Fried Green Tomatoes At The Irondale Cafe

A few years ago, a Sunday school teacher asked his students in the 5-year-olds class, “Where do you go if you’re good little girls and boys?” The preacher’s son enthusiastically offered an unorthodox answer: “The Irondale Café.”

It’s a story Mary Jo McMichael loves to tell about the restaurant that she and her husband, Bill, ran from 1973 until 2000. Although the fried chicken, creamed corn, and butter beans are indeed heavenly, nothing receives greater attention than its fried green tomatoes.

That’s because the great-niece of Bess Fortenberry, the café’s former owner, is nationally known author Fannie Flagg. Even as a child, Flagg was smitten with the small but bustling restaurant in Irondale, Ala., (pop. 9,813) and fictionalized the setting for her 1987 novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café. If the book didn’t provide enough endorsement, the 1992 movie adaptation starring Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy made the tiny café internationally famous.

“Whenever Miss Flagg was in town, she would always mention the Irondale Café (in press interviews) and often eat here,” McMichael recalls. It was the kind of word-of-mouth endorsement money couldn’t buy.

Although the café has gained international fame, its beginnings were humble. Founded in 1927 as a hot dog stand, it was a stone’s throw from the railroad tracks. In those days, Irondale was reaping the benefits of its location between the freight yards of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad and the Georgia Pacific Co.

In 1932, Fortenberry took ownership of the restaurant and added to its menu. The café came into its own when she teamed with her friend, Sue Lovelace, and a wonderful cook named Lizzie Cunningham to offer a host of home-style favorites. Soon, hungry patrons were lined up out the door for their simple Southern cooking. “To go” orders were encouraged because the two dining rooms seated fewer than 50 customers.

When failing health caused Fortenberry to sell her business in 1972, she interviewed two prospective buyers to continue the Irondale Café’s legacy. After what seemed more like an interrogation, McMichael recalls, “I went home and prayed that she would sell it to the other couple because I didn’t know anything about running a business.” A few days later, Fortenberry informed the McMichaels that they had been chosen. They continued the café’s traditional favorites while adding their own touches to the menu.

The deterioration of the first structure necessitated a new home, so they rebuilt on the property in 1980 and later annexed the hardware store next door, eventually expanding to 260 seats.

McMichael began to understand the impact of the movie soon after its debut, when three women begged to enter after the restaurant had closed one Friday afternoon. “They wanted to at least be able to say that they had come into the Original Whistlestop Café. And I was absolutely floored. We didn’t have any national publicity, so I don’t know how people found out about us, but they did,” she says, still amazed.

“They started coming in droves. Tour groups would call us. Buses would come by,” she adds, noting that their guest book includes visitors from every state and 30 countries. “One night I mistakenly booked five buses, and we almost died.”

Current owner Jim Dolan remains true to Fortenberry’s original vision by offering an array of home-cooked favorites, including 500 pounds of green tomatoes a week. “Just this past week we had people from Australia and England,” he says. “We also had a lady from Indiana come through with her sheepdog, whose registered name is Fried Green Tomatoes.”

Although the McMichaels have retired from the restaurant business, they now market Irondale Café Original Whistlestop Recipes, a collection of batters for tomatoes, cobblers, fried chicken, and other Southern delicacies. All are created and packaged just down the street from the café and distributed to a network of produce markets, groceries, and meat shops in 32 states.

Their hometown isn’t exactly known as a railroad center anymore, but people still make tracks to Irondale.

Frequent contributor Michael Nolan likes his fried green tomatoes with a hefty sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

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