No rush: Diners at Alabama’s Greasy Spoon take time to savor food, friends

Greasy Cove General Store and its onsite eatery, Greasy Spoon Kitchen, rest in a valley in the tiny town of Gallant in the even tinier Greasy Cove community. The weathered-wood cabin first welcomed customers in 1942, supplying them with groceries and other basics. It went through several owners after opening and once sat up on a hill in the distance behind it, but when Gallant Road was moved, the store was moved to the edge of the two-lane street to better attract passersby.

Today, its past echoes throughout its crowded interior. Yesterday’s cash registers, a vintage Pepsi cooler and antique clocks and butter churns add to the décor. The spot feels old timey, thanks to these items, and the Greasy Spoon’s invitation to sit and chat while you chew amplifies the vibe.

Donald “Bubba” Reeves bought an abandoned store in 2017 and resurrected it as the Greasy Cove General Store and Greasy Spoon Kitchen. (contributed)

It is clear diners don’t feel rushed. Multi-generational families engage in deep conversation between mouthfuls of their lunch. Empty plates and balled-up napkins litter a small table while the young men around it lean back in their chairs, sip sweet tea and tap their feet to the tune floating from the bluegrass band in the corner. Despite a small crowd standing and waiting for the turn to do the same, most seated customers take their time with their food and the friends who’ve joined them for a meal.

Owner Donald “Bubba” Reeves envisioned just such a scene when he bought the then-abandoned store in 2017 and resurrected it. “I love it when we are super busy, and I’m in the kitchen, and I hear everyone laughing and cutting up,” he says. “It makes me feel like when I was growing up, being at home and my family and friends enjoying ourselves around a table.”

The dining room at Greasy Spoon Kitchen can get pretty packed around lunchtime. (Mark Stephenson)

Reeves always wanted to run a general store. He likes cooking. And he wanted a place to sell fresh fruits and veggies. When he learned of a classic general store — a slice of Greasy Cove history — sitting empty, he figured he’d found a way to do all three. The structure was falling in on itself, calling for a total remodel, but Reeves preserved the original wood floors and as many other details as he could. He named the refreshed space Greasy Cove General Store, referencing the valley cradling it, and opened in 2020, right when the pandemic hit.

Reeves was concerned he’d soon shut the doors again, but despite COVID, people popped in for the store’s local products like sorghum cane molasses, jams and in-shell pecans, plus grocery items and other necessities that saved them a trip to Atalla or Oneonta. The bounty piled up and the produce porch Reeves added to the building also drew customers. The space stays packed with cut flowers in spring and summer, pumpkins and gourds in fall and seasonal fresh fruits and veggies from area farmers as well as tomatoes, okra, squash and cucumbers from Reeves’ own garden.

In 2021, he added the kitchen, opened the Greasy Spoon and proved a lot of naysayers wrong. “They told me that I wasn’t going to get diners out here,” Reeves says. “They” were incorrect then and, four years later, the crowds keep filing in; on a busy summer week, the Spoon will feed approximately 800 people.

They savor every bite of the tart and smoky fried green tomato BLT and the ooey-gooey grilled pimento cheese sandwich; both are popular. But the burgers often top the “most-ordered” list. They start with patties of 80% sirloin and 20% ribeye seared on a cast-iron flat-top griddle to achieve a thin crust while sealing in juices. An array of toppings allows for multiple burger options. The Raging Bull, crowned with grilled onions, peppers and mushrooms blanketed in two slices of pepper jack and cream cheese and drenched in Heinz 57 sauce, is the best seller. Every big burger comes with a hefty portion of hand-cut fries.

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Greasy Spoon owner Donald “Bubba” Reeves enjoys cooking but also chatting with diners. (Mark Stephenson)

Repeat Spoon guests know it is essential to save room for the homemade ice cream. The frosty treat is available every weekend year-round — whether outside temps fall to 40 or skyrocket to 99. Reeves begins by mixing an old-fashioned vanilla base in his five-gallon churns. Then, he honors other favorite desserts by turning them into ice cream. To create the Banana Pudding, Red Velvet Cake, German Chocolate Cake and Italian Cream Cake flavors, Reeves makes traditional pudding and bakes and ices the cakes before folding them into the base. “It gives the ice cream a truly authentic taste,” he says.

Classic butter pecan, rocky road and chocolate make appearances too, as do peach and strawberry made with fresh local fruit in the summer. The Chocolate Elvis (banana and peanut butter with chocolate chips swirled in) sings a sweet note and is fun in a cup. “People love that one,” Reeves says.

Reeves knows the burgers and ice cream are chart-toppers but hopes customers get more out of a visit to the Spoon. “I feel like the store and restaurant are a real service for our community,” he says. “I also feel like this is a place people can come gather, and they feel like they are at home. That’s what I wanted it to be and why I opened it.”

This story originally appeared in Alabama Living magazine.