Golden Rule BBQ

Michael's bringing back steaks, adding barbecue

Birmingham News, 12/3/04
Roy L. Williams

A new restaurant opening Monday on U.S. 280 will bear a name with a rich history in Birmingham - Michaels.

Michael Matsos, whose Michael's steakhouse downtown was a favorite of Bear Bryant and others, is teaming with his son and an investment group to open a restaurant in the village at Lee Branch on U.S. 280.

The new eatery - called Michael's Golden Rule Bar-B-Q - features a menu that combines the steaks that made Michael's a destination for 34 years prior to its 1992 closing and the barbecue that has made the Golden chain a Birmingham institution for a century. The Matsos family purchased Golden Rule in the early 1970's.

Michael Matsos said he is surprised the former Michael's Sirloin Steakhouse remains fixed in the minds of area residents 12 years after it closed. "Every day I have people coming up to me saying they can't wait to see Michael's open back up," he said. "I still remember like yesterday how Coach Bryant in his first year in 1958 used to bring his football team to eat at the old Michael's in the Holiday Inn on Bessemer Super Highway when they stayed there. I'm amazed the name has survived as long as it has."

From the day it opened in 1958, Michael's Sirloin Room was one of Birmingham's most popular restaurants. Matsos, who operated his restaurant for the bulk of its 34 years on 20th Street South, played host to many famous sports, political and entertainment notables from Bryant to Yogi Berra and Bob Hope.

His son, Charles Matsos, who serves as chief executive of the Golden Rule chain, said the pending opening of Michael's Golden Rule has rejuvenated his father. "It's like he is starting over at age 83," Charles Matsos said.

Rusty Creel and operating partner Kathy Johnston will own the Michael's Golden Rule under licensing agreement with Charles and Michael Matsos. An Atlanta native and former executive with Mrs. Winner's Chicken, Creel spent 30 years in the restaurant business before moving to Birmingham to get involved with Golden Rule.

Creel said the 6,400-square-foot, $2.5 million restaurant on U.S. 280 will bring back the traditions, the famed sports memorabilia, steer butt steaks that made Michael's popular and merge them with Golden Rule's signature barbecue.

Creel said he plans to expand the Michael's Golden Rule concept across the Southeast, starting with a Michael's and three seperate GoldenRule barbecue locations to be built in the Atlanta area in 2005. Creel's Star 1 Inc. has exclusive rights to Golden Rule and Michael's in Georgia.

The other Michael's Golden Rule restaurants will be built on the same prototype as the U.S 280 location, which will employ 101 people and serve lunch and dinner daily.

Photos of Famous

The restaurant features an open kitchen, a stone fireplace, large bar with plasma TV screens and three dining rooms with themes tied to the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Auburn Tigers and the UAB Blazers. The walls throughout are covered with Michael Matsos' collection of sports memorabilia and celebrity photographs that once adorned the walls of the original Michael's

Michael's Golden Rule on U.S. 280 will host a ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday featuring Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos and the owners for what will become the 18th location of Golden Rule Bar-B-Q in Alabama.

Golden Rule added seven new restaurants in Alabama this year, including locations in the AmSouth-Harbert Plaza and Northport that are co-owned by former football star and Birmingham Steeldogs coach Bobby Humphrey.

Another Golden Rule will move into the Birmingham International Airport's food court in early 2005.