The 60-foot faces of four of our most revered presidents -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt -- grace the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.
But what about a Mount Rushmore of Alabama Barbecue?
Who would you pick if you could choose just four larger-than-life Alabama barbecue legends for our hypothetical Rushmore?
From a long list of barbecue giants in our state, we have selected these four influential pitmasters -- two living and two deceased -- who, we think, tower head and shoulders over the rest.
Continue reading below to find out why we chose them.
John Bishop opened his Dreamland Cafe, as Dreamland Bar-B-Que was then known, in Tuscaloosa's Jersusalem Heights neighborhood in 1958. (Photo courtesy of Dreamland Bar-B-Que; used with permission)
John Bishop of Dreamland Bar-B-Que
We can still picture the late John Bishop -- affectionately known as “Big Daddy” – sitting in that king-sized chair, a paper hat perched on his head and a pipe between his lips, as he held court with his customers while also keeping an eye on the slabs of ribs grilling hot and fast over the glowing coals. A bricklayer by trade, Bishop opened his beloved barbecue joint on Jug Factory Road in Tuscaloosa’s Jerusalem Heights neighborhood in 1958, and, according to legend, he named it Dreamland because God came to him in a dream and told him his mission in life was to feed barbecue to the people, which he did until he died in 1997. His legacy, though, lives on, as Dreamland has grown from that original Jerusalem Heights location -- which remains the Holy Land of Alabama Barbecue -- to include nine more locations in Alabama and Georgia. A caricature of Bishop with his pipe and paper hat has become synonymous with the Dreamland brand. “My father was known as quiet and humble, but he always took pride anytime Dreamland received recognition,” his daughter Jeannette Bishop-Hall said when Bishop was selected for the American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame in 2014. “He believed the restaurant’s success was confirmation that God had a plan for him. He felt listening to the advice God gave him was the best decision he ever made.” Legions of lovers of his meaty, smoky, hickory-kissed ribs basted in that peppery, mustand-and-vinegar-based sauce say “Amen!” to that.
READ MORE: A brief history of Tuscaloosa’s Dreamland Bar-B-Que
Bob Gibson, who opened the original Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur in 1925, invented what is now known worldwide as "Alabama white sauce."(Photo courtesy of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q; used with permission)
Bob Gibson of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
Back in the 1920s, Bob Gibson worked for L&N Railroad during the week, and on weekends, he treated family and friends to pork and chicken that he smoked in a pit he dug in his backyard and served on an oak table that he had nailed to a nearby sycamore tree. Gibson -- a mountain of a man who stood 6-foot-4 and weighed in at around 300 pounds -- got so good at it that he eventually quit the railroad and went into the barbecue business, opening the original Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur in 1925. At some point, Gibson also developed the magic formula for what is now known worldwide as “Alabama white sauce,” a mayonnaise-vinegar-and-black-pepper-based concoction that complements everything from chicken to crab cakes. “Now, how he came up with the recipe, I don’t know,” Don McLemore, a grandson of Gibson’s who has worked in the family barbecue business since 1972, once said. “None of my family knows. I wish I did.” Gibson, who died in 1974, never tried to protect his recipe, and these days, any barbecue joint worth its salt has its variation on the Alabama white sauce that he invented. And that barbecue empire that he built -- Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q -- lives on, too, as the fourth and fifth generations of the Gibson family tree continue to stoke a fire that he started.
