"Barnyard Buffet" was started by Nancy Nelson in Saraland, Alabama in April 2005.
Nancy grew up serving tables and bartending at The Fox Hunt in Mobile, Alabama. Skipper Nelson was a regular at The Fox Hunt, and he fell in love with the bartender. Nancy and Skipper got married and opened Sweet Peppers' Pizza & Pasta in Perdido Key, Florida in 1986 with the help of Nancy's parents, Joe and Kitty. Skipper and Nancy had one son named JJ. Little JJ grew up playing with coloring books in the corner booth at Sweet Peppers' while the servers brought him plates of pickles and black olives. Papa Joe bought JJ a hat that said "The Boss," and little JJ took it very seriously. Sweet Peppers' did well for over a decade, but Nancy and Skipper closed it in 1999 when a hurricane ripped the roof off their building and insurance denied their claim. Skipper became a food salesman for Sysco and later Performance and Merchants'. Nancy became a manager at Quincy's Steakhouse in Daphne, AL.
Nancy was promoted to General Manager and then District Manager for Quincy's Steakhouse. As District Manager, she met an Assistant G.M. at their Moffett Road location named Eleanor Rudder. Ms. Eleanor had been with Quincy's since 1989, and she had a reputation for being the toughest manager in the company. She was the store opener and arrived before sunrise every morning to prepare the yeast rolls from scratch. Nancy also got to know several employees at various Quincy's stores including Chef Deloris, Darla, Barbara, Cleo, and Laurie. Quincy's was bought by Western Sizzlin', who in turn was bought by County Fair Buffet and then Barnhill's Buffet. Nancy, Ms. Eleanor, Chef Deloris, Amino, Ashley, Darla, Barbara, Cleo, and Laurie all remained with the company throughout.
In 2005, Nancy was gifted what was left of Barnhill's. She changed one syllable of the name to retain customer recognition and keep things simple. She hated traveling and only wanted to focus on one store, so she closed all of the locations except for the most profitable one in Saraland. She fired all food distributors and replaced them with her ex-husband, Skipper. He made sure she always had the most competitive pricing, and she made sure he had some of the highest sales in his company. Then she recruited the best of the best employees from each store, including those mentioned above and Teresa, Val, Sandy, and Karen McDonald. They hired a cook named Chef Eugene (who fell in love with Chef Deloris and is still with her to this day). They hired a Hot Bar Runner named Alicson, some servers named Ramona, Karen King, and Madilyn, and a teenaged high school girl named Erica to run the Salad & Dessert bars.
Things went really well until their landlord suddenly sold the building. The new owner wanted to open a Chinese buffet and gave Nancy a 30-day eviction notice. With nowhere to go and insufficient capital to buy or develop property, Nancy told the staff that the business would probably be closing. The next day, Ms. Eleanor brought Nancy her life's savings and told her to keep Barnyard open. Word got around to some of the regular customers, and some of them also brought Nancy thousands of dollars. "Save Barnyard," they told her. Nancy still had no location in mind until a customer introduced her to Mr. Harrison and Mr. Bell from Gulf Dirt, Inc. They offered her a lease on an old auto parts store across the street and very generously agreed to remodel the structure into a restaurant as part of the lease agreement. Gulf Dirt renovated the building in 30 days while Nancy, Ms. Eleanor, Teresa, and Renee frantically moved furniture and equipment across the street and set it all up. Business was so good that Nancy fully repaid Ms. Eleanor and the customers their loans plus 10% interest within one year. Barnyard Buffet has remained in its current location since June 2007.
Nancy got remarried to a chef named Lee Catalfamo, who worked at Barnyard for several years. They enjoyed another 12 solid years of business success until they retired in 2019 to let JJ take over. They built a house in the woods, where they take care of Nancy's mom, Kitty, who turned 100 on October 25th, 2024. Nancy's main goal in life is to spend as much time as possible with her grandsons, Wilder and James.
Eleanor retired as Assistant G.M. and store opener in December 2021 at the age of 86. She passed away in June of 2023, and her Celebration of Life was held at Barnyard with her daughter, Beverly, her grandchildren, Rowan and Vivian, and her siblings, Michael and Rosemary, as special guests.
Sandy, Teresa, and Chef Eugene have all retired now. Val, Karen McDonald, Ramona, Karen King, and Ashley have all passed on, and they're all loved and missed. But if you come to Barnyard Buffet today in 2025 (20 years since our founding), the food is still prepared by Chef Deloris. The bars are still kept full, clean, and fresh by Ms. Alicson. You'll still get top-notch service from Ms. Darla, Ms. Cleo, Ms. Amino, Ms. Madilyn, and Ms. Laurie. And little Ms. Erica grew up to run the show as the General Manager and Operating Partner.
Chef JJ Nelson is an only child from Mobile, AL. He graduated from Bayside Academy in Daphne, AL, where he served as a football team captain and president of his class. He then attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD for 2 years and trained in aviation, amphibious assault, surface warfare, and submarine warfare. He was stationed everywhere from New York to Jacksonville to San Diego. He left the military after a couple of years because it didn't make him happy.
After the Navy, JJ began working in the hospitality industry. He joined Baumhower's Victory Grille (Daphne) as a server and expo in 2010. There he was promoted to Team Leader. In 2011, he moved to Auburn, AL to finish college and worked 3 jobs while he was in school. He helped open 2 new restaurants as a server/bartender: Baumhower's Victory Grille (Auburn) and The Hound. He also became a cook at Moe's Original BBQ, where he rose to Kitchen Manager in his 6 years with the company. JJ graduated from Auburn University with a degree in Creative Writing.
