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The True Story of the Southland Southland Recipes The Secret of Southland Mac and Cheese How to Make a Southland Club Sandwich Southland Stories |
THE TRUE STORY OF By Thomas McCay Here's a little thumbnail history on our origins. In the mid 1940s my mother's sister, Sarah, and her husband, J. O. Roper owned and operated a small café in Paducah, Kentucky named the Snappy Snack. Then around 1949 the Ropers moved back to Sheffield, Alabama where they owned and operated the gulf station located at the corner of Montgomery Avenue and Jackson Highway. But the restaurant bug had bitten the Ropers. In October 1950, in full Partnership with Roy and Margaret McCay, the Southland Restaurant opened its doors at 1309 Jackson Highway across from what is now Helen Keller Hospital When J. O. had returned from Kentucky, he brought with him the recipes for unique barbecue sauce and salad dressing that had been given to him by an uncle. His uncle claimed the barbecue sauce was over a hundred years old and as far as we know this is true. The ingredients used in the sauce became widely available after the War Between the States and it keeps indefinitely without refrigeration. Wherever it came from, J. O. and Roy along with their father in law, J. C. Justice, began to cook Barbecue that soon gained a reputation as the best in the area. The recipes for The Southland's pies come from Margaret and Sarah's side of the family and are still cooked fresh daily. The Roper and McCay families owned and operated the Southland for the next 27 years serving tons of our Kentucky style barbecue and thousands of our homemade pies. In 1977 The Southland was sold and the Ropers and McCays retired and both families moved on with their lives, unaware that The Southland restaurant would be in our future.
After an absence of ten years Margaret McCay repurchased The Southland restaurant in June of 1988 and much had changed in our absence, Roy McCay had died in 1981 and J. O. Roper left us in 1987. This time around, The Southland would be operated by the extended family of Margaret McCay. Sarah Roper enjoyed hanging out at The Southland until she passed away in 1993. Margaret McCay continued working until shortly before her death in 2001, handing The Southland restaurant down to her three children Phyllis, Linda and Tommy, who now run the business together. We still use our old family recipes and cook our barbecue on our 57-year-old pit just like we did in 1950. |
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© 2007-2009 The Southland Restaurant.
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