Good Eats

Folks pack in for breakfast at Busy Bee on the way to work or on the way to a fun Saturday.

Good Eats

Story by David Meyers Photos by David Moore

You know you’re in for something good when you slide into a booth in a diner, but you usually don’t get a history lesson to chew on with your lunch.

I promised my hard-working wife, Rose, I’d treat her if she’d skip out of work early on a Friday for a visit to Cullman. I’d heard about a diner there that has managed to keep its doors open for more than 100 years while other restaurants are folding faster than a cheap napkin.

When Busy Bee Café opened in 1919 the owners came across a recipe from Corinth, Mississippi, for “slugburgers,” where ground meat is mixed with white bread, shaped into patties and then fried. Likely inspired by large families trying to stretch Great Depression-era meat dollars, diners in the South adopted the technique. Back then, a burger sold for a nickel, which was nicknamed a “slug.”

Busy Bee still proudly serves the original burgers – along with a handful of other diners across North Alabama.

“It’s what makes us different,” says owner Stevie Douglas. “You can go anywhere in Cullman and they’re all serving the same thing.”

Well, I knew right then that I would be having a slugburger for lunch.

The original is simply dressed with a mixture of ketchup and mustard with diced onion on top. The cheeseburger is a tad fancier with mayo, lettuce tomato, pickle and cheese.

When I bit into the original burger, my mind whizzed back about 50 years because that is exactly how my mom made her patties. She always added a little white bread to the meat. It was just like sitting at her table in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, again.

A sampler tray of sides brought me back to reality. I love fried green tomatoes and these crispy treats were not disappointing. The crispy fried dill pickles were hard to leave alone, especially dipped into a cup of fresh-made ranch dressing.

The star of the appetizer show was the homemade chips, served warm and crunchy. They made a delightful accompaniment to our burgers.

Breakfast is a big deal here, served 6-11 a.m. Busy Bee is one of the few places in Cullman that serves a big breakfast that includes platters of eggs with your choice of pork, grits, gravy, toast or biscuit. Also tempting are the omelets, breakfast sandwiches, biscuits and pancakes.

“Customers are lined up outside before we open the doors,” Stevie says. “They gather outside and mingle.”

Stevie is the third generation of her family to run the Busy Bee. The original

Busy Bee has fed Cullman for 102 years – diner style

Clockwise from top left are the burger with fried pickles; grilled chicken Greek salad; classic cheeseburger; and a ribeye sandwich. Busy Bee is located at 101 5th Street SE in Cullman. It’s open 6 a.m. -3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday.

Continued from page 48 was located on old 278 east and moved to town in the early 1960s. Her grandfather bought it after moving from Wyoming.

Her parents, Steve and Kitty Spears, took over the restaurant in 1989, and she stepped up in 2015.

The tornado of 2011 destroyed the Busy Bee, but you can’t keep a good diner down. It re-opened one year to the day afterward, which was Stevie’s dad’s last day in the place. He passed away soon after, knowing the family business was in good hands.

The Alabama Senate issued a resolution on April 25, 2019, congratulating Busy Bee on its 100th anniversary. A picture on the wall shows Kitty proudly accepting a framed copy of the resolution.

A page from the April 13, 1989, edition of The Cullman Times documents the turnover of the restaurant from owner Andy Spears to his son Steve, who declared its longstanding traditions would continue.

And so they have with daughter Stevie.

“There’s a lot of history here,” she says, beaming.

The burger and fries left us fat and happy, but with no room to sample the rest of the tempting menu. For those hungry for something other than a burger, try the Eric – grilled chicken topped with fried jalapenos blanketed in melted cheese between grilled Texas toast. Stevie warns it packs some heat.

Or the ribeye sandwich with a sixounce cut, lettuce and tomato on Texas toast.

Also on the menu are grilled ham, tuna salad, chicken salad, grilled cheese, BBQ, fried bologna, BLT and chicken finger sandwiches, all served in red baskets with checkered liners. Soup and salads round out the offerings.

Dessert? What else, but fried pies?