JJ met his wife, Mariah, in Auburn. They hit it off because she was a Hospitality Management major, and her father also owned a fried chicken restaurant called "The Pecking Order" in Sanibel, FL. JJ and Mariah welcomed their 1st son, Wilder, in February 2017 and moved home to take over the family business. JJ became a Manager at Barnyard Buffet in 2017, became General Manager in 2018, and became the Managing Partner at the beginning of 2022. JJ and Mariah also welcomed a 2nd son, James, in February 2022. JJ became the full owner of Barnyard Buffet at the start of 2023. He changed the name to "Nelson's" at the beginning of 2024 to honor his mother and father, who taught him about business and instilled in him a passion for feeding, pleasing, and serving others.
In January 2020, the rug got pulled out from under us when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. NOBODY wanted to eat at buffets anymore, and our booming business with 40 employees died overnight. We had to adapt and do so quickly. We rearranged our buffet bars into a single file line, put a giant plexiglass wall across the front, and turned into Barnyard Cafeteria as quickly as we could. Some of our business returned, but we still had to endure terrible layoffs and pay cuts to remain afloat. Mr. Harrison and Mr. Bell let Barnyard get behind on rent for 6 months and never said a word. They even put in a drive-thru window to help us bring in new business. Nancy and JJ had to stop taking salaries for months while JJ worked as the General Manager, Opening Manager, and lunch Fry Cook at the same time. Twice our bank balance got so low that we couldn't pay for food, and both times our prayers were answered at the last possible minute by federal aid in the form of the Paycheck Protection Program. In Spring 2021, COVID vaccines came out, and business finally started to bounce back. The coast was finally clear for us to be Barnyard Buffet again. We caught up on rent and got free and clear of our pandemic debt.
JJ's main goal has been to modernize, rebrand, and improve visibility in order to drive sales. He's also completely redesigned the menu to improve quality, consistency, and profitability. Mariah designed a website and set up social media accounts, and JJ began doing interviews and making appearances on AL.com, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CNN to promote the business. Along the way, he started teaching people to cook live on Studio Ten thanks to his generous partners at Buffalo Rock and Ben E. Keith.
Thankfully, JJ has managed to do a few things right. For one thing, he's hired, promoted, and trained the next generation of our special staff. Newer faces like Tiffany, Daniel, Tammy, Genny (Darla's daughter), Toy (Darla's son-in-law), Summer, Sarah (Erica's stepmom), Debbie, Stephanie, James, Karson, Lexi (Tiffany's daughter), Lacey (Summer's daughter), Tyler (JJ's childhood friend), Emily (Stephanie's daughter-in-law), Cristi, Flossie, Vanessa, and Priscilla are now fixtures of our work family.
JJ spent 2 weeks remodeling the dining room (with lots of help from Felicity and others) in January 2022, including a new paint scheme and new flooring. In 2023, we replaced most of our kitchen equipment with brand new pieces. In 2024, inflation has slowed our progress somewhat, but we are looking forward to getting back on track in 2025 and maybe renovating our bathrooms or working on our sign and curb appeal. The plan is to continue reinvesting most of our profits into the business until everything is modernized, and then we want to expand to a second location.
Over the past few years, we've been selected as "The Best Buffet in Alabama" by iHeartRadio and other publications and "Alabama's Best Fried Chicken" by AL.com. We've also been nominated for 10 Nappie Awards, including "Best Takeout," which we were lucky enough to win. We were nominated for "Best Soul Food," "Best Overall Service," "Best Server (Barbara/Cleo)," and "Last Meal on Earth: Whole Catfish." We are doing everything we can to deliver the best food and service we know how on a consistent basis so we can maintain this reputation.
In 2022, after we had recovered from COVID, JJ stepped back for a couple of years to help Mariah raise baby James. He also started appearing regularly on Studio 10. Thankfully, JJ finally found people he could trust to manage the day-to-day operation of the store and make this possible:
Ms. Erica Janes was one of those high school girls that Nancy hired when she opened the business in 2005. Erica now has a young daughter named Leanna. Erica was a salad bar runner and cashier until JJ promoted her to Manager, then Assistant General Manager. In January 2022, Erica had proven her love for the business so much that JJ made her an Operating Partner and gave her a 3% profit share. At the start of 2023, Erica became the General Manager. In addition to overseeing all employees and managers, Erica is also in charge of inventory, ordering, payroll, and scheduling. She is brilliant and resourceful, and our store is always in loving hands thanks to her.
Chef Toy Scott came to us in 2021 from J. Rodgers BBQ. From the moment he set foot in the building, he elevated our kitchen to the next level. He's the hardest-working person in the building. He takes so much pride in his work that he refuses to put his name on anything that's not great. He insists on prepping all the food himself because he wants it done to his standards. He keeps the place clean without being asked because he sees it as his kitchen, and he can't let his kitchen be dirty. At the start of 2024, it became his kitchen officially when JJ made him an Operating Partner and gave him a 1% profit share.
These days, JJ's son, Wilder, likes to sit at the booth in the corner, color his coloring books, and eat plates full of pickles and black olives. He calls himself "The Boss" because Nancy thinks it's hilarious, and he's teaching all that sass to his little brother, James.