Photo by Erin Nelson
Tina Liollio stocks the cooler with meals at Teenie’s Take-Home Market Mountain Brook Village.
Tina Liollio’s heritage is a mix of distinct cultures, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“My dad’s family is 100% Greek Orthodox, and my mom’s family is 100% Sicilian,” Liollio said. “My mom is from Birmingham, but my dad’s family immigrated from Greece to Pensacola, and that’s where they met. The first few years of my life, we lived in Pensacola, but in the 1990s, we moved to Birmingham, and it’s been home forever.”
Liollio learned to cook from both sides of her family. Her great-grandmother lived across the street, and every Saturday and Sunday, she would go to her house to watch and help make spaghetti and meatballs and all the Sicilian things she liked to make, Liollio said.
She spent time working for Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Que throughout her early years, but after college, Liollio heard they were starting a new catering program that would launch in the Birmingham area first.
“I started relationship building in the community [for Jim 'n Nick's] and helped manage things like the call center and their first sales force,” Liollio said. “The restaurant business has been in my dad’s family since the 1960s, so I grew up in the restaurant business.”
When she left Jim 'N Nick's, she managed the catering market for the state of Alabama, and she supported out-of-state events for major corporations and nonprofit organizations.
In late 2018, Liollio decided to start her own business that manages events for nonprofits, called Local Link.
“One of the nonprofits that I work for is Jones Valley Teaching Farm,” she said. “They do a lot of work with different schools in Birmingham to show kids what it means to grow your own food. They [recently] opened a center for food education where they teach children things like fractions through interactive cooking and use that as a way to teach and continue their mission.”
In 2020, when events were virtually nonexistent, Liollio used the opportunity to begin cooking for friends and family and delivering meals to those in need. Once things began to get back to normal, she continued doing events, but her meal delivery experience was always in the back of her mind.
“One of the big events that I did was the World Games. When that was over, Jennifer Ryan, who owns BlueRoot and who I met during the event, reached out to me about a space she was considering sub-leasing because she was busy with her location at the Pepper Place Market,” Liollio said.
This conversation happened in October 2022, and the spot for Teenie’s Take-Home Market opened in November 2022.
“It all happened so fast,” she said. “It’s so small. It’s 300 square feet. We cook [our meals] at Jones Valley Teaching School because they have a commercial kitchen, I am one of their employees, and that’s where we are certified by the Jefferson County Health Department,” she said.
Currently, Teenie’s Take-Home Market does not offer catering due to space restrictions, but Liollio hopes to add that as part of the business in the future. Products at the store, including main courses, sides and desserts, must be purchased in person.
“We will always have lasagna and Greek chicken on our menu,” she said. “Those are our staples. We do have weekly specials, and we will rotate different things by season, but we will always have staples available.”
Her mission with Teenie’s Take-Home Market is to incorporate more local, women-owned businesses into the store. They purchase wholesale items from companies like BlueRoot, Dryft Coffee, The Breakup Cookie and NOLA Ice – Broad St. Peaux Boys.
“I plan to incorporate many other local, female-owned businesses into the mix each quarter,” she said. “The goal is to offer variety as well as promote other local female entrepreneurs in the community.”
For more information on Teenie’s Take-Home Market, visit teeniesmarket.com.
