Cheryl Lay

Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q
9760 15th Street Rd, a.k.a., Hueytown Rd
Hueytown, AL
(205) 491-8498

“No, we don’t sell ribs, and I’ve been begging Daddy for years now to let us sell ribs. He cooks them for the family and—but he won't—I don’t know why he won't cook them for the public. He says that they’re hard to fool with, and he just won't do it. But they—but he cooks them delicious, but he won't sell them. I can't talk him into it.” – Cheryl Lay

For years, Roger “Rabbit” Smith worked for Pullman Standard, putting brakes on boxcars. On weekends and holidays he cooked barbecue for his family at home. When the company he worked for went out of business, Roger looked to barbecue to earn his living. His in-laws offered him the vacant side of their store on Warrior River Road, and Roger jumped at the opportunity. In 1980 Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q was born. Roger designed the pit after the one at Leo & Susie Famous Green Top in Dora, Alabama, but the barbecue was all his own. His wife Linda developed their sauce, as well as their sides. Their daughters, Cheryl and Lisa, worked with customers and developed barbecue skills of their own. Today, Cheryl runs their new location across the street from where it all began. Roger still starts the fires and checks the pits from time to time.

Listen to this 1-minute audio clip of Cheryl Lay talking about what she learned about barbecue from her father, Roger “Rabbit” Smith. [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: Cheryl Lay, daughter of Roger “Rabbit” Smith
Date: October 5, 2006
Location: Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q – Hueytown, AL
Interviewer: Amy Evans

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Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans on Thursday, October 5th 2006 and I’m in the Hueytown [near] Birmingham, Alabama, and I’m at Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q. And I was to meet Mr. Roger “Rabbit” Smith today, but he’s not feeling well, so his daughter, Cheryl is here. Cheryl, could I get you to state your name and also your birth date for the record please, ma’am?

Cheryl Lay: Cheryl Lay and my birthday is January 22nd [nineteen] ‘59.

All right. And your father and your mother started Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q. Could I ask you quickly first off how your father got the nickname Rabbit?

[Laughs] Well I’m not real sure. I know they call—that was his nickname when he was growing up. That was his nickname. And so when they opened the restaurant, they just decided they name it Rabbit’s.

And so you started telling me before we were recording about how your grandparents owned the—the store over there on Warrior River Road [which is adjacent to the original Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q location].

Right. And then Daddy ended up being out of work in the plant he was working from, and they had always barbecued off and on at home, and so they decided they’d just open up a barbecue place. [Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q opened in 1980.]

What kind of plant?

Pullman Standard. And I believe it was boxcars; I think he helped put brakes on them. And they finally just went out of business.

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And so when he wanted to do barbecue as a business, do you have memory or an idea of how that really started? They wanted to do it adjacent to that store but things like building the pit and how that worked?

Well not exactly, I don’t. I know that there—there was a pit—they had been eating barbecue at one point at another restaurant, and they really liked the way the meat tasted, so they did ask them if they could duplicate their pit; they did do that. And—and since then when we moved over here into this new building we made sure the pit was built exactly the same as the old pit.

Can you say what that other restaurant was?

I believe it was [Leo and Susie’s] Green Top. I sure do. In Jasper. [The mailing address for the Green Top is actually Dora, Alabama]

And so how was business early on when they opened, do you remember?

There wasn’t sitting room. I mean for years you couldn’t even get in, and it’s still like that at times. It’s just a bigger building, I guess.

When did y’all move over here across the street?

Oh, about three years ago. I guess it was 2003.

And what precipitated that move, exactly?

Well when Mom [Linda Smith] was living, she had always wanted to build another restaurant, a larger one, and so Daddy had made her that promise, so that’s why.

She just wanted a newer nicer building, is that it?

Yeah. And also they had leased the other side from my grandparents [J. C. and Lucosper Payne], and when they sold the store Daddy knew that—there wasn’t any problem with it. The people were real nice; we could have stayed there forever. They begged us to stay. But he just knew it was time to go ahead and do it—to build this—to build this across the road…But it probably took us about two or three years to get over here; it was like leaving home coming over here [to the new location across the street].

Can you describe the inside of the old place over there?

