Town and Country Texaco

Food, fun, friends make for special Saturdays

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Mackenzie Free

It’s an August morning at Town & Country Texaco, a view of Logan Martin setting the scene as a backdrop in the distance. Boaters line up at the pumps to fuel their day ahead on the water. Dozens of anglers put in at the boat ramp just as the sun comes up, readying for today’s big catch.

Cars and trucks stream in and out, almost as if the parking lot were encased by a revolving door. Folks clad in everything from suit and tie to shorts, tank tops and flip flops head into the store and out again. It’s the hurried comings and goings of yet another Saturday at Town & Country.

You might say the establishment itself is quite the attraction, and you would be right. Ask Kurt Russell and the set crew of Rivals of Amziah. They filmed there in July.

But if you look to the left, smoke wafting from a nearby tent with a tantalizing aroma of Boston Butts, ribs, chickens and wings emanating from oversized smoker ovens, you’d know you had arrived at so much more.

Under the tent sits Gerry Richey, a retired coach, who set up shop there nine years ago when Craig Goodgame opened the new Town & Country. He had been cooking for the high school baseball team for 20 years, and the culinary expertise he brought to that tent nearly a decade ago simply “took off.” The evidence is seen in the growing volume of customers awaiting his creations every weekend.

Gathering under the tent

Of course, the tent has expanded since then. So have the ovens – double deckers – the crowds of customers and the gathering of locals who swap stories, settle the woes of the day and just plain ‘hang out.’ Of course, if they see a need, they’re right there, too. “If our friends see we’re busy, they jump right in taking money, boxing stuff up,” said Richey, who handles the operation along with Wade Graham.

On holidays, the pace is hectic. They average cooking 180-220 butts on holidays like Labor Day and July 4. “We couldn’t make it on holidays without help,” Richey said. Holidays have three grills going continuously.

He and Graham bought the first oven nine years ago when they opened their fledgling business under a pickup tent. Now, it’s a tradition for locals sharing ‘quality time’ on a Saturday morning.  

History lessons abound about the river and days gone by. “You learn a lot of history,” said Erskine Funderburg, a lawyer in town.

The conversation tends to go a bit like this:

“Me and Daddy used to quail hunt at Lock 4,” Richey recalls, referring to a lock near Riverside and Lincoln no longer in use once Logan Martin Lake was created in 1965.

“We used to rabbit hunt at Catatoga,” he said, pointing in the direction of a lakeside subdivision a stone’s throw from Town & Country.

Blake Nixon, Danny Abbott, Funderburg, Bob Thomas and Richard M. “Doughnut” Nixon are usually in the mix of Saturday regulars, although not all were there this particular Saturday. On this day, there’s Richey, Jerry Howard, Craig Goodgame, Graham, John Otwell, Jerry Bowman, Terry Castleberry, Spike LeMaster, Funderburg, Thomas and Nixon.

Funderburg dubbed it the equivalent of  “our men’s beauty shop.” He comes nearly every Saturday for “personalities and conversation.” To him, “It’s definitely a men’s beauty shop – lots of lies and a little bit of truth.”

“It may get a little different when you leave,” Terry Castleberry interjected with a nod toward being respectful of the woman present. Knowing laughter from the rest of the assembled group immediately followed.

“Don’t pay attention to him,” one of the ‘beauticians’ said as Spike LeMaster joined the group. He’s another regular, who enjoys the camaraderie, he said.

Conversation again turns to the beauty shop reference for a moment. “Is that a permanent?,” one asks Frunderburg, who has curly hair peeking out from under a baseball cap. Funderburg retorts, “It’s only right to come here and get abused every weekend. I do the abusing (as a lawyer) all week long.”

The scene is much like the mechanics of a pinball machine, bouncing from one subject to another.

Talk briefly turns to the lottery, where the $1.4 billion pot was still intact from the drawing the night before. A couple of them had tickets with four of six numbers plus the Powerball. “So close,” they lamented.

Kurt Russell and staff of Town & Country Texaco

“Here comes the plumber,” said another, alerting the rest of the group to the arrival of Jamie Gipson from Trussville. He comes every Saturday for ribs, they boast. When he arrives at the tent, Gipson explains as best he can. “I don’t know what they do with the ribs, but every Saturday morning, it’s my ritual. When you get hooked on something, you stick with it.”

What about the movie filmed there a couple of weeks before? Craig Goodgame, owner of Town & Country, is part of the group, and he sets the scene. “This guy stopped by. He said he was a scene director, and he asked if I would be interested.” Goodgame obliged. The original ask was for two days of shooting, but it only took one. “They showed up at 7 p.m. and left at 2 a.m.”

Although Russell was a star, Goodgame said, he was approachable, talking to him and the staff the whole time. “He was extremely friendly – a nice man.” While Russell and his movie star wife, Goldie Hawn, have been together since the 70s, he told him and the staff they just got married six months ago. “He told us that story,” Goodgame said. “He said they were finally old enough to get married.”

The tent operation supplies the convenience store, too – at least 20 butts a weekend. “Can’t get caught up in there,” Richey said. “They take the butts and make sandwiches. They can’t keep them,” he said of their apparent disappearing act as the comings and goings of the day wear on.

Wings, butts and whole smoked chickens are the order of the day, especially during football season, where a single customer may order 100 wings for a game day gathering.

Customers come from all around the lake and out of town, too. Regulars stop in from Trussville, Moody and Vincent. He has one customer from Atlanta with a lake place, and he stops to take meat back with him to Georgia.

When do they close? Simple, said Richey. “When we run out – usually run out every Saturday.”

The day for him actually starts the day before. He puts the butts on to smoke overnight at about 6 p.m. on Friday. At 3 a.m., he’s back to smoke the rest and put the finishing touches on. “By the time people get here, everything’s ready. If we’re not ready, people would get ill at us.”

They’re only open on Saturdays, but holidays see them expand to a three-day weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

As the conversation slowed a bit, Richey checked on the wings, toting a nondescript bucket with a mop. He’s ready to baste. He says what he’s holding is the key to their success. “This is what makes our butts so good.” He didn’t wait for the obvious question. “No, I can’t tell you what’s in the bucket. It’s a secret – the secret sauce.”

Perhaps the secret comes from the days his family owned a café when he was young – the Ranch House. Or maybe it’s learned from decades of grilling for the baseball team.

“It must be pretty good. People still come,” Richey said, not specifying whether it’s for the food or the company.

As another crowd gathers under the tent on Saturdays, it’s easy to conclude it’s both.

A perfect waterside wedding location

Story by Scottie Vickery
Submitted photos

In all the years Terri and Anthony Riccio have owned homes on Logan Martin Lake, entertaining typically meant throwing some burgers on the grill for their sons’ friends or having a laid-back dinner on the patio with a few other couples.

So when their oldest son, Cannon, got engaged to Lauren Scambray last November, and their future daughter-in-law wanted an outdoor wedding at their house with the gorgeous water view as a backdrop, there was a moment of panic. Actually, there were many moments of panic.

“Anthony was sending her links to other venues every week,” Terri said with a laugh. “I finally told him he had to stop because this was where she wanted to have it.”

Once the decision was made, the two families joined forces and started planning. Despite a 6-month timeline and the fact that Lauren’s parents, Rachel and Scott Scambray, live in Las Vegas, they managed to pull off a beautiful June 3 event that was better than any of them imagined.

The couple exchanged vows at the water’s edge before guests and the wedding party headed across the yard for dinner under a sailcloth tent. After enjoying a buffet that included some of Lauren and Cannon’s favorite Italian dishes, the crowd toasted the couple with blue champagne before heading to the gray and white checkerboard dance floor where they celebrated under the stars.

“We wanted the wedding to be as much ‘Lauren and Cannon’ as it could be,” Lauren said. “We wanted all of our favorite things and all of our favorite people at our favorite place, and it was just perfect.”

The back story

Nearly three years before popping the question, Cannon met Lauren in an economics class at the University of Alabama. Lauren, who grew up in California, always knew she wanted to try something different after high school, so she applied to several out-of-state colleges. Alabama won her heart. Not long after they met, Cannon did, as well.

Lauren and Cannon Riccio

Before long they were spending all their time together, much of it at the lake with a group of friends. “We came every chance we got,” Lauren said. “If there was a free weekend, that’s where we all were.”

That was just fine with Terri and Anthony. After all, they’d fallen in love with Logan Martin years ago when they came to the lake with friends during college. After they married and had Cannon and his brother, Grant, they got a boat and then graduated to a mobile home at Pocono Park. They later bought a house in Country Club Estates on the Talladega side of the lake and used it as a weekend home for five years before they sold it in January of 2020 and started looking for a permanent home.

“We kind of started out slowly and put our toes in the water a little bit at a time,” Terri said. Although the Riccios loved raising their kids in Trussville, they knew they wanted to eventually retire to the lake, but the lure of life on the water was too strong to wait.

