Sam Nakos

Demetri's BBQ
1901 28th Ave. South
Birmingham, AL 35209
(205) 871-1581
www.demetris-bbq.com

“Dad got a sauce recipe from my mother’s aunt’s husband….She was Greek, born in Chicago…He had a basic sauce recipe and dad got it and it was a real good recipe and dad just kind of improved on it, so that was the same recipe we used over there—we use over here."
– Sam Nakos

Demetri Nakos arrived in Birmingham from Greece in 1955. His first job was with an uncle who ran Oakland Barbecue. There, Demetri paid his dues, making barbecue for Ensley steelworkers on the city’s west side. In 1961 Demetri found a business partner and opened El Rancho, a barbecue restaurant in Homewood. Eleven years later, Demetri saw another opportunity and left El Rancho to open his namesake barbecue restaurant in the same neighborhood. For the next thirty years, Demetri earned his reputation for barbecue cooked on an open pit, homemade sides, and signature fried pies. Demetri passed away in 2002. One of his sons, Sam Nakos, carries on his father’s legacy. He carries on their Greek heritage, as well, only hiring Greeks as pitmasters.

Listen to this 2-minute audio clip of Sam Nakos talking about how his father, Demetri Nakos, got involved in the barbecue business. [Windows Media Player required. Go here to download the player for free.]

NOTE:
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 here.

EDITED TRANSCRIPT

Subject: Sam Nakos
Date: December 30, 2004
Location: Demetri’s BBQ – Birmingham, AL
Interviewer: Jake Adam York

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Jake York: So you’ve been running this—Demetri’s—for how long?

Sam Nakos: Well I started off in 1980 as a—right out of high school pretty much and my dad owned this restaurant, so I came over here and worked for him.

Your father was Demetri?

My father was Demetri and he started it here in ’72 but he goes back to 1961 at El Rancho. He—he came over from Greece to this country and did some jobs and—but he had an uncle in the beer business and my Uncle Sam—or his Uncle Sam which was—we still call him Uncle Sam, but he owned some property here in Birmingham and he also owned a—a barbecue place called Oakland Barbecue. It was in—okay it was in—it’s in—where is it—in Ensley. I don’t know; I know it’s—I don’t think it’s still there but anyway—so dad worked there just as—kind of just to make some money and it was a barbecue and a beer joint.

Okay. And this was shortly after he came to America?

Right after he came to America; so that was probably in the ‘50s—’55.

And was it family over here that drew him?

Yeah, yeah. Dad came over because a couple of his uncles came over and made some money and went back and one of them came over and made some money and stayed. But the one that came—stayed really was very successful. He had a beer distributorship and he was a very good salesman and made Pabst and Sterling very popular beers here in the mid-‘60s. So dad decided that he really wanted to do his own thing; he didn’t want to get involved with the nepotism, wanted to prove himself kind of like my uncle did you know—show them what he’s made of and he wanted to go out in his own business. So he started off working at the Oakland Barbecue and got a good taste for the bar business and restaurant business—and barbecue.

And your Uncle Sam…did he start that barbecue?

No, he didn’t. He was only just the landlord of the restaurant—of—you know he was strictly—my Uncle Sam never got in the—in the restaurant business. He was just strictly beer warehousing.

So your father learned to cook barbecue at Oakland?

Yeah, I think he did, yeah. He just learned to cook it. Dad never talked much about those days; they were before I was born but he told us—the bad taste in his mouth was staying open ‘til 1:00 and a lot of steelworkers over there and I think he just didn’t—that wasn’t—wasn’t very conducive to our family so he just wanted a restaurant barbecue and probably to this day that’s why we don’t serve beer. I think he just got—got burned out on it. [Laughs]

Did he move over here to Homewood then?

Yeah, he came to—what he did is he came to—he got with a partner and he opened El Rancho was behind here. I don’t think—I’m not sure if it existed as a barbecue place first or not; I don’t remember. That was about when I was born. And then he decided—he was the brains and the recipe guy behind the whole thing. So he was very successful—

And the other guy was more like a financial backer or something like that?

Yeah; I think so and he was—but—but here’s the thing—the funny thing about El Rancho; it was on Main Street—18th Street was Main Street back—way back in the ‘60s. There was no Red Mountain Expressway; you came from the south of town and you looped around and came right into El Rancho and went to the curb in Homewood. I don’t know if anybody listens or reads about this—is familiar with the curb—then you took a right—[aside to waitress: that’s exactly what I wanted]—took a right and headed up 20th Street over Vulcan into town; that was the only way in there. So that was his—it was a landmark little restaurant—a little joint.

So you got the traffic coming into town?

Everybody came through there and you know if you wanted to go to the football game from Mountain Brook or any area like that you came around. So anyway ’72 rolls around and dad and the fire chief up here in Homewood, kind of like—he’s an Andy Griffith-type character and this was like a Mayberry town back then—they were best friends because dad’s restaurant, the El Rancho was next door to City Hall. So now all the firemen and all the policemen would come in and it’s a joint—barbecue joint—drinking coffee and get to be friends and you know. So dad and—and Captain—Al Evans was his name—he became Chief later on—became best friends, so Al built this place. He was a builder on the side; so he built this restaurant.