Oh, it was half the size of this one, and the front was open. You could see us cooking; there wasn’t a wall between us and the customers. It—it was—you could almost reach everything from right there at the grill.

Now how old were you when they opened the first restaurant?

I believe I was about twenty-one.

And you started working there and never stopped?

Well no, I never stopped. Well I quit for a little while when the children [daughter, Nathalie and son, Kyle] were little and stayed home with them. I probably stayed home with them for about five years. I’d work a little bit—maybe one day a week, not—not much when they were real little. And then when Mama passed away [in 1996], I just came back full-time.

Do you have any brothers and sisters?

Uh-hmm, I do. I have a sister [Lisa Smith] and—and she’s worked off and on, too, through the years. Right now she’s—she had a little—another little girl when she turned forty, so she’s taken off for a while herself.

So when you got back to working over there after you’re—you had your children, did you know that you were going to be keeping the family business going after your mother passed and your father retired?

Well I wasn’t—yeah, I—I figured I would have to. [Laughs] It was—it was just kind of left up to me, so I—I just did it and I haven’t minded. I’ve enjoyed it.

When your father [Roger “Rabbit” Smith] was still working, was he overseeing all of the cooking of the meat and working the pit and all that?

Yeah, he still works some now. He just—he just don’t stay with us as much, but he still comes out just about every day and puts the meat on and watches it. And he’ll stay through lunchtime sometimes and help through rushes now. He still—he still works—he still works, just not as many hours as he did.

How old is he now?

He is—he’s sixty-seven.

Can you describe a little bit how he works and what he likes to—how he likes to start a fire and his kind of style of barbecuing?

[Laughs] He’s the only one that can start the fire the way he does. I—that’s what was talked about this morning. He—he just—sometimes it will be hot coals left, and he just can go out there and poke around and—and gets it going. I really couldn’t tell you how he does it sometimes because I have a heck of a time [Laughs] trying to get it going. I can—I can get it going but it—it takes me a little bit longer than him. And—and if it goes completely out he—he don’t use charcoal; we don’t cook over charcoal, but he might take a little bit of charcoal and—and just get it started back up.

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Have you always had a diversified menu?

Just hamburgers and barbecue—that’s—that’s really all we have. We have a lot of people asking for different things, but that’s all we have.

Have you added anything new since you’ve been in this new place—any sides or anything?

Just a salad—just a barbecue salad is all we’ve added. And chicken—or a grilled chicken salad.

And we were talking earlier about your mother and how when she died you figured—you found out all these things that she did that you didn’t know how to do or something to that effect. Can you talk about that?

Well I had paid a little bit of attention, thank goodness, but she was the—she was really the backbone of the place. She kept everything going. And I don’t know how she went the hours she went. I’ve wondered often but she—yeah, I just had to learn how to do it. She did leave us recipes, and I had watched enough to where I just started doing it and just—we’ve tried to keep it as much like she did as we possibly could. Sometimes I don’t think it’s exactly like she did it, but it’s as close as we could get.

Are the recipes that she left behind, were they her own or did she get them from somewhere, do you know?

Everything here is her recipes.

Even like the sauce, for example?

Uh-hmm, the sauce and everything…She just always liked to cook, and any time we asked for something she—she fixed it. If we didn’t get it that day, we got it the next day. I mean and I don’t know how she knew how to do it but she just did. She would just taste and—and work at things until she got it right, and it was always delicious.

Can you describe your barbecue sauce today?...Would you say it is more tomato-y or vinegar-y or sweet, spicy?

I would say it’s more sweet than vinegar-y or spicy; it does have vinegar in it but I—I would say it was more a little bit sweet.

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So has business changed at all since you’ve been in this new facility, or has it made a difference in your business?

Oh, it’s about the same I would—I would say; sometimes it might not seem as busy but that’s because it’s bigger, and we have a few more people working than we did at the other place.

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Can you describe what a day is like for you here now?

It’s—it’s pretty pleasant; it’s hectic. We—we work but it—it’s nice. We have some good help now, so it’s not as tiresome as it used to be. But and you see a lot of customers that you’ve seen over and over and you—we have friends that come into see us. I enjoy it.