They bought their current house, which is in River Oaks in Cropwell, in April 2021 when Grant was nearing the end of his senior year in high school. Although they both still work in Birmingham – Terri’s in interventional radiology at UAB and Anthony’s a market executive and executive director with JPMorgan Chase – their view makes the commute worthwhile.

“God’s beauty is all around,” Terri said. “The sunsets are just gorgeous, and the wildlife here is beautiful, too. We have eagles, osprey, egrets and white squirrels. When we get home from work, we go down to the dock, turn on some music and enjoy the peaceful nights.”

The view wasn’t the only thing that sold them on the house. The downstairs living area, with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a great room was a factor, as well. “We knew it would be perfect for the kids to come, bring their friends and bring their families one day,” Terri said.

Details, details, details

Although Terri and Anthony loved entertaining their kids’ friends, they never expected to hold a wedding at their house. “When Lauren started talking about wanting to get married here, I said, ‘You know, Alabama weather is not like California weather. It’s hot in the summer, it could rain, there are bugs,’” Terri said.

But Lauren knew it was the perfect spot for the wedding of her dreams. “I’ve always wanted a beautiful background, whether it was water or a pretty view,” she said. “Cannon and I both knew this was where we wanted to get married.”

Despite being 1,800 miles away in Las Vegas, Lauren’s mother, Rachel, wasn’t intimidated by the challenge of planning the wedding long-distance. In addition to organizing several large fundraising events over the years, “I planned our wedding 28 years ago and the weddings of a couple of friends,” she said.

“She never seemed stressed out at all,” Terri said of the mother of the bride. “It also wasn’t at my house,” Rachel added with a smile.

The Scambrays, who had moved to Las Vegas from California two years ago, came to Alabama a few times during the process, but FaceTime and Zoom proved to be invaluable. As the families began to think through everything that hosting a wedding with more than 200 guests would require, the list started growing.

“It really was like building a venue from the ground up,” Rachel said. They realized they’d need a powerful generator, tables, chairs, linens, lighting and bar setups. The Riccios had to get permits as well as liability insurance for the day in case someone was injured. In addition to the tent for the reception, they also needed a separate tent equipped with tables, lights and fans for the caterers to use.

Sending the couple off with sparklers

They rented bathroom trailers equipped with air conditioning, flushing toilets and sinks with running water. Parking was a big concern until Anthony suggested guests park at the neighborhood boat launch, where they could shuttle to the site in rented vans or on a pontoon boat. “That was really fun,” Terri said. “Someone said they had never ridden to a wedding in a boat before, and another guest said, ‘I’ve never been on a boat before.’”

Once the logistics were covered, the focus turned to the details. “Lauren had a Pinterest board for years with the vision and fine details she wanted to come to life,” Rachel said. “It changed a little over the years, but there were some things I always knew I wanted,” Lauren added.

Her dream wedding included bouquet of peonies, a gray and white checkered dance floor, great music, and a cigar lounge area with tufted leather couches. She also fell in love with a chandelier made of crystal globes. “We designed the whole layout for seating based on the chandelier,” Lauren said.

She also always wanted to be a June bride. Since they got engaged in November, that meant they had to work quickly. “It was either plan it in six months or wait a year and a half,” Lauren said. “We didn’t want to wait.”

While Rachel and Lauren were booking the florist, caterer, DJ and other vendors, the Riccios focused on the rehearsal dinner, which was held at the Venue on 20th in Pell City, and getting the house and yard ready. That included putting out 200 bales of pine straw and spraying for mosquitoes and other insects. They had already planned to replace the deck with a larger one, so they moved forward with construction.

Unfortunately, because of weather delays and supply issues, the project wasn’t completed before the big day. That meant the plan to have the ceremony under the deck in case of rain was no longer going to work. “We decided we could move the head table out from under the tent, and guests could sit at their tables for the ceremony,” Rachel said.

They were all delighted that rain wasn’t an issue. “The second we decided the wedding was going to be outside, we started praying about the weather,” Lauren said. “Ten days before the wedding we were checking the weather every day – sometimes several times a day,” Terri added. “Friday and Saturday, we never even looked. At that point, we decided it is what it is.”

Their prayers were answered, and they were blessed with a beautiful day. “We had pop-up storms every day that week and there was a big storm with sideways rain on Sunday,” Terri said, “but Saturday was perfect.”

In the moment

The days before the wedding were a whirlwind. Vendors dodged construction workers, Anthony hung string lights in the trees, friends came with leaf blowers, and the neighbors on each side graciously allowed the setup to spill over a little into their yards.

“It was all hands on deck,” Lauren said. “We have so many great people in our lives, and we’re so thankful.”

The day went off without a hitch. Guests enjoyed an Italian buffet with flatbread pizza; pasta dishes with meatballs, chicken and shrimp; a salad bar; and vegetables. A beautiful Italian cream cake and an ice cream cart for Cannon, who doesn’t like cake, completed the menu.

Lauren’s grandfather, Steve Butterfield, knew she was planning to use blue and white accents in the form of chinoiserie vases, so when he and his wife had blue champagne on a trip to Italy, he had several cases shipped to Alabama for the wedding.

Even the fireflies cooperated. Nearly half the family and friends came from California and other states and stayed at Airbnbs around the lake. As they gathered near the cigar lounge and enjoyed the sunset, they were thrilled to see the glow from the lightning bugs, which many had never seen.

“I never saw any before I came to Alabama,” Lauren said. “We had a cool spring, so we didn’t see many, but about a week and a half before the wedding, they started coming out more.”

While their guests enjoyed the music and view, Lauren and Cannon slipped away for a sunset cruise. “Everything had been so crazy, so it was great to get a moment to ourselves,” Lauren said. “But then we wanted to go back and join the party.”

Although there were a few “what have we done” moments along the way, Rachel and Terri agree that all the planning, stress and worries were worth it. “Everything was perfect,” Rachel said. “The whole day was magical and dreamy.”

Lauren and Cannon agreed. “Everyone said that your wedding is the one time all of your people will be in one place, so soak it all in,” Lauren said. “That’s exactly what we did. We loved everything about the day, and I wish we could go back and live it again.”


Although Lauren and Cannon Riccio love Italian food, especially the dishes their mothers make, they knew asking them to cook for their wedding reception would be too much. Although Rachel Scambray and Terri Riccio left the buffet to the caterer, they agreed to share some of their favorite recipes.

Sausage, onion and pepper sauce

From Terri Riccio
Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 pounds mild Italian sausage links
  • 3 cloves garlic, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 1 yellow onion, sliced
  • 2 green bell peppers, sliced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
  • 29-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 29-ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 6-oz tomato paste
  • Italian seasoning to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Linguine

Directions:
Saute garlic, celery, onion and peppers in olive oil until tender. Remove from skillet and set aside. Remove sausage casings and cut sausage into 1-inch pieces. Add more oil to skillet if necessary and cook sausage until done. In a large stockpot, add all canned items, cooked vegetables, sausage, salt, and Italian seasoning and simmer 30 minutes or more. If thinner sauce is desired, add ½ cup water.
Serve over cooked linguine.


Pasta sauce

From Rachel Scambray

(Makes 10 to 12 large jars)

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 6-pound can tomato sauce
  • 2 small cans tomato paste
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 1 32-ounce carton of chicken broth
  • 6-7 Italian sausages, sliced
  • 1 pound ground turkey or beef
  • 1 package neck bones
  • 1 beef roast (about 2-3 pounds of chuck or other roast) cut into chunks
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 5 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped
  • 1 pound mushrooms (optional)
  • Italian seasoning to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • 3-4 tablespoons dried parsley
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • Red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

Saute onions in olive oil and add garlic for the last few minutes. Set aside. Brown meats in same pan and add more olive oil if necessary. Combine onions, garlic, meats and all other ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a slow boil, then lower temperature to simmer. Simmer 3 to 4 hours, stirring often as it can burn easily. Remove bones when the meat falls off. Adjust spices as necessary and add broth and/or wine as needed for appropriate thickness. Use as meat sauce for lasagna, spaghetti or other Italian dishes.

Cooking on Palmetto Creek

In the Kitchen and by the Lake with Pam Beals and Misty Thomas

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Richard Rybka

For the past 18 years, sisters-in-law Pam Beals and Misty Thomas have been in a weekly cooking school of sorts. They’re the teachers as well as the students, and most often they’re the only participants. As a result, though, their culinary skills have grown, their bond has deepened, and their binder of “keeper” recipes has continued to expand.

“We’ve pretty much had dinner together every Saturday night since 2005,” Pam said of the gatherings at her Neely Henry Lake home. “We call it our Saturday Night Supper Club.” Sometimes it’s just Pam and her husband, Tom, along with Misty, and her husband, Shane, who is Pam’s brother. Other times, the number grows to six, ten or even more.

