About 10 years ago, when Jot ‘Em Down Country Store and BBQ first opened in the historic site of Williams Grocery, it was in a building just past where Barnett Shoals hangs a left and Whitehall Road starts, on the Eastside. It was a place with modest ambitions at that time, focusing on a small menu, doing a cash-only business and selling a few snacks like Moon Pies. It moved out to Highway 441, then closed, and Sisters Creole Market occupied the Whitehall building for a while.
It, too, went by the wayside, and Rooter’s Grocery and Barbecue (706-207-ROOT) has moved in, open as of yesterday. Walking in the door will give you some serious deja vu if you ever patronized Jot ‘Em Down. The counter is still at the back of the space, where Sisters moved it, but the menu is very similar, even including cabbage casserole, and the shelves again house various nostalgia-invoking eats.
It turns out that at least one of the folks responsible for Rooter’s was involved with Jot ‘Em Down, which is good news at least insofar as it means the mustard BBQ sauce that was tasty enough to drink is back on the market. The menu includes pork, chicken and ribs, rotating specials including fish and quail, potato casserole, cabbage casserole, baked beans, slaw and “bundrick” stew, which one of the owners says is “a family recipe for Brunswick stew.”
Hours are Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday for lunch, and the store will take credit cards as soon as merchant services gets out there to set up the machine. They’ll do catering, but cue is take-out only, per zoning restrictions on the building.
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