Stacey Little knows life is tastier in Alabama
Stacey Little is the writer, photographer and chef behind Southern Bite. (Nick Drollette)
As a beloved innovator in culinary storytelling, Stacey Little is the chef and food blogger behind Southern Bite. Little got his food writing start in college, where he was tasked with writing restaurant reviews for the Montgomery Advertiser. His motivation wasn’t an inherent love for the newspaper industry, but the prospect of a free meal.
Food is his passion and has always been a key part of his life.
“As a kid who grew up in a Southern family, food was always at the center of everything,” he says. “And I grew up incredibly poor. And as a result, my mom cooked. There was no going out to eat. So she developed this really great repertoire of these great meals and she had people that were always asking for her recipes. And so she had a three-ring binder that she had printed all her recipes in.”
In 2008, Little had purchased the domain name SouthernBite.com, where he planned to continue his restaurant reviews. After a get-together, a friend asked Little for a recipe from a meal he served. As he went to type the recipe into an email, he thought twice and instead published it on his site. Inspired by his mother’s treasured three-ring binder, he decided to focus on his own cooking and family recipes.
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As Southern Bite gained more and more followers, Little received an unexpected invitation from a publishing company, paving the way for him to become a Wall Street Journal best-selling author.
“It was just one week on the list, but you bet your sweet behind, I’m gonna claim that one,” he says.
His recipes, storytelling, photography and passion have captured the hearts of at-home chefs everywhere. By 2016, Southern Bite went from a side project to a full-time job. Little opened a test kitchen in Prattville, the Alabama town he most considers home. His recipes are a regular feature on Alabama News Center.
Little took a few moments to tell us what he loves most about Alabama.
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This is Alabama: What’s your favorite thing about living in Alabama?
Stacey Little: My favorite thing about living in Alabama is the people. I think Alabamians are humble folks. I think most Alabamians are the kind of people that, as the saying goes, would give you the shirt off their back. We are the hold-the-door kind of people. I mean, Alabama is my home. I’ve always been here. I was born in Thomasville, Alabama. We lived in Montgomery when I was little. And then we moved to Prattville before I started kindergarten. So this is home for me. We are just great down-to-earth, salt-of-the-earth kind of folks. And I think that’s probably my favorite thing about here.
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TIA: What’s a place in Alabama that you’ve always wanted to visit, but haven’t yet?
Little: One of the places that I have not been, that I really want to go is Little River Canyon. To actually go and explore Little River Canyon is not something that I’ve ever done. But it’s something that’s definitely on my Alabama bucket list.
TIA: Name an Alabamian who inspires you.
Little: Oh, golly. You know, I think people probably expect the typical answers. Condoleezza Rice is a great example. I’m sure if I was trying to be up on current affairs, folks would say Nick Saban. While I have mad respect for Nick Saban, my wife and I are Auburn fans. So I can’t say that, because I’m sure that I’d get in trouble. Can I say something more generic? Teachers in Alabama. I have had so many teachers who had such profound effects on my life that I think that they don’t get the credit that they deserve.
TIA: Where is the most beautiful place in Alabama?
Little: Alabama is one of the most biodiverse states in the country. I mean, you know, we’ve got the foothills of the Appalachians all the way down to the sugar-white sand of the Gulf Coast. If I had to pick, I’m a beach guy, so I have to say Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are just beautiful. And I think when people think of the beach, they often don’t think of Alabama. But I think that we are blessed with some really beautiful beaches.
For Stacey Little, the Gulf beaches are the most beautiful place in a state that’s not short on beauty. (Brian Kelly)
TIA: What’s one restaurant you recommend people go to when they visit your town?
Little: Because my life is food, I am very particular. One place that I recommend is Uncle Mick’s. It’s a little Creole-Cajun place in downtown Prattville. The food is great, don’t get me wrong, but that little restaurant is the epitome of Southern hospitality. It’s kind of cafeteria-style, but the food is better than what you expect from a cafeteria-style restaurant. And the cool thing about it is that Mick, the owner, is so warm and so welcoming, and he will let you taste anything on the line to decide what it is that you want to eat. And I think that it’s that combination of great food and hospitality and a little neat restaurant that makes it kind of the place that I always recommend when people come.
TIA: What do you love most about your hometown?
Little: Like I said, we moved to Prattville when I was 6. The older that I’ve gotten, the kind of more ingrained I have become in the community. We are involved with the Chamber of Commerce and a bunch of nonprofits, and we help to host what we call dinner in the district every year, which is this really cool dinner where we sell 150 tickets and set up one long table down the bank of Autauga Creek right in downtown Prattville. We serve a fancy dinner, and it’s this great community-building event. It’s sort of the same thing that’s my favorite part of Alabama: It’s the people. You know, I know the mayor on a first-name basis, I can pick up the phone and call his cell phone if I need something. And I think that that’s really what keeps me here. When my wife and I got married we both lived in Millbrook, which is just on the other side of the interstate, but when we got married, we both decided that it was too far from home. So, we bought a house back over in Prattville. I think it’s, it’s the community itself. It’s all the things that make up a community that, you know, make me love this little place so much.
This story was previously published by This is Alabama. Want to read more good news about Alabama? Sign up for the This is Alabama newsletter here.