The cottage on Neely Henry’s Palmetto Creek

The one constant, however, is that they prepare the meals together. “We have the most fun when we open a bottle of wine or bubbly, turn on the music and start cooking,” Pam said. “Sometimes I have to step in if there’s a little too much bubbly,” Tom joked.

Although Pam and Misty weren’t novices in the kitchen before they started their weekly get-togethers, they’ve both come a long way, as far as skill, confidence and mindset go. “Now I cook because I want to, not because I have to,” Pam said.

Misty and Pam have always been close, despite the 10-year age difference between them. They just haven’t always lived near each other. Pam and Shane were raised in Ashville, and Misty grew up in Steele but went to Ashville High School. By the time Misty and Shane met in the ninth grade, Pam was out of college and working.

In fact, she and Tom were living in Atlanta for the first three years of their Saturday Night Supper Club, but they all met on weekends at Pam and Shane’s mother’s cabin on Neely Henry.  “In 2007, my brother and husband went to an Alabama Power auction ‘just to see how an auction works,’” Pam said with a laugh. “They both came back with property.”

Misty and Shane realized they prefer hills and farmland, so they sold their lake lot and bought a home nearby with 40 acres. They are in the process of turning it into a working farm, Moonlight Farm, where they plan to raise cattle. Pam and Tom built a 3-bedroom, 2 ½ bath cottage on their lake property lot and used it as a weekend home from 2008 until 2020 when COVID-19 hit, and they moved there permanently. “I was ready,” she said.

The cottage, which is on Neely Henry’s Palmetto Creek, was built from a Southern Living house plan. “I’ve always had a soft spot for Southern Living and all things Southern, really,” Pam said and grinned.  “Anybody can copy out of Southern Living magazine.”

Dynamic duo

The magazine had a big influence on their Saturday night dinners as well. That’s where they found almost all of the recipes they tried when they first started their weekly gathering. “Southern Living got us started on this journey,” Pam said. “At first, we were intimidated by some recipes, and we didn’t even know what some of the spices were. We’d have to go buy every spice and every tool.”

It got easier, though, and they got better one dish at time. “We just got in the kitchen and started teaching ourselves,” Misty said. “Now we have all the right appliances and gadgets.”

For the most part, the meals have been successful, although there have been some bumps along the way. “We learned to read the recipe all the way through,” Pam said. “We’d get halfway through one and realize we were supposed to refrigerate it overnight. We’ve only had a catastrophe once or twice where we say, ‘I hope (the restaurant) Local Joe’s is still open.’”

Pam and Tom

Through the years they’ve tried hundreds of recipes they’ve gathered from magazines, Pinterest, and cookbooks. The first time, they follow the recipe exactly, and for some dishes, they think of how to make it better. “We’ll say, ‘Next time, let’s add this,’” Misty said.

They started keeping their favorites in a binder, which is now nearly four inches thick. “That’s where all of the ‘keepers’ go,” Pam said. “And a recipe doesn’t make the book just because we made it. Everyone has to agree that it’s a keeper.”

The fact that they try to use local ingredients whenever possible has helped the binder grow. The short ribs they use in their Short Rib Lasagna recipe, which was featured on The Today Show and grabbed Pam’s attention, come from Earnest Roots Farm in Ashville. They get tomatoes grown on Chandler Mountain from Smith Tomato in Steele to make their own tomato sauce, which they sometimes substitute for the marinara listed in the recipe.

“Every time we prepare this, we get more compliments on it,” Misty said of the Short Rib Lasagna, which has become a favorite. “You would think we’d have a lot of leftovers because it makes a lot, but there’s never anything left.”

Pam and Misty have learned over the years that their cooking styles are different. “If it’s a dessert, we’re handing that to Misty because she’s very precise,” Pam said. “I’m more of a follow the directions kind of cook and she’ll get in there and do her own thing.”

Misty agreed, adding that when she cooks on her own, “I very rarely follow a recipe. Pam will ask me what I did, and I’ll say, ‘I don’t know.’ My grandmother was an amazing cook, and that’s what she used to do, too. Pam gets mad at me, and I used to get mad at my grandmother.”

Although they are most often the ones in the kitchen, Pam and Misty sometimes turn things over to the guys. They’re in charge of the grilling, as well as low country boils, which they all love. “We do those a lot,” Misty said. “We prepare everything and hand it off to them. It’s always delicious.”

The folks enjoying the meals sometimes change as well. They are often joined by Tom’s brother, Joe, and his wife, Kathy, who live nearby on the lake. Other friends have joined in the fun, but one thing never changes. They always gather at Pam and Tom’s house to enjoy the glorious view of Neely Henry.

View for rent

When Pam and Tom built their home, they planned for it to be a peaceful weekend retreat from their busy lives in Atlanta, where they lived at the time. They were both working in the vending industry, although Tom has since retired, and were on the go a lot.

While they hired professionals to lay the foundation and handle the electricity, plumbing, framing and roofing, they did everything else themselves. The details that that make the house a home are all theirs. Tom put up the pine tongue and groove walls in the master bedroom and adjoining sun porch, and he and his brother, Mike, laid the oak tongue and groove floors throughout the home.

His brother, Joe, helped hang the kitchen cabinets while Pam handled the painting and decorating. She went to great lengths to get everything right. “We were in Destin, and I saw a house that was under construction and was painted the exact color I wanted,” she said. “No one was there so I climbed into the dumpster and found an old can of the paint. I took it to Sherwin Williams, and they matched it. It’s a dill green, and we just love it.”

After COVID hit, Pam and Tom moved in full-time. Although she continues to work from home, traveling a lot for her job with Flowers Baking Company, she started to think about what’s next. Tom retired and has begun dabbling in real estate, and Misty just retired after teaching 25 years at Albertville High School. Shane still works with Birmingham Pistol Wholesale, but he and Misty recently opened The Gun Exchange in Ashville. They also are busy working on the farm.

“Over the years, we all had conversations about what we’re going to do in retirement,” Pam said. “I decided I might give Airbnb a try. At the time, there were no Airbnbs in Ashville, so I got on the website and started playing around with a listing. I accidentally posted it, though, and the next day I woke up to a booking. I had to get myself together really quickly.”

Waterfront outdoor chess setup

Even though the house is their full-time home, they’ve rented it out many times since. They have an RV, and “as soon as someone books the house, we book a camping trip,” she said. “We didn’t have this in mind when we built, but it’s really turned out perfectly.”

Guests love fishing off the dock, drinking coffee on the wraparound porch, playing with the giant lawn chess set and watching outdoor movies on the screen and projector she provides. “We’ve really got it set up like a model home,” Pam said. “We pretty much just use the kitchen, master bedroom and the sunporch, and we live out of three closets” that they lock when guests come. The rest of the house is ready all the time, so they only have to get three rooms ready before guests arrive, and they head for the woods.

After traveling her whole career, she had lots of ideas about what guests need and want. All of her jobs have developed her customer service skills, and her attention to detail and love for hosting makes it the perfect fit. “It’s like I’ve been training for this my whole life,” she said.

She and Tom also own a commercial building in Gadsden and Airbnb the loft above it. They bought the lot next door to their lake cottage, and Pam said she would love to one day build another home there. “I have to keep reminding myself that I ‘m trying to retire, not build an empire,” Pam said.

Although all the changes – the cottage bookings and Misty and Shane’s work at the farm – cut into their Saturday Night Supper Club schedule, they know they’ll continue to find a way to make it work. N future recipes, they’ll soon be able to use beef raised at Moonlight Farm and vegetables from the garden Misty plans to plant.

“I’ve never had a major garden before,” Misty said, and she’s dreaming big. She plans to plant tomatoes, squash, corn, okra, beans, carrots, a variety of lettuces and strawberries. “As a child, I used to love to go out in my grandmother’s garden and pick strawberries.”

One thing is for certain, there’s still lots of cooking and Saturday night gatherings in their future. No matter what changes come, they’ll continue to do what they’ve been doing for nearly two decades. “We’ll all get in the kitchen and see how it turns out,” Pam said.


Short Rib Lasagna

Recipe of Giada de Laurentiis, shared on The Today Show

Ingredients:

Ribs

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2½ pounds beef short ribs
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
  • 1 onion, roughly chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
  • 2 4-inch sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 2 cups red wine, such as Pinot Noir
  • 2 cups beef broth

Filling Mixture

  • 1½ cups milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1½ cups grated Pecorino Romano cheese (6 ounces)
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 ounces)
  • 1 small bunch Tuscan kale, ribs removed and chopped
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning

Additional Ingredients

  • 12 uncooked lasagna noodles (about 10 ounces)
  • Butter for greasing the baking dish
  • 1 25-ounce jar marinara sauce
  • ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • Olive oil for drizzling

Directions:

Cook the ribs: In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed stock pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Add the ribs to the pan and cook for about 4 minutes each side until brown. Remove the ribs and set aside. Add the onion, garlic and rosemary. Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Cook for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and soft. Increase the heat to high. Add the wine and scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the beef broth and ribs to the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for 2½ to 3 hours until the meat is very tender. Remove the ribs and set aside until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes. Discard the bones and cooking liquid. Using two forks, shred the meat into 2-inch-long pieces (to yield approximately 2¼ cups shredded meat).

