Saw’s BBQ (Homewood)

Saw’s BBQ keeps a location on Oxmoor Road in Homewood, Alabama, part of a small barbecue operation that traces back to a single restaurant founder Mike Wilson opened on Birmingham’s Southside in May 2009. Wilson, who picked up the nickname “SAW,” short for “Sorry Ass Wilson,” earned a degree in Restaurant and Hospitality Management from the University of Alabama in 1996 before attending culinary school at Johnson and Wales University in Vail, Colorado. He went on to work as a sous chef at Dean and DeLuca and later as a test-kitchen chef at Cooking Light in Birmingham, experience that shaped the more technical side of a menu that still reads as backyard cooking.

Before Saw’s existed as a restaurant, Wilson’s barbecue was already building a following through his own backyard cooking, sending smoked meat to coworkers until his personal email list of people asking for more topped 200 names. When a restaurant space became available on Birmingham’s Southside, Wilson reportedly moved from hearing about the opening to signing the lease within days, a fast turnaround that set the tone for a business built on instinct as much as planning. That first location has since grown into a small chain with outposts in Homewood, Avondale, Crestline, Hoover, Leeds, and Southside, and the Homewood restaurant on Oxmoor Road has become one of the more visible outposts in that growing footprint.

The kitchen smokes pork, chicken, and ribs low and slow, then lets diners finish their plate with a choice of house sauces, a format rooted in Carolina barbecue tradition rather than the tomato-heavy sauces more common elsewhere in Alabama. Saw’s signature sauce, described by the restaurant as a thinner, more vinegar-forward blend suited for dipping rather than coating, has been sold bottled in Alabama grocery stores for more than a decade, giving customers a way to bring the Saw’s flavor home between visits. The smoked chicken sandwich, served with Alabama white sauce, has become one of the more requested items on the menu, and the pulled pork holds up on its own or piled onto one of the restaurant’s stuffed baked potatoes. Sides lean Southern: mac and cheese, coleslaw, deviled eggs, baked beans, and potato salad round out a plate that rarely needs much dressing up, and first-time visitors are often steered toward one of the combo platters that let them sample several meats at once.

Saw’s describes itself as an upscale dive, a phrase that captures its approach reasonably well: the restaurant prioritizes the food over the decor, aiming for quality and affordability rather than a polished dining room. The Homewood location keeps the counter-service format found across the small chain, with casual seating and a menu board rather than table service, built for quick, satisfying lunches and casual dinners rather than a long, lingering meal. Catering is a significant part of the business, with a dedicated catering contact, Holly Nealey, fielding orders for larger events, and the restaurant also runs a food truck under the Saw’s Street Kitchen name for off-site service.

The Homewood location keeps a tight schedule, open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and closed entirely on Sundays, a pattern common among barbecue joints that need a full day to prep smokers for the week ahead. Since Wilson opened that first Southside restaurant in 2009, the broader Saw’s operation has expanded through partnerships with other Birmingham-area figures, and the company began offering franchise opportunities in 2018. Despite that growth, the Oxmoor Road location has kept the same basic formula that built the brand’s reputation: smoke the meat well, keep the sides honest, and let the sauce do the rest of the talking.

Dine-in and curbside pickup are both available, keeping options flexible for the lunch rush that builds along Oxmoor Road most weekdays. For Homewood residents and visitors looking for a straightforward barbecue lunch without pretense, Saw’s on Oxmoor Road delivers a plate that holds its own against Alabama’s more established barbecue names, backed by a founder whose culinary training and backyard instincts both show up on the plate.