Ted’s Bar-B-Q

Ted’s Bar-B-Q has been part of Huntsville’s barbecue landscape for decades, tracing its name back to Teddy Martin, who opened the original Bar-B-Q restaurants in the Shoals area of North Alabama during the 1960s and 1970s. His sons, David and Danny Martin, later built their own barbecue restaurants and named them Ted’s in his honor, a detail that speaks to how personal this brand still is behind the register. Today Ted’s operates as part of a small, locally owned restaurant group out of North Alabama that also includes Steak-Out, Rosie’s Cantina, Shaggy’s Burgers and Tacos, Little Rosie’s, and Walton’s Southern Table, none of which are chains headquartered outside the region. That footprint spans barbecue, steaks, Tex-Mex, and burgers across several North Alabama addresses, all still run by the same extended family rather than sold off piece by piece to outside investors.

The Huntsville location sits in the Five Points neighborhood at 212 Andrew Jackson Way Northeast, one of two North Alabama locations along with a second restaurant at 8780 Madison Boulevard in Madison. Five Points is one of Huntsville’s older, walkable commercial districts, and Ted’s has been a fixture there for locals looking for smoked meat without the wait of a full sit-down dinner. The two locations do not keep identical hours: Five Points is a lunch-and-dinner operation, while the Madison restaurant also opens for breakfast on weekday mornings starting at 6:30 a.m., something the Huntsville location does not offer.

The menu covers the full range of North Alabama barbecue. Pulled pork sandwiches and plates anchor the everyday menu, joined by smoked chicken, smoked turkey, and Polish sausage, all available as sandwiches, plates with two sides, or by the pound for anyone stocking a freezer. Two items are worth planning a visit around. Ted’s Sticky Ribs, cut St. Louis style, are available Monday through Saturday in a full rack for just under thirty dollars or a half rack for under seventeen. Beef brisket, meanwhile, is a Wednesday-only special, sold as a sandwich for under eight dollars or a full plate with two sides and cornbread. The kitchen also makes a homemade Brunswick stew served with jalapeno cornbread muffins, a nod to the restaurant’s Shoals-area roots.

Sides follow a familiar barbecue-joint format, sold by the individual portion, pint, or quart, with barbecue baked beans, potato salad, mac and cheese, green beans, and coleslaw among the options. Family packs of pulled pork, sized for anywhere from three to eight people, make Ted’s a practical stop for feeding a group without cooking. The restaurant also runs a full kids menu, a small dessert case with banana pudding and peach cobbler, and a loyalty rewards program that lets regulars earn points toward free desserts, merchandise, and discounts of up to twenty-five dollars. Gift cards and online ordering are available at both North Alabama locations, and the restaurant also takes reservations and special orders for larger gatherings and holiday meals in addition to standard catering. Regulars who join the rewards program can track points toward those free desserts and merchandise through the same online ordering account used for placing pickup orders, which keeps the loyalty perks tied to how most people already order.

The Five Points location is open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and closed on Sundays; the Madison restaurant, reachable at 256-772-6500, keeps a schedule of its own, opening for breakfast at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays and 7:00 a.m. on Saturdays, and closing at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday rather than staying open through dinner. Because the Wednesday brisket and the Monday through Saturday sticky ribs are the two most talked-about items on the menu, visitors with a specific craving should time their trip accordingly. With decades of history behind it and a family still connected to daily operations of the broader restaurant group, Ted’s remains one of the more established, homegrown barbecue options in Huntsville.