Make the filling: In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the milk and cream to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low. Add the cheeses and whisk until melted, and the sauce is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the kale, basil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Assemble: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish. Spread 1 cup of the marinara sauce in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Lay 3 noodles over the marinara. Spread 1/3 of the Filling Mixture evenly over the noodles. Sprinkle with a 1/3 of the shredded short ribs. Repeat with the remaining noodles and filling, making three layers of filling and ending with pasta. Spoon the remaining marinara sauce on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and bake until the lasagna is heated through and the cheese is beginning to brown, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.


Easy Skillet Apple Pie

From Southern Living

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds Granny Smith apples
  • 2 pounds Braeburn apples
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 (14.1-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • Butter-pecan ice cream (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Peel apples and cut into ½-inch-thick wedges. Toss apples with cinnamon and ¾ cup granulated sugar. Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apple mixture over piecrust; top with remaining piecrust. Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white; sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar. Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.Bake at 350ºF for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Use aluminum foil to shield for last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary. Cool on a wire rack 30 minutes before serving. Serve with butter-pecan ice cream, if desired.

In the Kitchen May 2023

Cooking on Logan Martin Lake with Robert and Ava Ballard

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Graham Hadley
and Robert Ballard

When Robert and Ava Ballard couldn’t find exactly what they were looking for in a house on Logan Martin Lake, they decided to go back to the drawing board. After all, the empty nesters had already changed plans once. They originally thought that, after living in the hustle and bustle of a Birmingham suburb for years, they wanted a house in the country.

Then Ava decided that the only thing better than a view of the land was a view of the water. Their excitement turned to disappointment, however, when they couldn’t find a lake house for sale that met their needs. So, Robert, who has worked in the paper and packaging industry his whole career, took pen to paper and drew one himself.

The deck is the perfect place for grilling

“We couldn’t find a floor plan we liked, so I just started scratching one out,” he said. Their builder brought the drawings to life and four years later, the Ballards are still counting their blessings.  “I never dreamed I would have that in my backyard,” Ava said, pointing out the window to the water glistening in the sunlight.

The heart of the home

Most of the “must-haves” on the couple’s list centered around the kitchen area. They’d always had a galley kitchen, so this time around they wanted an open concept so no one missed out on the fun when family and friends visited. Ava wanted granite countertops, something she’d never had, and they wanted the laundry room on the main floor, which they placed just outside the master bedroom. Factor in the view of the water and they got the kitchen of their dreams.

“We cook together a lot, and during the holidays, everyone is hanging out here,” Ava said of the large island where they love to spread an assortment of dips for their young nieces and nephews. “I love trying out new international dishes and looking for creative, flavorful recipes.”

They especially love it when their daughter, Jessica, comes home from New York City, where she is a researcher. “She likes to experiment with different recipes, too,” Ava said. “We love to pour a glass of wine, put on some music and all cook together.”

The Ballards estimate they cook dinner 70 to 80 percent of the time, enjoying leftovers and a dinner out the other evenings. “Robert leans more toward seafood, and I lean more toward red meat,” Ava said. “Growing up, we didn’t have steak a lot, and I’ve developed an intense love of steak.”

Robert loves shrimp dishes and grilled salmon, and they both love a good smoked Boston Butt. They’ve also been known to make a meal from a cheese tray or charcuterie board while enjoying the view from their deck with their dogs, Niko, a 15-year-old black Lab, and Sophie, a 10-year-old Chihuahua. “We sit on the deck almost every evening and just unwind,” Robert said. “There is nothing more relaxing.”

Peaceful, easy feeling

Although they love living on the lake, it was never really on their radar when they started thinking about making a change. They knew they wanted to get closer to family – Ava grew up in Talladega, while Robert is from Sylacauga – and after fighting traffic for years, they were looking for something more peaceful. “We talked about finding 15 or so acres in the country and just getting out,” Ava said.

One of her sisters, who has a lot of land, reminded them that there’s a lot of work involved with acreage, and that’s when Ava started thinking about Plan B. “I grew up coming to this lake,” she said. “We had an aunt who brought us up here fishing all the time. The idea just popped into my head one day, and I mentioned it to Robert.”

He was intrigued, but he said he never really considered that lake life could be a possibility for them. After finding a lot in the Fish Trap area of the lake, though, things fell in place fairly quickly. “Never once have I regretted it,” Ava said. “We’ve been here four years, and we still love everything about it.”

Family ties

Their view wasn’t the only thing that changed when they moved to the lake. Robert, who works in sales, travels some and works mostly at home when he’s in town. Ava, however, worked as a special education paraprofessional in a Shelby County school for 15 years. She didn’t want to commute, so she found a new job that’s close to her heart, as well as their new home.

Ava shows off a piece of hand-painted wood valance from her mother’s kitchen

Raised by deaf parents, Ava works at Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB), the alma mater of her parents, an aunt and a cousin. She currently serves as the administrative assistance for the vice president of instructional programs. “Sign language was her first language,” Robert said of his wife of 34 years.

Although Ava’s mother passed away before they moved to the lake, the Ballards enjoyed being closer to her father during his final years. Robert’s father has passed away, as well, but his mother and brother still live in the area, and his sister is in Chattanooga. They also enjoy spending time with Ava’s sisters, Molly and Kim, who live nearby, and their families.

Traces of family can be found all over the Ballards’ home. Robert cherishes the hall tree that belonged to his grandparents, and reminders of Ava’s mom are evident all around the kitchen, especially in the old rolling pin that rests on top of the stove.

“She used it when she made chicken and dumplings, which was one of the best things she ever made,” Ava said. “I have very vivid memories of watching my mother cook. Nobody can fry chicken like my mother could.”

Ava also has her mom’s old flour sifter on a nearby side table, a candy dish that sits on the kitchen island, and a special memento from her parents’ kitchen hanging on the wall. Ava’s cousin, Jana Hadley, had painted dogwood flowers on her parents’ kitchen cabinets, as well as the wooden valance that was over the kitchen sink. When they passed away, Ava and her sisters had the valance cut into thirds, and each kept a piece.

 “Family is really important to both of us,” she said, adding that many of their memories and best times are centered around food. “My parents grew up in a mill town in South Carolina, and a lot of times you had nothing to offer a friend or a visitor except a meal,” Robert added.

That’s what they continue to offer friends and family, along with a beautiful view. “We love to watch the hummingbirds, and we’ve seen two litters of squirrels get raised” in a tree that was near their deck, Robert said. “Even if it’s raining, and we can see a storm moving across the lake, it’s beautiful. The view never gets old.”

Black Bean and Corn Salad

(from allrecipes.com)


Blackened Shrimp & Black Bean and Corn Salad

Blackened Shrimp

(from amandascookin.com)

  • 1 pound extra large grilling shrimp peeled and deveined, tails on
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 Tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons pepper
  • 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

Rinse shrimp and pat dry with paper towels. Combine all seasoning ingredients and whisk together. Toss shrimp in seasoning ingredients to coat well. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp for 3 minutes per side. Be careful not to crowd shrimp in the pan. Serve over a bed of yellow rice.

  • ½ cup olive oil
  • ⅓ cup fresh lime juice
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
  • 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1½ cups frozen corn kernels
  • 1 avocado – peeled, pitted and diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • 6 green onions, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Place olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt and cayenne pepper in a small jar. Close the lid tightly and shake until dressing is well combined. Combine beans, corn, avocado, bell pepper, tomatoes, green onions and cilantro in a salad bowl. Shake dressing again, pour over salad and toss to coat.


Beef Stir Fry with Vegetables

(From rachelcooks.com)

Sauce

  • ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
  • ¼ cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

Stir Fry

  • 1 pound flank or flat iron steak, cut into very thin slices against the grain
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup thinly sliced carrots
  • 1 small red onion, sliced vertically, or about 1 cup
  • 2 cups broccoli florets
  • 1 ½ cups sugar snap or snow peas
  • 4 cups cooked rice
  • 2 or 3 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions:

Prepare sauce and set aside.

Combine cornstarch with salt and pepper. Toss sliced beef with cornstarch mixture and set aside.

Heat oil in a wok or large pan over high heat. Tilt pan and swirl to coat the sides. Add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until desired doneness is achieved. Remove beef from pan and place on a plate. Return pan to high heat and add the onions and carrots; stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the broccoli; stir fry for 3 more minutes. Stir in sauce mixture (stir sauce mixture well before adding), beef and any accumulated juices and snow peas; cook for another 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce is thickened and peas are cooked to desired doneness. Serve over rice and garnish with sliced green onions.