This particular building, right?

This building and he also built my dad’s house, so in ’72 dad broke away and came over here and renamed his restaurant Demetri’s and that was his first name and started on his own. So that’s the beginning.

So he split away from his partner at El Rancho?

Yeah, he just—just left him.

And El Rancho closed about that time or shortly thereafter?

I think his partner bailed and dad sold the business to another person that still kept it as El Rancho but then they finally went out of business.

Do you know why they called that first one El Rancho?

Well it’s a place called El Rancho somewhere in Texas I think or something. I don’t know what they—where they got that.

And the style of barbecue they served, was it like you have here?

The same thing; it’s the same recipe. Dad—dad got a sauce recipe from my mother’s—I guess it’s her—my mother’s aunt’s husband.

Was she also Greek or no?

She was Greek, born in Chicago…Not a food person. He had a basic sauce recipe and dad got it and it was a real good recipe and dad just kind of improved on it, so that was the same recipe we used over there—we use over here.

Is there a Greek influence in that?

In the sauce no, but my dad—this is the funny thing about it. My dad—I’ll just say upfront he always made the best spaghetti sauce, so my dad was a very good—he had a great palate. He just had a good cooking ability—the best cook I knew, which not necessarily—not necessarily true with all restaurant people; they may be good businesspeople or they you know—good promoters but dad was a great cook, so he—I think he—he did a great job with the sauce and many other recipes. We have a lot of things we’re—that are unique here.

And the cooking of the meat was that sort of a Greek skill or did he learn something about it working in that Oakland barbecue stand [which was called Oakland Barbecue Stand]?

Greeks barbecue lamb in Greece just like in the [movie] Big Fat Greek Wedding you see them rotating the lamb, so barbecue is not unusual in Greece because they cook over open—open charcoal or open wood but here it’s a hickory flavored smoke thing, which is not particularly true in Greece. You’re never going to find a restaurant in Greece that has smoked meat, you know. It’s not part of their traditional cuisine. So dad learned the smoke process I guess at Oakland and carried it through.

Is this pit set up here—is that his own design and does it in any way resemble do you think what he would have worked on in Oakland?

The pit, yeah, I think it did. I think it was a basic open pit; that is the famous open pit. Now and we’ve had that basic kind of pit at Oakland since the ‘50s and so now—and of course Chief Evans built it. His firemen came down here; they’re bricklayers and so they built it and we’ve rebuilt that pit a bunch of times and the firemen have always come down here to rebuild it except for a couple times when I had to hire other guys.

Had to rebuild it because—?

We rebuilt it.

Because you needed more capacity or—?

Well no it just breaks. It cracks up, yeah, the heat and then sometimes you spray water on it and the bricks expand and contract and you can see that pit is falling apart; it’s about to cave in.

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And do you mostly tend the pit here or do you have a couple of pit men?

I’ve got a pit guy, a Greek man…Yeah, barely speaks English—not at all.

And he’s been with you for a while?

I’ve always had a Greek guy on the pit…He’s 10 years with me. I teach all my cooks how to cook and then hopefully I can get out…I don’t want to stay back there too long. I end up back there a lot though.

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And do you use hickory exclusively?

Hickory; uh-huh…Hundred percent hickory and no coals.

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What cuts of pork are you smoking here?

We used to use shoulders and I think everybody used—

The full shoulder or—?

The full shoulder down but now everybody uses butts. They’re easier to manage, easier to flip and probably as cheap and less hassle, I think. Although I think there’s a couple of restaurants still using shoulders, but I don’t think it matters on that. Usually the butt is where you get your—most of the meat from.

And so you said you started here right out of high school? Had you been working here a lot when you were younger?

My dad called me up when I was eight years old when his dishwasher didn’t show up. My mother would bring me down here. I’d be crying the whole way but I came; I was one of three boys and I was the only guy that would come. My big brother came a little bit, but I was the one who always showed up. And thus my destiny for the rest of my life, you know was revealed.

Were you learning to cook at that time or you just started out as kitchen help?

No; I was the dishwasher—just bussed tables…Now cooking, when I was—I guess I was 19 when I finally clocked in and never went back to college. I would make pies. [And] when anybody went on vacation, I would have to do their station. I’d make the pies and then when the meat cutter went on vacation for two or three weeks I cut meat. And if anybody was sick I cooked, so I learned how to do all that. You know after all those years you learn how to flip the ribs and you start to get a feel for it. A lot of it’s feel…And then my dad was a great cook. Well me and my dad would cook things together back here and you know just in cooking these things, the items that we have on the menu now I learned how my dad cooked.

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What have you added to the menu?

Okay, that’s a great question because we really didn’t have much competition back in the earlier years.