But as far as you know like when you get here and—and setting up and the schedule of the barbecue and turning it and all that kind of thing—?

That keeps you real busy. You have to keep wood on the pit constantly and—and you have to take the meat off and when it gets done. And we cook it about twelve hours every—every—every time we cook, it’s twelve hours. So and then we don’t just slice ours; we take it off and we pull all the fat off and throw that away, and then we’ll slice it or chop it—however the customers want it.

And you’ll serve the inside meat or mixed or whatever?

Inside, outside, mixed—however—try to however you want it; we try.

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What did you—what have you learned from your father about barbecue over the years?

Well what I have learned I’ve learned from him about the meat. Daddy has always done the meat, and Mama did the—the sauces and the—and the slaw sauce and the slaw and all that. Well when—like I said, when I’ve learned I learned from him. But I learned how to build a fire, I’ve learned—and we only—we only cook with hickory—and I’ve learned how to—I make sure they’re good and done and what else? I’ve learned—I had to make sure they’re good and done and—and tender when you take them off. And I guess that’s about it. And how not to burn them. I have burnt several pit-fulls and learned how not to burn them and not to put too much wood at one time; so I guess that’s all I’ve learned. That’s what I’ve learned from him.

Do you think you do anything different from what he does?

Oh, I’m sure but I try not to; I try to keep it like he wants it. He comes through here every day to kind of check. If—if I do it too different he mentions it. [Laughs] But yes, I’m sure I do some things different but I—like I say, I try not to.

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And some of the other things on your menu—you have a BLT and a slaw dog and chilidog and things like that. Do you sell much of those things or primarily barbecue, or would you say that there’s a more popular thing?

Well probably the hamburgers and the barbecue are the most popular. But in the winter months we make homemade chili, and we sell a good bit of that. And we sell chilidogs then, and that—we sell a good bit of them.

Now do you just do the barbecue sandwiches? You don’t have ribs?

No, we don’t sell ribs, and I’ve been begging Daddy for years now to let us sell ribs. He cooks them for the family and—but he won't—I don’t know why he won't cook them for the public. He says that—that they’re hard to fool with and he—he just won't do it. But they—but he cooks them delicious, but he won't sell them. I can't talk him into it. And we do get calls for it all the time. And I’ve tried to talk him into letting me do it—but now he did have some on there for the family one time, and I did scorch them so [Laughs]—but I’m still working on him about it.

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So what would you—how would you explain your longevity in the business here?

I guess just hard work and—and trying to do it right. That’s all I can explain. And Daddy, he works real hard at trying to make sure the meat is just right and—and we all do and—and trying to be good to the customers. [Laughs] Because you can't make it without them.

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Have you tasted much other barbecue around Alabama or the South?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we still eat other places. It just—you get hungry for other people’s because sauces are different and—and you get to wanting one maybe with more vinegar and taste and you—you like to taste different barbecues.

How would you say yours is different from others?

Well it’s better, certainly. [Laughs] I guess it’s just—it just has more of a sweet taste to it. It’s just in the—it has the hickory taste to it. It’s just—and it’s cooked so slow. It’s just—and we—we try to make sure we get all the fat off it before we serve it. And—and we do try hard at that, so I guess that’s how it’s different.

What do you think the future of Rabbit’s Bar-B-Q is?

I just don’t know what the future for Rabbit’s is. That is still kind of a question mark. It’s just, I guess, whatever interest she shows in it. I’m going to stay here as long as Daddy needs me to stay and wants me to. As long as he wants to keep Rabbit’s going and I’m able, I’m going to be here. And then the rest is up to her.

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And what is it like to be a woman in the barbecue business?

[Laughs] I always say my daddy should have had a son; I’ve said that more than once. [Laughs] It’s—it’s all right; it—it can be hard work at times and you are ready to go to bed when you get home. You are tired.

How old are your children?

Nineteen and twenty.

Do they have any interest in the business?

My son doesn’t really; but my daughter, she’s been helping some.

So it will stay in the women in the family, maybe?

I hope so. I hope so. That’s up to Daddy, but I hope so.

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

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