Copyright AL.com
Military and cooking are both in La’Berrick Williams’ blood. His grandfather, Ever Scruggs, was a cook in World War II while serving in the Army. After the war, Scruggs and wife Jell Scrugfgs had a farm. Decades later, Williams lived there too along with his mom. “We raised livestock such as cows, pigs and goats,” Williams recalls. “And we also grew our own produce. So we had tomatoes, potatoes, corn, watermelon, okra, collard greens, turnip greens, just to name a few.” In 1999, Williams following a standout senior year at Buckhorn High School, where he rushed for 2,181 yards, scored 24 touchdowns and was named MVP of Huntsville Times’ Super All-Metro Team, signed with Army to play football. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL twice in college. But he did get to the thrill of beating Navy his freshman year with Army. “If you haven’t made one of those,” Williams says of Army Navy, “it almost rivals the Alabama-Auburn game.” After graduating from West Point, Williams was commissioned as an Army second lieutenant, stationed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Jackson in South Carolina. In 2017, after his grandma was diagnosed with cancer, so he could be nearby and help with her care, Williams started a barbecue stand, in a building behind the Huntsville home his grandparents had moved from the farm to, off Pulaski Pike. He named the business Jell’s 4 Ever BBQ in honor of his grandparents. Couple years later, the venture morphed into a food truck. Then in 2023, Jell’s 4 Ever BBQ returned to brick-and-mortar, with their location in the shopping center at 2420 Jordan Lane N.W. On a recent Friday lunch, the food I picked up from Jell’s was righteous. Rib plate, three bones, with potato salad and baked beans. Half-chicken plate with five-cheese mac & cheese and creole collard greens. Oh yeah, cornbread muffins, too. “Red Magic” sauce served on the side with ribs is vinegar-based, viscous and zingy. Of those creole collards, Williams says, “We put a little bit more meats and more vegetables in and give a New Orleans spin on them.” The “Rocket City White” served with chicken is a play on North Alabama’s signature sauce with the twang turned up a smidge. Complete menu, more info and updates on Jell’s 4 Ever BBQ’s Facebook page. This is family cooking in commercially available form. Collard greens and beans at Jell’s 4 Ever are made from Williams’ grandma’s recipes, from meals she’d make back on the farm. Meanwhile, Williams’ mom makes the restaurant’s mac & cheese. “I can’t even name the five cheeses she puts in there,” he says with a shrug. His mom also often works the register and phone at Jell’s, where orders are often takeout. A cousin sometimes helps too. In the kitchen, Williams cooks Jell’s pork, chicken and brisket over a mix of charcoal briquettes and hickory wood. For now, Jell’s is only open 11 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, as Williams is also a program manager at Boeing. “It’s hard to be on the grill and cook while you got a full-time job,” he says. Eventually, he hopes to hire another pit master so the restaurant can be open more during the week. Jell’s 4 Ever’s catering has given Williams opportunities to cook for music stars like Snoop Dogg, Patti LaBelle, Kenny G and Gap Band singer Charlie Wilson, at venues like Huntsville’s Von Braun Center and the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. Williams says he uses lessons learned in the military with his business now. “When you’re in the Army, it’s all about service. And so that’s what I feel like I’m doing when I get on the grill. Our food is what we’re doing a service for people, making it where they don’t have to get in the kitchen. Cooking everything and just saving them time and everything. So again, it’s just a service to people.” Below are four more Huntsville-area, veteran-owned restaurants I love: Earth and Stone Wood Fired Pizza Campus No. 805, 2600 Clinton Ave. W., earthandstonepizza.com Stan Stinson has lived a few lives. Before co-owning/operating Earth and Stone Wood Fired Pizza with Tina Ford, he