And you mean in this particular part of town or do you mean Birmingham total?

In Birmingham. The three restaurants here in town were El Rancho and Demetri’s, Golden Rule in Irondale and I think maybe this Golden Rule up here—I’m not sure when they made that and Ollie’s. So it’s basically Golden Rule, Ollie’s and Demetri’s—that was it but we kind of owned this area of town. If you want to go to Ollie’s you’re going to—So if you wanted to eat down there you’d go down there; Golden Rule is in Irondale so we—you know we all had our territory and we had plenty of—didn’t have as much competition. Now there’s so many people that have opened up barbecue places and I think a lot of it—and I think everybody that’s come through here to watch what we’ve done. Now they don’t because there’s so many other barbecue places, but we were kind of a—I guess it’s kind of a signature restaurant for barbecue. But what have I added to the menu? This is pretty interesting because my dad, when he first started he had such a limited menu. He had barbecued pork and barbecued beef, fried peach, fried apple pies, French fries, and salad.

The pork is the shoulder and the beef—was this brisket?

No, we never cooked brisket in Birmingham. We just got like a top round and just made basically beef…We just—kind of a replacement for pork, if they didn’t want pork; I don’t know. We don’t serve that much of it. But I think we had ribs too. We did have ribs.

Pork ribs?

Pork ribs—spare ribs, not even baby back—just regular spare ribs; so then we had a full breakfast but we had plates you know—we’re using those items and we—I think we had a hamburger and a chili and then we sold everything by the pound so it was kind of real simple. Now I expanded with chicken—half chickens, quarter chickens, grilled chicken sandwiches we sell a ton of.

These are Greek chickens you’re talking about?

No, the regular barbecued quarter chickens smoked. Then I expanded all the dressings and then we expanded to baked beans, which we didn’t have baked beans. We added potato salad and we added slaw at some point; my dad and I added that. And then we redid all the dressings and so then we started loading, you know, Greek salads, grilled chicken salads. I think we wanted to expand our menu. We saw the competition you know on the horizon, and we knew that they were there and they had these items and we wanted to make sure we had them and made them better.

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Have any of the people who worked here for you or for your father in the past gone on to open up barbecue restaurants?

That’s a good question. My dad had a Greek guy come over from Greece and helped him open up a restaurant called Rigas Bar-B-Q…What’s funny is he opened it up in Homewood about 10 miles from here, and my dad never said a word about it. He taught him how to cook here and he opened up a restaurant and he made some money and he did good. He had a partner named Costa, which was Gus—I’m pretty sure they were partners; I saw them down there.

They still have the barbecue restaurant, Costa’s.

Costa’s, yeah. So my dad taught Rigas. Rigas probably taught—I don’t know if Costa learned from Rigas and I think a couple of restaurants came out of that, so that’s why I’m saying we go back to where I don’t know; it’s just you know—people who are—I don’t know what these guys were doing before they were making barbecue but they weren't in the restaurant business you know 20 years ago some of them weren't. I remember in ’80 that I think they started to open up restaurants around here in ’80—a couple of the barbecues but they were selling insurance or whatever they were doing; I don’t know. But you know dad has been doing it so long and when my dad passed away in Greece, by the way, two and a half years ago.

He retired to Greece?

Well he went over there. We used to go over there every year for three weeks and visit his friends and family and come back but he was over there and he was eating dinner with his best friends and just you know passed away. But he had another group of friends over there and then a whole other life and he enjoyed that.

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Do you look to pass this on to somebody?

Not really, I worked so hard for 22 years. I finally came to the conclusion I’d never want my kids to do this, but I’m starting to go into a new phase. I’m starting to really like it. I think I’m getting better at doing what I did, but I think it took me a long time to figure out repeating some of the same mistakes—20 years. So I think if I had a kid now—I joke with my brother; he has a little four year-old, my little four year-old niece I think I would put her on the counter sitting up there handing out toothpicks every day you know. I think that’s where I would start my kid off. And I definitely would do it but at this point you know I’ve come so far without it. But this business, I think it cuts into family life. I don’t know what the divorce percentage is with restaurant and restaurant managers but it has to be high...

...I just want to win the hearts of my loyal customers over and that’s it. I don’t need anybody to judge me ‘cause I already know. I feel very confident about my food. Now how is it changing in Birmingham? The only thing that has changed is there’s been a lot of people open and the—the standards are high because they’re going to have to compete with me and some of the other guys who do pretty good barbecue and we’re—I’m not lowering my standards, so they’re going to have to raise theirs and that’s what happened. They have to raise theirs a little bit but still people—I see more barbecue places may be opening up; there’s a lot of them. There is a ton of them that have opened up in the last 15 years. I don’t know about anything dramatically huge changing. I know we’re getting more popular because there’s a big development going across the street. We’re going to be even more of a landmark, I think.

So you’re going to stick right here and smoke them out?

I’m sticking right here and going to smoke them out.

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To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

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