In the Kitchen March 2023

Established restaurateurs create another eatery on Logan Martin Lake with Wake Zone

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Mackenzie Free
Submitted Photos

Keith Clements’ quest to own a restaurant started when he was just a boy. Raised by a single grandmother in the Pell City area, he fell in love with cooking before he could read and write. “I’ve always had a passion for it,” he said, and that passion eventually took him to culinary school in Cleveland, Ohio.

Nicola Wright, however, never even considered a future in the restaurant business. With a background in sales and managing fitness centers, she’s much more comfortable being a taste tester than preparing a meal to taste.

Can’t top Wake Zone’s nautical theme bar

After recently opening their third restaurant – their second on Logan Martin Lake – the business partners agree that even though their paths were different, they make a pretty good team. After buying the Wake Zone Grill and Bar last December, they opened the restaurant in February with a new menu, live entertainment and big goals.

“It’s right in the middle of the lake, and the middle of the lake needed something,” Clements said of the restaurant at Stemley Bridge. He and Wright believe that “something” is the perfect combination of great food and great fun.  After all, it’s the same recipe for success they followed with their first partnership, Lakeside Grill on Coosa Island.

Entertainment is definitely on the new Wake Zone menu. They’ll offer Bingo on Wednesday nights and Karaoke is on tap for Thursdays. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays will feature live music. “We’ll have everything from the 50s all the way up,” Clements said.

Wright said they also plan to have some weekend events at the Wake Zone similar to those they’ve offered at Lakeside Grill to celebrate the start of summer or the end of a great season. “I think the events are what really made me fall in love with it,” she said of the restaurant business.

Spice of life

Hosting music and events aren’t the only ways they plan to spice things up, however. The Wake Zone, like Lakeside Grill, will offer a number of Cajun dishes, including Cajun Shrimp Tacos, Bayou Potato, Cajun Chicken Alfredo and Bayou Alfredo. “Cajun pasta is what we’re known for on the lake,” Clements said. “We brought a taste of New Orleans to Logan Martin.”

Clements’ taste and cooking skills have evolved over the years, and both have been heavily influenced by his family. “I grew up cooking with my grandmother,” he said of Viola Clements. “I started when I was 5 years old and I’ve been doing it ever since. I even won some 4-H competitions for the best homemade biscuits and cornbread.”

Outside dining gives you a beautiful lakeside view

His other grandmother, Jackie Fuller, influenced him, as well. Clements’ grandfather was part Hungarian, and Fuller taught him to make dishes like Chicken Paprikash. In addition, her sister married an Italian, and they had a big influence on his love for pasta dishes.

“I’ve always liked spicy foods, and Cajun pasta is my favorite thing to cook,” Clements said. “All of our alfredo sauce is made from scratch to order. There’s no canned or bagged alfredo sauce here.”

Given his love of Cajun food, it’s no surprise that the second restaurant Clements and Wright opened, Woodies Grill and Bar, is in the New Orleans area. That restaurant, which opened in November 2022, shares some of the same dishes that Lakeside Grill and Wake Zone have.

The Bayou Potato is an example. Topped with andouille sausage, shrimp, and crawfish cooked in a creamy Cajun sauce, as well as queso and shredded cheese, the baked potato has become a crowd favorite. “I went back to the kitchen and was just playing around with some stuff and when I brought it out, people all around me were eating off my plate,” Clements said. “I said, ‘Well, that’s a menu item.’”

Joining forces

Although Clements always wanted to own a restaurant, he knew he needed a backup plan, too. “I knew I needed another income because so many restaurants fail,” he said. As a result, he’s been in the construction business for 19 years and opened Lakeside Boathouses in 2011.

But he didn’t stop there. “I own about nine businesses between New Orleans and here,” he said. In addition to the three restaurants he runs with Wright, he also owns an excavating company, a boat rental company, a snow cone business and several rental properties. He also was a partner in two other restaurants before joining forces with Wright.

Wright, whose life was in transition a few years ago, was looking for a new path. She bought out Clements’ previous partner and decided to change careers. “I knew nothing about restaurants at the time,” she said. “I do now.”

The partners’ first venture together was Lakeside Grill, which opened in May 2020. “There’s not many people opening a restaurant in the middle of COVID, but I was the gambler,” Clements said.

It paid off, and shortly after the restaurant opened, Wright came on board. Since then, they’ve hosted a number of community events such as the “Rockin the Island Luau,” and Lakeside Grill has become a fixture on the water. “We’ve had events that have drawn crowds of 600 and 700 people a day,” Clements said. “We put a big stage down by the water facing the restaurant, and we just pack ’em in.”

While Wright runs the business side of things, she also puts her own stamp on the restaurants and the events they host. In addition to starting weekly Bingo, she’s brought in everything from a 360-degree photo booth to a mechanical bull at special events. One of her first ideas for the Wake Zone is to host a Poker Run between it and Lakeside Grill.

“There’s no better feeling than when an event comes together and everybody says it’s so much fun,” she said. “At the end of the night, you can close up and think, ‘That was good.’”

That’s one reason she’s come to enjoy the restaurant business more than she could ever imagine. “I love the social aspect of it,” she said. “I’ve met so many people through it, and it really keeps me busy. It’s been very good to me at a time when I needed it.”

In addition, Wright said she and Clements work well together.

“Together, we come up with some really good stuff,” she said. Some of the good stuff they have planned for the Wake Zone is adding a tiki bar, expanding the deck overlooking the water and building an outdoor stage. “There’s a lot of potential here,” Clements said.

Special touches

Although there are some similarities on the Lakeside Grill and Wake Zone menus, there are some dishes that are only served at each restaurant. Lakeside, for instance, has barbecue while Wake Zone has a pork chop and more seafood items, such as crab claws and fried fish on “Fish Frydays.”

In addition, the Wake Zone menu features favorites of Clements’ kids (Cassidy, Riley and Madilyn), Wright’s kids (Brayden and Leelee), and Lakeside and Wake Zone manager Tanya Barnett, known to customers as “Ma.” There’s “Cassidy’s Bangin Popcorn Shrimp,” “Ma’s Meatloaf,” which is a special on Wednesday, and “Bray’s BLT.”

The restaurant family also includes some of the employees in Clements’ other businesses. “Some of the boathouse guys tend bar on the weekends,” he said. “Tanya and one of the cooks came in for construction work, and I put them to work at Lakeside. We turned our staff into a family.”

They’re working on making the whole community family, too. They love to sponsor and host community events, adopt kids at Christmas, provide holiday meals for the community and more. Some summer weekends, they’ll take a grill to Pirate Island, grab some food from the restaurant and feed whoever happens to come by.

“We’re not just a business,” Clements said. “We’re here to create family, a lake family.”


Cajun Jambalaya from Wake Zone

Cajun Jambalaya

(Makes 20 servings)

  • 1 cup diced bell pepper
  • 1 cup diced yellow onion
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 6 teaspoons crushed red pepper
  • 6 teaspoons smoked paprika
  • 6 teaspoons Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
  • 5 teaspoons hot sauce
  • 4 cups chopped andouille sausage
  • 4 cups chopped chicken
  • 6 cups medium or long grain rice
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 6 cups water

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a stock pot and add peppers and onions. Add all seasonings and cook until onions are translucent, stirring occasionally. Add meat and cook thoroughly. Add rice and liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover, stirring occasionally. Cook until rice is tender.

Serve with shrimp and a lemon wedge.


Chicken Alfredo from the Wake Zone restaurant on Logan Martin Lake

Chicken Alfredo

(Makes 1 serving)

  • 1/2 cup cubed chicken
  • 1/4 cup broccoli florets
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 3 teaspoons olive oil
  • 3-ounces grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 tablespoon garlic salt
  • 1 cup cooked fettucine noodles

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a 9-inch skillet. Add cubed chicken, broccoli and garlic salt. Cook chicken thoroughly. Add heavy cream and bring to a light boil.

Add parmesan cheese. Mix well until thickened. Add cooked noodles and toss.  Serve with garlic bread.

15th Annual Downtown Gadsden Chili Cook-off

There can be only one

Story by Scottie Vickery
Submitted Photos

For every chili recipe, there’s a cook who thinks his or hers is the best. That’s why the members of Downtown Gadsden Inc. look forward to hosting a friendly competition each year. Because when it comes to dishing out bragging rights, they just can’t resist stirring the pot.

“We open it up to people who think they have the best chili and invite them to come and prove it,” Kay Moore said of the 15th Annual Downtown Gadsden Chili Cook-off. Set for February 4, the contest promises to be one of the hottest events in town. 
“It’s all about having fun and camaraderie, being downtown and enjoying a lot of good chili,” said Moore, director of Downtown Gadsden, Inc., which organizes the event. In past years, they’ve had about 35 entries and crowds ranging from 700 to 1,000 have gathered to treat their taste buds.

