Golden Rule BBQ

The Strip*

At a time when the entertainment industry and downtown businesses alike peer nervously at the bottom line, some places on The Strip along 20th Street South have to turn customers away.

Even on weeknights the streets and parking lots are often jammed with cars as patrons stroll between restaurants and clubs. Said one of the district's backers. "If the recession has hurt it, it's been hard to tell."

To Michael Matsos, a longtime hotel and restaurant developer, The Strip's success rests on more than a location and varied activities. "You can have all these things but if you don't have good management and the first economic term you learn when you go to school - 'value received' - then you have nothing."

Fifteen years ago Matsos opened Michael's Restaurant at Fifth Avenue and 20th Street South. "It was garage originally. Where the parking lot is used to be the washing place Drennan Motor Co.," he said.

"I could see a tremendous growth pattern coming south 20th Street," and he was familiar with UAB's master plan which guided the development of what is now the county's largest employer and magnet for upper-middle-class professionals.

Matsos had obtained a lease for the entire building, which runs from Fifth Avenue to a cobblestone alley at mid-block.

Matsos had developedhotels in Huntsville and Bessemer and would later help develope the Birmingham Hyatt. "The important thing was getting the hotel across the street. That was the key because that created your evening traffic."

Weeknight business runs heacily to hotel guests and local people entertaining out-of towners. Weekend groups include more famalies and young couples. Rgardless of the source of the business, The Strip stays lined with cars and it's sidewalks sprinkled with people whose smiles and cut of clothes say they have money to spend and they're out for the night.

*This story was taken from The Birmingham News article on 4/7/82, "The Strip - It's Painting the Town Red While Other Districts Sing Blues", by Mitch Mendelson