If you want to catch up on the latest news with your neighbors while getting a delicious meat-and-three lunch, or a plate of hand-breaded shrimp and onion rings, lunchtime at the Courthouse Square Deli and Bakery in Grove Hill is the place to be.

The restaurant, situated (of course) on the square across from the Clarke County Courthouse, has been serving lunch to loyal customers since it opened in 2008. “On a typical day we probably see 80 to 100 people for lunch,” says Rita Phillips, co-owner with her sister, Janet Woodham. A third sister, Cathy Baker, helps out as well. The trio, who grew up in Clarke County, are known as the “Knight sisters” or the Knight girls, after their maiden name.

Many customers, like Catherine Gaddy, 81, and her husband, Lloyd, eat lunch every day at the deli, and have their own table right inside the front door. “We pretty much know everyone who comes in the door,” Phillips says. “Pretty much everybody you see on that wall are regulars.” She points to a lineup of booths filled with customers from the front door to the back.

The Courthouse Square Deli building was once home to the Clarke County Democrat newspaper. (Lenore Vickrey / Alabama Living)

“You doing all right?” a customer asks Phillips as he heads to the front door with a takeout box.

“Yes, how are you?” she replies.

“Hanging in there like hair on a biscuit,” he responds with a big grin.

“That’s our police chief,” she chuckles.

Being situated within walking distance of the courthouse makes it convenient for lawyers, staff and residents buying car tags or taking care of other business with the county, to pop in for lunch. The menu reflects that association, with items dubbed “Preliminary Hearing” (appetizers like fried dill pickles and mozzarella cheese sticks, and sides like onion rings), “Order in the Court” (sandwiches, subs and wraps including hamburgers, Reubens, fried or roasted chicken subs, or grilled pimento cheese), “Circumstantial Evidence” (house specialties like the popular fried shrimp platter), “Lighter Sentence” (salads) and “The Final Verdict” (desserts such as the famous “Gooey Bar,” similar to a chess square, along with cake slices and ice cream).

The fried shrimp platter is a lunch favorite. (Sarah Turner)

The clever category names were the brainchild of Woodham, and Phillips’ husband came up with the name Courthouse Square Deli and Bakery, Phillips says. The building was originally home of The Clarke County Democrat, the local newspaper, and then, when the paper moved, it was home to the deli’s predecessor, the Democrat Deli.

Sixteen years ago, Woodham had a beauty shop in nearby Fulton and Phillips was working refinishing antique furniture when Woodham decided she needed to change careers. “She said, ‘Call the Democrat Deli and see if she wants to sell,’” Phillips recalls.

She called. The owner was interested and even asked Phillips, “’When do you want it?’” And I said, ‘Right now.’”

“We were so excited. We’d both kind of dreamed about it for a long time and everything just fell into place. It was God’s plan and it happened. Thank God my daddy wasn’t alive, because he would have told us, ‘You’ll starve to death.’ But we haven’t yet.”

They painted the inside, brightening up the brown paneling, and installed new lights and eight security cameras. They remodeled the second floor, which is rented out as an apartment.

Slices of Dean’s cakes and other desserts make a mouth-watering display. (Sarah Turner)

For the past 16 years, business has been good, although coping during the 2020 pandemic was challenging. “We did curbside service for what seemed like forever,” Phillips says, and the restaurant had to shut down for a month. “We had people calling us, asking what would it take for us to reopen.” Eventually they did, and customers were glad to come back.

Their signature item, she says, is Woodham’s chicken salad, which she still makes fresh every day. Before the pandemic, they would sell up to 40 pounds a day, Phillips says, but “the pandemic hit us hard.”

These days, “our calling card is our fried shrimp and our meat and three,” she says. Some days there might be gumbo or chili. “Most days we have a meat and three, like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cornbread, turnip greens. We always have a dessert except on fish and shrimp day. Every other Friday we do a $10.99 fish and shrimp meal. They come out of the woodwork for that.”

They hand-bread the chicken fingers, as well as the shrimp, fish and onion rings. “We cut our own fries for home fries. We try to do as much fresh as we can,” Phillips says. Besides, “frozen tenders are hard as a brickbat.” They also make a variety of sauces for dipping, including the house sauce (“kinda spicy”) and COB sauce, for chick o’ breast, with Cajun mustard, mayo and jalapeño pepper juice.

Customers like the dependability of the menu, which doesn’t change. “It’s hard to bring in new stuff,” Phillips admits. “We used to have grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but those got too messy. Kids would get it all over the place.”

So, they stick with the tried and true. “People like what they like,” she says. “We have the same things every week. We’ve got more than 100 items.”

Sisters Cathy Baker, Janet Woodham and Rita Phillips. (Sarah Turner)

In past years, the two sisters did a lot of cake baking. “Janet baked and I decorated,” Phillips says. “We still have some (cakes), but not like we used to.” Health issues curtailed some of those efforts, and they now stock cakes from Dean’s Cakes, a well-known bakery in Andalusia, by the slice. Woodham still makes some desserts, such as her Gooey Bars and peanut butter pie.

Baker has a ministry delivering lunches to in-town shut-ins without any compensation. “She loves doing this to give back to the community,” Phillips says. “She usually has eight to 10 deliveries per day.”

The restaurant is a popular place for retirement lunches and group get-togethers. They don’t do events as such, but “we do reserve tables,” Phillips says.

The three sisters are known and respected by the community, as evidenced by a recent award. “We got voted citizens of the year, all three of us, a few years ago, by the Grove Hill Study Club. They don’t do it anymore, so I guess we broke the mold,” she says with a laugh.

The trio would like to continue running the restaurant “as long as our health holds out,” Phillips says. “We’ve got a great business and a great location. We’ve really been blessed.”

Courthouse Square Deli & Bakery

132 Main St., Grove Hill, Alabama

251-275-CAKE

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Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This story originally was published in Alabama Living magazine.