Blue Plate Restaurant

Blue Plate Restaurant operates a location on McFarland Boulevard in Northport, Alabama, part of a small family of Southern comfort food restaurants that began in Dothan on November 9, 2004. Owners Chris Bradshaw and Allen Aldridge opened the first Blue Plate after Bradshaw, who had co-owned restaurants in Tuscaloosa and Montgomery for more than a decade, returned to his native Dothan wanting to build a menu with something for everyone, with each dish tastefully prepared in the true Southern tradition.

That founding idea still shapes the menu at the Northport location. Country fried steak, described by the company as its signature dish, is a centerpiece of the menu, alongside golden fried chicken, flaky fried catfish, meatloaf, and a rotating list of southern-seasoned vegetables that change with what is in season. Homemade desserts close out the meal, a detail carried over from the original Dothan restaurant and one the company treats as central to the Blue Plate name.

The Northport restaurant sits at 450 McFarland Boulevard and offers dine-in seating along with takeout, online ordering, and drive-thru pickup, a combination that serves both the lunch crowd looking for a quick plate and diners who want to sit down for a full Southern meal. Full catering services are also available through the restaurant for events around the Tuscaloosa and Northport area, and the company runs a Star Student initiative through its restaurants to recognize local students in the communities it serves. The Northport dining room is described by the company as a friendly, straightforward space, built for families to gather rather than for a formal night out, and that same description applies across all of the chain’s locations.

Hours at the Northport location run Monday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a shorter Friday schedule of 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Saturdays and open Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., a schedule geared toward lunch and early dinner rather than a late-night crowd, one that lines up with an after-church Sunday meal as much as a weekday lunch break.

Blue Plate has grown to three locations across Alabama since its 2004 founding, all built around the same premise of Southern comfort food served with generous portions and a slower, more relaxed pace than a fast casual chain. The Northport location gives residents on the west side of the Black Warrior River a version of that Dothan original without the drive across the state, and it has become a regular stop for locals looking for fried chicken, catfish, or a plate of meatloaf and vegetables without needing a special occasion to justify it. The drive-thru lane in particular has made the restaurant a workable option for a weeknight dinner picked up on the way home rather than eaten in the dining room.

What distinguishes the restaurant from many of the newer establishments along McFarland Boulevard is its emphasis on hospitality alongside the food itself. The founders built the concept around the idea of giving guests a place to gather, share stories, and reconnect over a shared meal, and that intention carries through in the restaurant’s continued investment in catering, community programs, and events around Northport. For a plate of country fried steak or a Sunday afternoon meal after church, the Northport Blue Plate has settled into its role as one of the area’s dependable Southern kitchens, one built on a philosophy that dates back to a single restaurant in Dothan more than twenty years ago. The Northport address on McFarland Boulevard also places the restaurant along the same commercial corridor as several of the city’s other independent restaurants, a stretch of road that has become a dependable strip for sit-down and takeout dining on the west side of the river.