By Andrew Garner

Editor 

The smell coming out of Atmore’s newest barbecue restaurant is unmistakable.

A mixture of smoked meats and charred briquets coming from its smoke house out back, Brick House BBQ on Howard Street hasn’t been open very long, but owner Chris Lowe said business has gone really well.

“It’s gone pretty good,” Lowe said. “We did real well the first month. I’m pleased.”

Ribs, pulled pork, beef, chicken, sausage and hot sausage are the meats that are served at the restaurant, which was a barber shop that was run by Lowe.

“I’ve been a barber all of my life,” he said when asked if he cooked all of his life. “This used to be my barber shop years ago. It was Lowe’s Cuts for Pros.”

While barbering, Lowe would cook barbecue for small catering jobs. It was during this venture that he was encouraged to open the restaurant.

“Everybody was just like you should really do something with that,” Lowe said. “My parents helped me. My parents are major investors.”

In addition to serving a good selection of meats, Brick House also has sides of macaroni and cheese, cowboys barbecue baked beans, green beans, yellow rice, cole slaw and potato salad.

“Everything is made in house,” Lowe said.

When Lowe finished college at Alabama State University, his parents — Jimmie and Diane Lowe of Atmore — bought the building the restaurant is being housed in.

“My parents bought the building when I finished college,” he said. “I was getting ready to graduate and I went to technical school (Reid State in Evergreen) after that, and got my barbering degree. Then after that, I decided to go into barbering.”

Lowe said it took months to get the restaurant looking like a barbecue joint.

“I did a lot of improvements to the building,” he said. “It took me about 10 months to a year to get the building the way I envisioned it. Then, once we got it all set up and got the legal paper work completed, I went ahead and opened it up.”

The idea to call it Brick House BBQ came from his father, Lowe said.

“The front just looks like a brick house,” he said. “I was fine with it. We had a few different names, but it didn’t pan out. When he came up with that one, we pretty much rolled with it.”

Lowe said he takes call-in orders and will deliver, depending on the size of the order.

Brick House BBQ is located right behind Church’s Chicken, and is open Wednesday through Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.