photo by Laura Johnson

In Disguise: Lauren Tidwell, Taylor Carpenter, and Jordan Ratcliff thumb through Alabama gear. The girls, all from north Alabama, were Alabama fans in disguise. They dressed as Auburn fans to avoid hecklers in the student section where their seats were located..

It's all for the fans

Local restaurants, retailers feel the effects of Iron Bowl game day

By Laura Johnson | Alex City Outlook

Published Friday, November 27, 2009

While fans were pitching tents and releasing tailgates for pre-game festivities on the Auburn plains, restaurant owners in Alexander City were firing up their grills to prepare for homegrown Iron Bowl get-togethers.

“It’s usually a blow-out all day long,” said Ann Berry, owner of J.R.’s Sports Bar and Grill.

Berry and her crew began getting ready for the game early in the morning. By 9 a.m. they were already cooking piles of wings to prepare for what they hoped would be a big crowd.

“You never know with it being the day after Thanksgiving how things are going to go,” Berry said. “I hope it’s going to be like it usually is.”

On U.S. 280 the employees at Ruby Tuesday were also gearing up for the big game. They unveiled three new flat-screen TVs Friday so people could watch the game in high definition from all corners of the restaurant.

“We’re just making sure we have a good set up for the Iron Bowl,” manager Chris Childers said prior to opening Friday.

It was not his first Iron Bowl game as a restaurant manager. Childers, a Reeltown native, used to work at the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Auburn where he worked on Iron Bowl game days in the past.

“During one Iron Bowl a huge crowd came in our bar and it was absolutely full of loud rowdy fans,” Childers said. “Everybody played nice, but it was a lively crowd.”

As someone in the restaurant business, he said he gets to see an interesting side of the state’s football fans on the Iron Bowl.

“This is probably the biggest game in the state and people love it,” Childers said. “You can’t beat it.”

A few doors down, fans were flooding the Huddle House. They began streaming into the restaurant in the early morning hours.

Huddle House manager Legina Watson said that the Auburn fans were outnumbering the Alabama fans, but only slightly. Watson added that fans for both teams seemed to be particularly perky Friday morning despite sports reports that indicated Alabama would drown the Tigers on the field.

“Everybody has been in a good mood,” Watson said. “I’ve waited on several Auburn fans today and they’re really not even stressed and the Alabama fans seem pretty confident.”

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