Visitors line the streets to get a taste of the competition.

“We ask the cookers to bring enough to feed a bunch of people,” she said, adding that there’s a $40 entry fee for the cooking teams and anyone can enter the competition. “We’ve had people enter from Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville and as far away as Kentucky,” she said.

Whether your tastes run from mild to spicy or you prefer the traditional variety, white chicken chili or vegetarian chili, you’re sure to find a batch you love. The judges, however, seem to have a “type.”

“We have all different kinds of chili but for some reason, it’s your good old fashioned regular chili that always wins,” said Moore, adding that the competition is judged blindly. “We have runners who take the chili to the judges and each cup is marked with only a number on the bottom.”

Winning recipe

2022 Chili Cook-off winners

Jeff Martin and his fellow cookers seem to have cracked the code. His team, Dowdy’s Office Equipment, has won the competition the last three years, and he believes they have taken top honors five of the last seven. “We always use the same recipe,” Martin said of his team, which consists of his business partner Lewis Couch and friends David Couch and Ross Hudak. “It’s a recipe we’ve had for 25 years. I think somebody stole it from somebody else.”

Their chili is so good, in fact, that Ted Gentry, a founding member of the band, “Alabama,” bought the rights to the recipe last year. The chili is the menu headliner for Gentry’s Blue Ribbon Chili Wagon that’s often parked at the Alabama Fan Club and Museum in Fort Payne.

“Apparently he went all over the state looking for the best chili,” Martin said. The fact that Gentry has the rights doesn’t mean that the Dowdy crew is out of the running this year, though. “The only provision is that we still get to use it in the chili contest,” he said.

Although the winners earn some prize money and a Crowd Favorite is chosen, as well, the event is mostly a fun way for the community to get together and raise funds to support downtown projects. “Our job is to continue the growth of downtown while keeping our historical heritage,” Moore said. “A downtown of any small town is the heartbeat of the community.”

In the Kitchen with Brenda Reaves



Country cooking, lake living a perfect recipe

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Kelsey Bain

When Brenda Reaves and her daughter set out to compile a cookbook for a family reunion in 2008, they asked everyone to contribute some of their tried-and-true recipes. They wanted a variety of dishes – everything from meats and vegetables to casseroles and desserts – and only one rule applied: “We said don’t give us the recipe you wish you could cook, give us the recipe you always cook,” Brenda said.

The result is a mouth-watering collection of offerings including sausage balls, biscuits, chicken and dressing, red velvet cake, squash casserole and macaroni and cheese. “We do country cooking,” Brenda said. “I like to cook like my grandmother and mother cooked.”

These days, Brenda does her cooking from the kitchen of the family’s Neely Henry Lake home, where they have lived for seven years. “We originally thought it would be just a weekend place, but the more we were here, the more we didn’t want to be anywhere else,” she said. “It just seems like being on vacation all the time.”

As a result, the focus is always on good food and great fun. Brenda and her husband, Tony, love spending time with family, neighbors and friends at the home they’ve dubbed the Coosa Loosa Lodge and Marina. “We’re kind of known for a having a lot of people over,” Brenda said. “We can cook for a crowd easier than we can cook for two.”

Home cooking

Brenda’s love for good home cooking can be traced back to visits with her grandparents, Rosetta and Bud Wood, affectionately known as Mama Bill and Uncle Bud. “Mama Bill served three meals a day most days,” Brenda wrote in the forward of the Wood Family Cookbook. “Chicken and dumplins were one of my favorites and still are. Fried potatoes, sliced not diced, with lots of black pepper were on the menu quite often. If you were lucky, you were there when there was a peach, apple or blackberry cobbler.”

Many years ago, the family started hosting a reunion in October to celebrate Mama Bill’s mother’s birthday and “since that time, every year on the second Saturday in October, we honor Mama Bill and Uncle Bud’s memory by getting together as a family and visiting and eating,” Brenda wrote. “What could be more appropriate?”

Brenda’s daughter, Beth Reaves, had the idea to compile a family cookbook, and many of the recipes were Mama Bill’s. In addition to her chicken and dumplings recipe, there’s her lemon pound cake, a pecan pie recipe she passed down to her daughters, and Mama Bill’s 15-Day Dill Pickles, which indeed take more than two weeks to prepare.

Brenda contributed a number of her family’s favorites, including chicken and dressing, carrot cake, and meatloaf. Her broccoli and cauliflower salad recipe, which includes a notation that “Tony Reaves is the best chopper in the world,” offers some insight into how the family eats so well all of the time. When it comes to cooking, they subscribe to “the more the merrier” philosophy rather than the idea that “too many cooks spoil the broth.”

“It’s kind of like divide and conquer,” said Beth, who along with her husband, Corey King, moved into the Reaves’ renovated basement last November. “Someone’s putting a salad together, someone else is chopping something, and in 30 minutes, you’ve got a meal.”

Brenda said teamwork is the key. “I wouldn’t cook like I do if they didn’t enjoy eating it and they didn’t pitch in,” she said. “We have some of our best times when we’re cooking. We put music on and make it fun.”

All in the family

Just as Brenda learned her secrets by being in the kitchen with her grandmother and mother, her children and grandchildren are pretty accomplished cooks, as well. “When she was cooking, I was in there talking to her and you just pick it up,” said Beth, who was preparing meals like roast and vegetables for the family by the time she was 10 or 12. Her son, Blake, now a college student, “was chopping onions and okra when he was 4,” Beth said.

The screened porch at the “Coosa Loosa Lodge”

The Reaves’ son, Bret, is a master griller, and he often can be found helping to man the Big Green Egg, the smoker, barbecue grill or flat-top grill, all of which get quite a workout. “We’ve got it all covered,” Tony said of their assortment of outdoor cookers. “On the Fourth of July, we did breakfast for 25 and cooked everything out here,” Brenda added.

Veggies are a big draw for the family, as well. “When my kids were growing up, their favorite food was broccoli,” Brenda said, adding that Blake and her granddaughter, 17-year-old Bella, love turnip greens and asparagus. She and Beth buy their produce from nearby farms and farmer’s markets and get plenty of extra for later.

“It takes a lot of time in the summer to put up the green beans and corn and strawberries, but in the winter it sure is nice to get those fresh veggies from the freezer, Beth said.

A slower pace

Although the family has always loved getting together, the gatherings have become even more fun since Brenda and Tony bought their lake home. “We wanted to have a place for our kids and grandkids to be,” said Brenda, who has wonderful memories of summer days at her parents’ lake cabin. “That’s where my love for the water came from.”

They bought the house in 2014 and spent about a year remodeling it, doing most of the work themselves. Since then, the house has undergone two additional renovations, including changes made a after a 2017 tornado.

The living room now has vaulted ceilings, the swimming pool has been filled in to make a spot for a fire pit and chairs, and a screened porch was added. The deck below is home to all the outdoor cookers, and a wooden walkway connects it to the top deck of the boat house. “We built a bridge so we can get our wheelchairs out there,” Brenda joked.

Some of that work, and the most recent kitchen renovation, was completed after a tree fell through the middle of the house on New Year’s Eve 2019. Beth and Corey were sitting at the table working a puzzle when they heard a loud noise. “We thought someone was just getting an early start with the fireworks,” Beth recalled.

Not ones to let a little thing like a fallen tree and heavily damaged home get in the way of some good food, they took time to eat the New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp that was cooking at the time. “We took it out of the oven and ate it in the carport,” Beth said. “We’re not going to miss a meal,” Tony added with a laugh.

They did miss a few, though, in the more than 20 years that Brenda and Tony operated the Anniston Memorial Funeral Home and Anniston Memorial Gardens before retiring in 2018. The hours were crazy and there was no such thing as a day off. “Even during Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, usually someone would have to leave to go to work,” Tony said.

That’s why they cherish family time even more. “We have enjoyed so much being able to live a slower life,” Brenda said. “This is a life I never could have imagined. If I could have dreamed it, I could not have dreamed it better.”



Mama Bill’s Chicken and Dumplin’s

  • 1 whole chicken or chicken parts
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 stick butter

Dumplins:

  • 3 cups Bisquick
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • Flour

Cook chicken in enough water to cover and salt. Remove the chicken and add the stick of butter to the broth.

Prepare 3 cups of Bisquick, mixing as directed. Roll flat, to about ¼ inch, on well-floured surface. Use a floured knife to cut dough into 2-inch squares. Roll each piece of dough in a small amount of flour.

Drop squares into boiling broth and push it down into the broth. After dropping all dough, reduce heat and cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes and then stir in soup. Cook 10 more minutes and add the chicken pulled from the bone.

*Although Mama Bill used homemade biscuit dough, the taste is very similar.