worked in advertising and for an electronics company. Before all that though, Stinson served in the Army. Earth and Stone started as a food truck in 2013. A couple years later, they evolved to brick-and-mortar, with a location embedded inside Yellowhammer Brewing at Campus. No. 805. In 2023 and 2024, Earth and Stone was featured in AL.com’s Huntsville’s Best Pizza lists. Their Greene Street signature pizza is a must-do. It’s a satisfying harvest of red sauce, mozz/provolone mix, baby spinach, baby bellas, red bell pepper, red onion and Kalamatas. As I’ve written previously about Earth and Stone: “Their pies strike a rare mix between artisanal and accessible, with everything from pepperoni to roasted sweet potatoes in play. The magic is in the crust though. Bendy, crispy, delicately charred and transcendent.” LJ’z Backyard Bayou 3155 Old Railroad Bed Road, Harvest, ljbackyardbayou.com It’s a 30-minute drive from Five Points in Huntsville out to the sticks of Harvest, Alabama. But there’s a reason LJ’z Backyard Bayou has built buzz there. Larry “LJ” Johnson cooks Creole and Cajun recipes he grew up eating in Franklin, La., west of New Orleans near Lafayette. Front of house, Larry’s wife Wendy Johnson welcomes customers like they’re guests at a potluck. “We say, nothing too fancy but the flavor,” Larry told me in 2024. “That’s kind of our motto. We’re not giving you anything fancy. But once you taste the flavor, you’ll understand that a lot of love is put in that. You won’t feel cheated.” An Army veteran, Larry retired out of Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal after 21 years of service. He and Wendy were looking for their next move. Cooking had been a longtime hobby for Larry. As he put it in our 2024 interview, “I was the guy that would bring some gumbo and smell up the place.” LJ’z Backyard Bayou serves the crawfish, po-boys, etouffee, etc., you’d expect. Specialty of the house? Their boudin balls, savory spheres of ground pork, vegetables and spices stuffed with pepper jack cheese and deep-fried. Their “Catfish Bayou” entrée, aka catfish Atchafalaya, is crawfish-etouffee-smothered fried-fish over rice. Uh huh. As a former New Orleans resident, I can say the red beans and rice are right. JJ’s BBQ+ 446 Bass Circle, jjsbbqplus.com Our “Huntsville restaurants we love that opened in 2024 list” described JJ’s BBQ+’s Janis Hatcher as “a food force of nature.” Seven or so years ago, she opened popular bakery JJ’s Treats in the Lincoln Mill area. Last spring, Hatcher, who served 27 years in the Army as a logistics officer, launched JJ’s BBQ+ next door to her bakery. Hatcher has also operated a mobile snow-cone biz. There’s a reason for the plus sign in JJ’s BBQ+’s name. Besides pulled pork, ribs and excellent smoked chicken, depending on the day, the eatery serves everything from subs and meatloaf to lasagna and fajitas to stuffed turkey legs. WW Brookins Smoken On The Go 1108 Andrew Jackson Way, facebook.com/goodhickorysmokedmeat Located inside a Five Points thrift store, Shirley’s Treasures, WW Brookins Smoken On The Go was founded by Walter Brookins. A retired Army sergeant, Walter ”loved cooking outside," his wife Susie told me in 2020. “He’d let me cook inside during the wintertime, but when the springtime comes, that was his.” Walter designed a smokehouse that he had built outside the family’s Northwest Huntsville residence. In the aughts, he, Susie and daughter Wa’Lisa started catering barbecue. Back when he was a young Army recruit, Brookins first met Susie by chance at the Greyhound bus station in Nashville. They married six months later. The couple were together 42 years, up until Walter died in 2016. In early 2020, Susie and Wa’Lisa evolved Smoken On The Go into a restaurant. Ribs and chicken wings are among the best-sellers. The mac & cheese, pot salad and banana pudding rock, too. Back in ’20, I asked Susie what Walter would think of the business he started in their backyard now. “He would be grinning from ear to ear,” she said. " That is what he worked so hard on and to see it complete and functioning, he would be so excited."
