Rusty’s Bar-B-Q Awarded Best Mom & Pop Bar-B-Q in State of Alabama

 

On Monday, September 21, the Alabama Tourism Department held an awards ceremony at Historic Sloss Furnaces for the winners of its Alabama Barbecue Battle.

The online competition, held the entire month of August, divided nominees by category. Rusty’s found out it won its category, “The Mom N’ Pops” on September 1.

While Rusty’s has always been classified as a “Mom N’ Pop” establishment (one location, family owned and operated), Beth and Rusty actually became a “Mom” and a “Pop” in April with the birth of their son, Thomas.

The media loved this, and included all three Tuckers in their photos and video of the event. Here is Thomas in his television debut from Birmingham’s WIAT (CBS 42), and an interview with his dad.

WVTM TV (NBC 13) also had coverage here. And WBRC (Fox 6) covered it here and it was reposted here. Although it was a statewide competition, four out of the five winners were from the Birmingham area, which includes Leeds. Leeds can also be counted as the St. Clair area, and the St. Clair News-Aegis also reported on the competition.

You can see more about all the winners in the al.com article here. The Quad Cities Daily mentions Rusty’s victory over Cullman’s Johnny’s BBQ here. The Bear Country (95.3) from Tuscaloosa mentioned the story as well.

We also appreciate the mentions by the Montgomery Advertiser, Birmingham Business Journal, KEYC, and Yellowhammer News.

We are so honored to have been chosen in this competition, as the nominations were formed by the fans responses to an Alabama Food Facebook post as part of the Year of Alabama Barbecue. Fans gave us more than 28,000 clicks in August, which is quite the feat. We thank each friend, family member, and customer near and far for taking the time to participate.

In fact, our favorite part of all of this is we had so much participation from our customers. The critics can say anything they’d like, but if the customers don’t like the food, they won’t be back. Thank you for liking us, not only online but in real life, every day.

Come in to the restaurant to see our plaque! It’s beautiful, and features the fantastic Year of Alabama Barbecue logo, showing the State of Alabama as part of a pig.