In April 2005, we decided it was time to ‘live the dream’.  We had both desired to, at some point, own our own restaurant and in April 2005, we purchased Ole Hickory BBQ.   We brought with us a combined 50 years of experience in the restaurant and food industry and were excited to take on a genre’ of food so popular in the south.   We are so blessed to be a part of the wonderful communities of Huntsville and New Market, Alabama!  We love being involved with area schools and churches and know for certain that we have the BEST guests you could dream of!

Drew and Denise Tyriver 

From the Huntsville Times July 2008

Southern barbecue, country charm and the skills of a former research chef draw diners off beaten path to New Market restaurant

NEW MARKET – This Fourth of July, Drew Tyriver is likely to toss some burgers or brats on the backyard grill for his family.

“I don’t barbecue a lot of chicken or ribs at home,” volunteers Tyriver.

It’s easy to process that remark with the aroma of such melt-in-your-mouth fare strong and tempting here in the dining room of Ole Hickory BBQ, the restaurant on Maysville Road that Tyriver co-owns with his wife Denise.

These wafts of fresh barbecue prompt ambitious statements like “I’ll have one of everything, please.” And then the sheepish “my eyes were bigger than my stomach” a bit later on.

Outside, the same aroma beckons for quite a way down the road, if one is inclined to ride with the car windows down on a summer day in Alabama. And if the scent of barbecue doesn’t draw in hungry travelers, the Southern charm of Ole Hickory BBQ might.

South-bound family

It drew in Drew Tyriver, stepping off the fast-track from Boston where he worked as a research chef for a major quick-service restaurant franchisor.

Drew started out on a low rung in the corporate office of Red Lobster in Orlando, Fla., where he and Denise met. Excuse her for bragging, Denise says, but Drew began as a “grunt worker” and made a quick positive impression on his employer, who then sent him to culinary school at Mid Florida Tech.

The fast-growing pace of Orlando was something the Tyrivers wanted to escape, so they shopped around for alternatives and ended up in Mansfield, Mass., a small town between Boston and Providence. Seven years later, although they loved the area, Drew was corporate world-weary and ready to open his own restaurant.

Several of Denise’s family members had migrated to the Huntsville area with work at Redstone Arsenal, so they decided to give the area a try.

In 2005, they bought Ole Hickory BBQ and moved to New Market.

The Tyrivers’ 16-year-old son Jacob attends Buckhorn High School, and their 18-year-old daughter Megan, who is autistic, attends Sparkman High School, where there is an autism unit.

The relocation has been a happy move for all, says Denise, with the restaurant helping to ease the transition.

“This restaurant was a great catalyst for us to get into the community,” she says. “It’s been a good thing.”

Humble beginnings

Ole Hickory BBQ began with just a walk-up window about 20 years ago. A dining room was added in the late ’90s, but the exterior still has country-store appeal, tucked against a shelter of shade trees with a grassy picnic area and a plastic pig mascot that’s now bolted into the ground to keep the occasional late-night pignapper at bay.

“I joke that this is a ‘destination’ restaurant,” says Denise, because Ole Hickory BBQ is no quick jaunt from the major hubs of Madison County.

The Tyrivers opened a sister restaurant on North Memorial Parkway in 2007, in an old Wendy’s building near Max Luther Drive. The Parkway restaurant is much more convenient for Huntsville residents, but the hectic traffic situation in that area presents a problem of its own, admits Denise.

“We’ve got great concepts, great food and two challenging locations,” she laughs.

But Ole Hickory regulars consider the food worth the drive, some making the trip regularly from variations locations across the county, the Tyrivers say.

They come for the barbecue, which is much the same as it was when Ole Hickory just opened. And they come for the dishes Drew has added to the menu.

Among the new items are a sweet and thick barbecue sauce that joins the regular vinegar sauce; a hickory dog smothered in baked beans with chopped onions and melted Cheddar cheese; chicken fingers and wings; a hickory barbecue chef salad; fried sweet corn nuggets served with a homemade “Bama” sauce (a spicy, mayonnaise-based mixture much like a Blooming Onion sauce); and a crowd-pleasing, made-from-scratch banana pudding.

It may be that on July Fourth, Drew will have a piece of chicken, even a rib or two. “I eat it every day,” he says.

But at home, he’ll kick back and relax.

“What we do (at Ole Hickory) is the stuff that takes time.”