Carrot Cake

  • 2 cups plain or cake flour
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup chopped nuts
  • 3 cups carrots, grated
  • 1 cup Wesson oil
  • 4 eggs

Frosting:

  • 1 box confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 stick margarine
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 8-ounce cream cheese, softened
  • ½ cup chopped nuts

Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda and sugar together three times. Put Wesson oil and eggs in mixer; beat until fluffy. Add grated carrots, then blend in dry ingredients; add nuts.

Pour batter into three 9-inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Frosting: Combine sugar, cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and nuts. Frost each layer completely.

In the Kitchen



If you ask Terri and Don Uptain to pick their favorite spot at their Neely Henry Lake home, they’d be hard pressed
to choose between the kitchen and the gazebo just outside its door.

Story Scottie Vickery
Photos by Kelsey Bain

If you ask Terri and Don Uptain to pick their favorite spot at their Neely Henry Lake home, they’d be hard pressed to choose between the kitchen and the gazebo just outside its door.

Like in many homes, the kitchen is the gathering place for family and friends, and every detail in theirs was planned to accommodate their lifestyle, needs and even their kitchen gadgets. The eight-arch brick gazebo, just off the breezeway that runs the length of the house, boasts cool breezes and is the perfect spot to read a book, enjoy a peaceful meal or spend some quiet time in nature.

Don and Terri Uptain

“This lot was just a hidden gem that sat here for years,” Don said. The Uptains, who built their home near Shoal Creek 11 years ago, were thrilled to make it their own. Each living area – the family room, kitchen and all five bedrooms – has a spectacular view overlooking Rock Island.

One of a series of islands that made up the area of the Coosa River known as Ten Island, Rock Island is the only one that remains visible after the construction of Neely Henry Dam. “All the others were flooded,” Don said. “Before COVID, someone used to do a fireworks show on the Fourth of July on Rock Island. We had a great seat.”

Holidays on the lake were the perfect opportunities to fire up the grill, something Terri said Don do often. “Actually, he’s a better cook than I am,” she said. “I’m definitely a recipe follower. Some people taste to see if the seasonings are right, but I smell. I have to get him to do the tasting.”

Although they share many of the kitchen duties, Don acknowledges that Terri has come a long way. “I’ll say she’s much better than she was when we got married,” he said with a laugh. They both remember the time she served pork chops with undercooked, crunchy rice.

In fairness, the Uptains, who recently celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary, were only 18 when they got married after graduating from Erwin High School in Center Point. Don joined the Navy a few years later and they count San Diego and Guam among the places they lived.

“When we were stationed on Guam, one of the wives was from the Philippines, and she could really cook,” Terri said. “She taught us to make lumpia, and it’s still one of our favorite things.”

The dish, which is similar to an egg roll, includes ground beef, carrots, bean sprouts, black olives and corn wrapped in a thin wrapper and fried. “For me, it’s an all-day process, but we love it,” said Terri, adding that she found the lumpia wrappers at Rainbow City International Market in Gadsden.

In recent years, Terri and Don have picked up some more recipes during their travels. One of their favorite dishes is Grilled Mediterranean Lamb Chops that they pair with Mediterranean rice. “We went on a cruise to the Greek Isles, and I figured that they would know how to do lamb,” Don said. He’d been disappointed when he’d ordered lamb in a Birmingham restaurant, but one bite of the dish on the trip convinced him of its merits.

“The way you season it is important,” he said, adding that he and Terri got some tips from the chef and experimented in their own kitchen until they found the perfect blend of ingredients. “If you overcook it, it’s nothing but shoe leather,” he said.

Property features a boardwalk the length of the waterfront

Building a home

There’s plenty of room for creating in the Uptains’ kitchen, which features a large island with lots of storage, a Wolf gas range, a Sub-Zero refrigerator and a deep, single-basin sink. A huge pantry just off the kitchen offers plenty of room for groceries, serving dishes and small appliances.

Terri, who designed the home before turning it over to an architect to make it official, oversaw every detail. She focused on the flow of the kitchen and even measured her bread machine before determining how wide the cabinet she planned to store it in should be.

“She designed this house and the one we lived in before in Beaver Ridge” in Ashville, Don said. “She’d take her drawing to the architects and tell them that this is what she wanted, but she didn’t know if it would work. They never changed a thing.”

The Uptains weren’t planning on building when they bought the lot with nearly 600 feet of shoreline. They had looked for years for a lot at Logan Martin and kept a boat there when a friend from church told them they ought to take a look at the lot on Neely Henry.

Paul Kell, who was the owner of Kell Realty before he passed away in 2011, had owned the lot and built the boathouse and the boardwalk in the 1990s, Don said. The lot is about eight miles from Ragland’s Main Street, and “once we got here, I said, ‘There’s no way I’ll drive this far out every day,’” Don said.

 He couldn’t get the beautiful scenery off his mind, though, so they took another look a few weeks later. “That time it didn’t seem as far,” he said with a grin. They used it as a weekend place for nearly a year before deciding to build and moving to the lake full time in May 2010. “We decided we liked it out here,” he said. “You just can’t beat the views.”

Room for a family

Although they didn’t know it during the building process, their daughter Amber and her two boys ended up moving in with them, and they were there for 10 of the 11 years they’ve been in the home. “When we were building, there was space for a bonus room upstairs over the garage, and the builder said they could add flooring and wiring,” Terri said.

“We weren’t planning on doing anything with it, but we ended up finishing out the room,” she said. “Then we found out Amber and the boys were coming. It was the perfect place for them, and it had to be God’s work.”

Dining room view to patio

The lake was a wonderful spot for the boys, who were 3 and 10 months old at the time, to grow up. The Uptains’ other daughter, Dana, and her family were frequent visitors, as well. “Her husband is an avid fisherman,” Don said. “He took our neighbors’ grandson out one time, and they caught about 20 bass in just a few hours.”

Don and Terri said they have especially enjoyed all the wildlife on the lake. In addition to fish and turtles, they’ve seen everything from red foxes, gray foxes, turkeys and deer to osprey, bald eagles, egrets and herons. “We were sitting in the gazebo one day and looked up and there was a deer swimming across the lake,” Terri said. “I’d never seen that before.”

Don’s favorite spot is the gazebo, and Terri knows that if she can’t find him, it’s the first place she should look. “I’d be out here 80 percent of the time if I could,” Don said. “My favorite thing to do is just sit our here and watch the boats, the people and the wildlife. There’s always something to see here; it’s the most relaxing place on earth.”

Although life on Neely Henry has been a wonderful chapter in their lives, the Uptains have listed their house and are making plans to build a new one in the Friendship community of St. Clair County. “I was an Army brat growing up, so I would move every few years or so,” Don said.

Terri said that 10 or 11 years in one place seems to be their norm. “That’s how long we seem to stay before we move,” she said. “I think our interests change or something happens in our lives. Now that the boys are gone, we just don’t get the Sea-Doo or the boat out much.”

 Although they’ll miss the water and the laid-back lifestyle the lake affords, they know it’s time for a mountain view and for someone else to love life on Neely Henry. “I hope someone with a family can enjoy it as much as we have,” Terri said.



Grilled Mediterranean Lamb Chops

8 Lamb Chops, about 1¼” thick
¼ cup Olive Oil
1¼ teaspoons Granulated Onion

1½ teaspoons Salt
1¼ teaspoons Granulated Garlic
Olive Oil
Salt
2 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Fresh Oregano, finely chopped

Wash and pat dry the lamb chops. Drizzle olive oil on the top side of chops and spread with your hands. Sprinkle each chop with salt, onion, garlic, rosemary, and oregano. Use your hands to work the seasonings into the olive oil. Carefully, turn chops over and repeat this process on the other side.
Place chops on preheated grill (500 degrees). Cook to medium/rare or medium doneness. Be sure to not overcook. Remove from grill, cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Mediterranean Rice

3 cups Jasmine Rice, cooked
1 teaspoon Cavender’s Greek Seasoning
½ teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Greek Dressing
¼ cup Black Olives, chopped
¼ cup Onions, chopped
¼ cup Canned Muchrooms, chopped
3/8 cup Canned Artichokes, chopped
1/8 cup Capers

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Adjust ingredient amounts to suit your taste. Enjoy!

In the Kitchen with Judi Denard



Story Scotty Vickery
Photos by Kelsey Bain

View from the porch

Judi Denard stood in her kitchen overlooking Logan Martin Lake and pointed to a headline in a newspaper clipping that was yellowed with age. The accompanying story focused on Judi and her husband, Carlton, who had just moved into a townhome on the water. “A great place to start a new life,” the headline read.

“Look at that title from 1998,” she said. “It could still be the same title today.” That’s because Judi, who will turn 80 in January, is starting over once again. After Carlton passed away in February 2020, Judi sold the large home they renovated together and moved back to Harbor Town Townhomes, where they lived when they first got married.

