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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Eileen and George McCluney at the soon-to-beopen Farrelly’s Southern Bar and Kitchen, located on Grove Boulevard in Hoover, on Nov. 12.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Fried green tomatoes garnished with chopped squash, zucchini, red onion, and thinly sliced radishes atop a remoulade sauce is one appetizer that will be served at the soon-to-be open Farrelly’s Southern Bar and Kitchen.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Farrelly’s Southern Bar and Kitchen located onGrove Boulevard in Hoover.
When George McCluney opened Beef O’Brady’s at The Grove shopping center in May 2010, he was trying to fill what he thought was a void in the Hoover restaurant market.
Now, he and his wife, Eileen, are trying to do it again — opening a new locally owned, non-chain restaurant that specializes in traditional Southern cuisine. It’s called Farrelly’s Southern Bar & Kitchen, and it’s located in the spot formerly occupied by The Boot at the Grove, just across Grove Boulevard from Beef O’Brady’s.
“What we want to deliver is traditional Southern cuisine, but on an elevated basis,” George said. “We’re taking recipes for what anyone might consider their grandmother’s comfort food, but using slightly different ingredients.”
They offer country fried steak using beef tenderloin, and they’re using wagyu — a high-end beef of Japanese origin — in their meatloaf and hamburgers.
They will also serve Southern style vegetables and have specialties that include fish dishes and a slowly-braised pork shank that comes with cheese grits and collard greens — a dish that George said is “melt-in-your-mouth delicious.”
The McCluneys said they’ve had great success with their Beef O’Brady’s locations in Hoover and Helena, the latter of which opened in April 2017. And now that Eileen has retired from Merck Pharmaceuticals, they’re ready to embark on what Eileen calls their “empty nest project.”
NOT FAST FOOD, NOT A CHAIN
A lot of new restaurants are coming into the Hoover market, but most of them are part of chains, and people constantly complain about not having more locally owned, non-fast food restaurants in Hoover, the McCluneys said. To get that kind of experience, people have to drive to downtown Birmingham, Eileen said. The McCluneys want to bring that experience to Hoover and fill an unmet need.
When they heard The Boot at The Grove was closing at the end of June, they immediately began discussions with the shopping center about the possibility of leasing that building. It’s a beautiful building that the previous occupants had spent a lot of money renovating, so it didn’t need a lot of upgrading, the McCluneys said. One of the biggest changes they’ve made is adding an 8-by-16- foot cooler just outside the bar to keep the beer as cold as possible.
Before the building was converted into The Boot at The Grove, it was a bank. The bank vault is still there and is being used as a wine cellar.
While The Boot at The Grove was a fast casual restaurant, with people ordering at the counter and having food delivered to them, Farrelly’s is a sit-down restaurant with waiters giving full service to customers.
It is designed to be a different atmosphere than Beef O’Brady’s, which is more like a sports bar and restaurant. The idea with Farrelly’s is to provide “not fine dining, but finer dining,” Eileen said.
The restaurant will hold about 150 people, including a private party room that seats 32 to 36 people, patio seating for about 24 people around a fire pit, a seating area in the bar, and another dining area separated from the bar by a double-sided wood-burning fireplace.
COMMUNITY INVESTMENT
George said they have invested about $250,000 into opening the restaurant.
“People don’t realize what a risk it is or how expensive it is,” Eileen said. “Corporate pockets are deeper. It’s easier for a chain to come in here and open a place than it is for a family to say ‘I’m going to invest my life savings in something that statistics are so terrible on.’”
But the McCluneys say they are confident the new restaurant will be successful. They’re not only meeting a void in the market; traffic is strong in the area, and the western part of Hoover is growing with new homes being added in places such as The Preserve, Lake Wilborn and Blackridge, attracting everything from young families to empty-nesters, Eileen said.
Business at Beef O’Brady’s has been excellent, proving that this part of town can support restaurants, George said. His Hoover location has shown growth every year since it opened, making it the only Beef O’Brady’s in the country to do so, Eileen said. George, who had no restaurant experience prior to opening Beef O’Brady’s, was named the company’s Franchisee of the Year last year.
Frank Gratale, the general manager the McCluneys hired to run Farrelly’s, has been in the restaurant business for about 30 years and said it’s highly unusual for someone who has never been in the business to be successful as a first-time owner.
The McCluneys’ familiarity with their customers likely has played a big part in that, he said. When Gratale interviewed for the general manager job, he was impressed with the McCluneys’ interactions with customers.
“They literally knew everybody that walked in the door,” Gratale said. “I was completely floored. Not that many owners are that involved. George is in the restaurant every day. It says a lot.”
Eileen said they’ve lived in Hoover for 31 years and have built a lot of connections in the community and want to invest back into it.
‘QUEEN OF HOSPITALITY’
Some people initially wondered whether they were moving Beef O’Brady’s to The Boot at the Grove location, but they love having Beef O’Brady’s exactly where it is, Eileen said. At the end of August, they closed Beef O’Brady’s for five days for a major renovation, and they recently signed a 10-year extension on that lease.
George said some people have tried to get him to open a Beef O’Brady’s in Tuscaloosa and Auburn, but he thinks the distance would keep him from being as hands-on of an owner as he is. Having Farrelly’s so close to the Hoover Beef O’Brady’s should enable him to respond to any issue that arises at either location.
Gratale will handle day-to-day management issues at Farrelly’s. He just moved from California to Alabaster, his wife’s hometown. In California, Gratale ran two steakhouses called Willard Hicks for the Opa Management Group for 2½ years. Before that, he was the general manager for the Chat American Grill and Chat 19 restaurants in the New York City area.
The McCluneys chose the name Farrelly’s in tribute to Eileen’s mother, who died in 2005. Farrelly was her mother’s maiden name. Her mother came to the United States from Ireland in 1958 at the age of 18. She worked as a server in Manhattan and sent money back home to her family. She worked in the hospitality industry her whole life, retiring as the manager of a restaurant at the Baypoint Marriott in Panama City.
“She was the queen of hospitality,” Eileen said. “This would have been her dream.”