. You can drink it with a straw, but only after you've eaten it with a spoon."
Flavors include vanilla, chocolate, caramel, peach and banana, and many customers order their shakes blended with a cookie.
"We put the cookies in with the ice cream and then blend it," Macon says. "The double chocolate chip, the strawberry shortcake cookie and the regular chocolate chip have been our three biggest sellers."
Regular, 16-ounce shakes are $3.75, and shakes with cookies are $4.25.
Coffee on Valley is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
The address is 367 Valley Ave. in Homewood, and the phone number is 397-2393.
Cruse Cooking At Pepper Place
Wendy Cruse of Healthy Connections will be the guest chef this Saturday at Pepper Place Saturday Market.
Located on Acton Road, Healthy Connections prepares low-calorie, low-fat meals for delivery or pick-up.
For Pepper Place, Cruse says she plans to prepare a cucumber gazpacho.
"It's not going to be vegetarian, but it's going to be vegan," Cruse says. "It's probably going to have a milk or a cream product in it.
"The cucumbers are really in season right now," she adds.
Cruse's cooking demonstration begins at 9 a.m. on the chef's stage in the loading dock area between the Pepper Place parking lot and 29th Street South. It will last about an hour.
Pepper Place Saturday Market features around 100 Alabama farmers, food vendors and artisans along Second Avenue South in the area between 28th and 29th streets.
Market hours are 7 a.m. to noon Saturday.
For more information, go to www.pepperplacemarket.com.
Bob Carlton's dining column appears Fridays in City Scene. You may read his blog at blog.al.com/bob-carlton.