“Twenty-four years later, I’m back where I started from,” said Judi, who returned to Harbor Town last August. “This unit came up for sale and when I walked in, I didn’t even have to look around. I’ve always loved these condos – I’m just a river rat at heart.”

One of the things Judi loves most is the view from her kitchen counter. “When you stand back here, you don’t see the land, you just see water,” she said. “It’s like being on a cruise ship. You can go to a different place every day.”

Small spaces

Although the kitchen is about a third of the size of the one in the four-bedroom lake home she and Carlton eventually renovated, Judi is rediscovering that good things come in small packages. “It’s not a big kitchen, but it gets the job done,” she said. “It’s a fun kitchen to work with.”

Judi had plenty of time during the height of the pandemic to get her new, compact kitchen just like she wanted it. She had lots of help from her daughter Parys Scott, who splits time between Atlanta and Pell City and owns the condo two doors down. “We’re trying to get my granddaughter to buy here, too,” Judi said. “Then we’d have three generations here.”

Judi’s current kitchen overlooks a dining area, which is open to a living area with a vaulted ceiling. “My other kitchen was as big as the whole living area here,” Judi said. “My big kitchen was great, but we nearly walked ourselves to death.”

In her new kitchen space, which previous owners renovated, she has a built-in cabinet for her microwave, pots, pans and dishes, a built-in wine rack, and a functional area that allows her to complete all her tasks without moving around too much. She stores serving pieces and other items in the guest room closet, which is just off the kitchen.

“I’ve had fun coming up with creative ways to make the most of the space,” Judi said. She found a roll-up dish drying rack that fits over her sink when she needs it and allows her to cut vegetables or dry dishes without taking up space on the counter. She‘s especially fond of her noodle board, a wooden tray with handles that covers her stovetop and provides an additional workspace.

“They’re all over Pinterest,” she said. “I love all this stuff that gives me the wherewithal to make my space more functional. I can’t wait until it’s football season. I can just make some snacks, put them on my noodle board, pick it up and take the whole thing over to the television.”

Her Greek meatballs and Greek layer dip made with hummus and Greek yogurt are sure to make an appearance. “I love to cook, and I just love Greek food,” she said. “I love entertaining with themes.”

Theme or not, Judi has always loved entertaining, period. That’s why the loss of Carlton and four dear friends, who all have died within the past year, have made this year of isolation especially difficult for the vivacious Judi.

“We used to do a lot of entertaining,” she said. “We had a football group, we had dock parties every Friday night, and we had lots of people over for dinner. After Carlton died and COVID hit, I only saw my daughter and granddaughter, who came in from Atlanta on the weekends. We didn’t see anyone else. We’ll all start back eventually, I guess.”

A place to call home

When Judi and Carlton married in 1996, it was a second marriage for both. They had each lost a spouse to cancer, and Judi was living in Atlanta while Carlton was a builder in Trussville. “I said, ‘Let’s move to that little city on the water,’” Judi remembers.

Living room featuring a silk wall hanging

They lived in the townhome for 10 years before buying the lake house, which was just a mile away. They lived there for 14 years, until Carlton’s death. “I knew I didn’t want the upkeep of that big house and yard, so when my daughter told me this unit was available, I jumped at it,” she said. “There’s a lot to be said for downsizing, and when you get to be my age, it’s amazing how little you have to have.”

Although she got rid of a lot of things, including some of the elephant figurines and artwork that were part of a large collection – “I’ve always loved elephants,” she said – Judi kept many things that are special to her. A crazy quilt tapestry that she made from Dupioni dupioni silks has a place of honor above the fireplace. One of the tapestry’s 12 squares features labels from her mother’s clothing that represent a variety of Birmingham department stores, including Loveman’s, Blach’s and Burger-Phillips.

The downstairs living area also features several paintings created by artist friends, and a gallery of animal-themed artwork hangs next to the fireplace. “We had animals all over the house over there, and they ended up all together over here,” she said.

Another prized possession is an old recipe box filled with handwritten cards of some of her family’s favorite dishes. “Sixty years ago, we were all swapping recipe cards,” Judi said. “A friend I went to grammar school and high school with texted me recently that he had just run across one of my old recipe cards. We’ve gone from recipe boxes to cookbooks and now to Pinterest.”

Dining Area

A new life

Although the past year has reminded Judi that she can’t take anything for granted, she tries to look forward instead of back. She loved the memories she and Carlton created in the townhome and their house, and she’s looking forward to creating more memories in this next season of life.

 She’s making plans to see The Rolling Stones in concert in November, and she’s thinking about making her own music. “My neighbor plays the violin and has a friend who plays the guitar. I play the piano, so we’re going to form a band,” she said with a laugh. No matter what she does next, she’s happy to be in a place that’s familiar. “I loved our house, but I love my condo, too,” she said. She’s fortunate that both places have the one thing she needs most: a fabulous view of the water. “You can’t beat it,” she said of life on the lake. “We saw the sun come up there, and you see the sun go down here.”



Greek Layer Dip

1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup unflavored Greek yogurt
2 tsp. dried dill
¼ tsp. Lawry’s seasoned salt
1 tsp. minced onions
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cucumber peeled and diced
1 container hummus
Feta cheese
Sliced black olives
Tabouli (I buy it in the deli section at Publix.)

Combine first seven ingredients and refrigerate. Spread hummus on bottom of bowl with a spatula. Spread mayonnaise and yogurt mixture on top of hummus. Continue layering the following: Tabouli, diced cucumber, feta cheese and olives. Serve with pita bread.


Greek Meatballs

1 ½ pounds ground beef
1 small red onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
¾ tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. cinnamon powder
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
½ to 1 tsp. red chili flakes
1 bread slice
2 tbsp milk
1 egg
½ cup flour
¼ cup olive oil (if frying)
Tzatziki sauce (I use the kind from the Publix deli.)

Soak bread slice in milk and tear up. Combine all ingredients except oil and flour. Mix well and refrigerate for 1 hour. Grease hands and make round balls, using 2 tbsp of the mixture per meatball. (You can make them any size you want, though.) Dredge meatballs in flour. Fry meatballs in olive oil or bake them at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Serve with Tzatziki sauce.

Snow Biz served on the water

When adults pull their boats up to one of Snobiz Shaved Ice’s floating vessels, they act like they are just buying for their kids. It doesn’t  take long, however, for them to order some for themselves.

“They see how good they look and taste their kids’ cones, and they get one, too,” says Matt Kronen, co-owner of Snobiz. “Everybody likes a treat on a hot day.”

Kronen and his business partner, Tarang Gandhakwla, started selling shaved ice or snow cones on Logan Martin Lake four years ago. Their “fleet” consists of two boats. For one, Kronen took an old pontoon boat, tore it down to its frame and rebuilt it. They purchased an existing snow cone boat that had been used on Lake Martin already. One of their boats is yellow and is anchored at the mouth of Clear Creek on the main channel. The orange boat travels between Pirate Island and the park at the Logan Martin Dam. In addition, the partners sell shaved ices out of their newest venture (this one, on land), Piece of the Pie, a pizza parlor at their Coosa Island Marina.

“The yellow boat also carries boiled peanuts, hot dogs, ice cream and canned soft drinks,” Kronen says.

He says their shaved ice business grows a little more each year, which is one reason they expanded into the pizza operation. “We have a ton of loyal shaved ice customers who have been really good to us,” he says.

People hold onto their own boats as they reach for the cones, then pull away to eat them. (No boarding of the snow cone vessels is allowed.) Generators power the freezers that keep the ice frozen. Flavors include banana, birthday cake, blue raspberry, peach, piña colada, watermelon and tiger’s blood. The latter is a popular branded flavor that combines strawberry and coconut. Cones come in just one size. “We had several sizes to begin with, but we learned it was best to keep it simple,” Kronen says. It’s not unusual, he adds, to sell one snow cone with two or three spoons.

People used to be surprised to see the shaved ice watercraft, but now if they come out and don’t see them, Kronen starts getting phone calls. “We’re the only floating shaved ice business on the lake,” he says. “We were the only shaved ice around here at all until recently, and we’re still the only ones physically on the water.”

Folks can get lake necessities, snacks and drinks at Kronen’s Coosa Island Marina, which also features boat self-storage and valet storage. “Really, we’ll put their boats in the water and take them out,” Kronen says. They lease pontoon boats, and Kronen vows they are the only place on Logan Martin that do personal watercraft rentals.

“We’ve had a bunch of people who have posted photos on our Facebook page of their kids enjoying the cones,” Kronen says.

Snobiz is open only on Saturdays and Sundays, plus Mondays on holiday weekends, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, from11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

So, what’s the next venture for this business partnership?

“Who knows?” Kronen says. “But I’ll tell you this: We’re always looking for help. It’s way harder to find help for this type of business than you would think.”