A famous restaurant in Alabama, known for its Southern food, will be closing in early July.
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It’s never good news when a beloved restaurant announces that it will be closing its doors, but this story has a heart-warming, yet bittersweet ending.
Red’s Little Schoolhouse Restaurant in Grady announced earlier this week that it will be closing up shop on July 3, 2022. However, the reason for the closure probably isn’t what you think.
While many Alabama restaurants have closed recently due to food price increases, worker shortages, and inflated rent costs, the owners of Red’s Little Schoolhouse Restaurant are closing for a different reason — to spend more time with family.
Red Deese opened the restaurant in 1985 out of a one-room schoolhouse, formerly the Hills Chapel Community School. Over the years, Deese added two additional dining rooms so that the growing restaurant could serve more people.
Deese ran the restaurant with his daughter Debbie, who, in recent years, has taken on most of the operational responsibilities for the eatery.
The restaurant featured entrees made from fresh, locally grown vegetables, homemade pies, and Southern-style fried chicken.
According to reports, the restaurant was so popular that it attracted celebrities like Hank Williams Jr. and Whoopi Goldberg.
However, in a recent Facebook post on the business’s page, Debbie Deese explained that her aging father’s health is declining. As a result, she recently started to fear that she may not have much time to spend with him.
Therefore, Deese said she made the difficult decision to close the restaurant so that she could spend as many days with her dad as possible instead of focusing all of her time on running the business.
The community will undoubtedly miss eating at Red’s Little Schoolhouse, but the reason for the closure is certainly an understandable and noble one. We wish the Deese’s all the best.