READ MORE: Alabama barbecue legend selected for national BBQ Hall of Fame
Chris Lilly -- who married Bob Gibson's great-granddaughter, Amy McLemore -- has built on the barbecue tradition that Gibson began almost a century ago. Art Meripol
Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
If Bob Gibson is the Paul “Bear” Bryant of Alabama barbecue, then Gibson’s great-grandson-in-law, Chris Lilly, is the Nick Saban, a modern-day GOAT who has not only continued the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q legacy but, along with his father-in-law, Don McLemore, built upon it. Lilly became part of the first family of Alabama barbecue when he married Gibson’s great-granddaughter, Amy McLemore, and he’s been with Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q since 1991. He now serves as the company’s executive chef and brand ambassador. Along the way, Lilly has led the restaurant’s competitive barbecue team to a record five grand championships at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, the Super Bowl of smoked meat. Not only has Lilly become a rock star in the barbecue world -- appearing on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel and traveling the country as the official pitmaster for Kingsford Charcoal – but he is also a great ambassador for the state of Alabama and its proud barbecue tradition. Lilly was inducted into the American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame in 2016, eight years before his great-grandfather-in-law’s selection this year. And ensuring that the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q tradition lives on for at least another generation, Lilly is preparing to one day pass the torch to his sons -- Andrew and Jacob -- who manage the two Decatur restaurants and travel with their dad on his barbecue adventures. “It’s a proud thing,” Lilly says, “to see the next generation take the baton and not fumble it.”
READ MORE: Chris Lilly talks ‘Fire & Smoke’
Van Sykes of Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q started working the pit at his parents' Bessemer barbecue joint when he was 12 years old. (Photo courtesy of Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q; used with permission)
Van Sykes of Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q
Van Sykes was all of 12 years old when his father, Bob Sykes, used to drop him off at the family’s Bessemer barbecue joint for an all-night vigil tending to the pork shoulders smoking on the hickory-fired pit. “And let me tell you,” the younger Sykes said a half-century later, “when it’s 3:30, 4:00, 4:30 in the morning and you’ve been staring into that (pit) and you smell completely like it and you’ve got this nice, greasy sheen to you, and you’ve got to keep turning that meat, you’ve got to keep stoking that fire, and you’re trying not to fall asleep -- I mean, that’s when you learn to become a barbecue man.” Sykes, who just turned 69, is still a barbecue man, and he keeps the fires burning at Bob Sykes Bar-B-Q, the restaurant his late father and late mother, Maxine Sykes, started in 1957. As one of the elder statesmen of Alabama barbecue, Sykes has been at it longer than almost anybody around, and few people are more passionate about what they do -- or more knowledgeable about how to do it -- than he is. This year, Sykes was one of 10 finalists for induction into the national American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame, and while he did not make the final list of inductees, his time will surely come. Meanwhile, he has a prominent spot on our Mount Rushmore of Alabama Barbecue.
READ MORE: Here’s the book on a legendary Alabama barbecue joint
George Archibald and his wife, Betty, started Archibald's Bar-B-Q in 1962 in this cinderblock building behind their Northport home. (Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)
Four more who are Rushmore-worthy
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial depicts the faces of just four of our U.S. presidents, so we only have room for four barbecue legends on our Mount Rushmore of Alabama Barbecue.
But here are four more who are Rushmore-worthy:
George Archibald, who, along with his wife, Betty, started Archibald’s Bar-B-Q in a cinderblock joint they built behind their Northport home in 1962. George and Betty have long since passed, but their descendants continue the Archibald’s tradition, and that little soot-scorched shack with the well-seasoned brick pit still turns out what we consider the best barbecue in Alabama.
Nick Pihakis, who, along with his father, Jim Pihakis, opened the original Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q in a former Pasquale’s Pizza restaurant in Birmingham in 1985. Nearly 40 years later, Jim ‘N Nick’s has almost 50 locations in six states. Pihakis has also partnered with South Carolina pitmaster Rodney Scott to open five locations of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ.
Mike Wilson, a Charlotte native who left his job as a test kitchen chef at Cooking Light magazine to open SAW’s BBQ in Homewood in 2009. (”SAW” is an acronym for Wilson’s teenage nickname, “Sorry A—Wilson.”) In just 15 years, SAW’s – renowned for its ribs, smoked chicken and Carolina-style sauce – has grown to include six locations and a food truck. Wilson died in 2020.
Lula Hatcher, who started working at Selma’s historic Lannie’s Bar-B-Q Spot when she was 12 years old, and after her mother and stepfather died, ran the business for decades. These days, four of her eight children continue the family tradition at Lannie’s, which moved into a new building earlier this summer, but Hatcher, who is in her early 90s, still keeps an eye on things from a rocking chair on her front porch.