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Photo by Jon Anderson
Ashley and Andy McMakin, the founder and president of Ashley Mac's Kitchen, stand in the dining room of their new location in the Knox Square community in Hoover, Alabama, on the restaurant's opening day on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Ashley Mac's Kitchen opened its fifth location in the Knox Square community in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Employees of the new Ashley Mac's Kitchen location in the Knox Square community in Hoover, Alabama, serve a customer on the restaurant's opening day on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Customers eat lunch in the dining room of their new location of Ashley Mac's Kitchen in the Knox Square community in Hoover, Alabama, on the restaurant's opening day on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Chasity Ferguson makes a grilled chicken club sandwich at the new location of Ashley Mac's Kitchen in the Knox Square community in Hoover, Alabama, on the restaurant's opening day on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Chakera Rutledge passes food from the kitchen to the serving area of the new location of Ashley Mac's Kitchen in the Knox Square community in Hoover, Alabama, on the restaurant's opening day on Thursday, July 10, 2025.
Ashley Mac’s Kitchen opened the doors on its newest location in Hoover Thursday, launching its fifth restaurant in the new Knox Square commercial sector in Trace Crossings.
A ribbon cutting and grand opening for the 3,500-square-foot restaurant is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, followed by lunch service, which begins at 10:30 a.m.
Founder and Executive Chef Ashley McMakin and her husband, Andy (who is the company’s president) said people in western Hoover for years have been asking for an Ashley Mac’s Kitchen closer to where they live.
There already is an Ashley Mac’s in Riverchase and another in the Inverness area, but there are so many new homes being built in western Hoover that it made a lot of sense to put another one in that part of town, they said.
Plus, the McMakins were familiar with all the growth taking place in Trace Crossings and Blackridge because their children frequently have games on the sports fields at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex right across the street from Knox Square. They expect to pick up a lot of business from visitors to the Hoover Met Complex, they said.
They also have frequented the restaurants at the nearby Stadium Trace Village and seen the success of the restaurants there, they said.
Ashley Mac’s also has restaurants in Homewood and Cahaba Heights.
This is the first one they’ve built from the ground up, Andy McMakin said. It’s also the first one to go into a newer community, so it will be interesting to see the customer mix, he said. They already have met numerous people who are new to the Birmingham area and moved into nearby homes, they said.
The company shifted a few seasoned leaders to the new location in Knox Square and hired more than a dozen new team members, growing its overall workforce from 70 employees to more than 90, Andy McMakin said.
“That expansion strengthens every cafe in our family while deepening our investment in the greater Birmingham market we’ve called home since 2007,” he said.
The general manager for the Knox Square location is Megan Waters.
The new restaurant includes both indoor and outdoor seating, as well as “The Market,” which features retail coolers and freezers stocked with Ashley Mac’s signature chicken sald, pimento cheese, sweets, take-and-bake casseroles, sides and soups.
Diners can expect the same fast-casual atmosphere and menu that is at other Ashley Mac’s Kitchen locations, including strawberry cake, baby bleu salad, poppyseed chicken casserole and rotating seasonal dishes.
“Every dish on our menu still starts in my home kitchen before it reaches the cafe,” Ashley McMakin said. “That commitment to from-scratch Southern cooking is what sets us apart, and I'm proud to bring it to Hoover.”
The public is invited to the ribbon cutting at 5840 Elsie Road. While the ribbon cutting is at 10 a.m. Friday, regular restaurant hours are 10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays.
The restaurant can be reached at 205-360-0221, or find more information online at ashleymacs.com.
