Atmore restaurant’s dish listed as top 100 in state

Buster’s Restaurant is a staple of life in Atmore. On any given day, familiar faces line the booths and tables for lunch, dinner or just the afternoon coffee break. But, this month, Buster’s is getting special attention from the Alabama Tourism Department for what draws the crowds each Wednesday – its famous lima beans, pork chops and corn bread.

Buster’s and its Wednesday lunch special brought Atmore into the list of the tourism department’s “100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama.”

It’s the second-straight year the Atmore favorite has been included.

And manager Sarah Frances Thompson said it is all because of one woman, long-time Buster’s cook, Mary Kelly.

“The lima bean special is our busiest special of the week,” Thompson said. “We open at 10 a.m. and serve at 11a.m., and we’ve had people here before I get here to make sure they had a table for it.”

Thompson, whose grandfather, Buster, initially opened the restaurant, said that has been the case her entire life.

“When people ask how long I’ve been the manager here, I say, ‘Well, I was born in 1980,’” she said with a laugh.

Thompson said the lima bean special actually began years ago with a casual conversation between Kelly and her grandfather.

“Miss Mary told me one time somebody came in and had brought in some limas and paw paw was having coffee,” Thompson said. “And paw paw asked her if she would cook them up for him. And she did, and he liked them. So, he kept getting lima beans after that. I can just see the two of them: ‘You wanna cook this up for me?’ ‘Sure.’ And it just took off from there.”

Kelly said she has been cooking the lima beans, along with plenty of other Buster’s dishes, since 1972, adding her sister – Maxine Ruffin – cooked there for six years prior to her own hiring. Kelly said she knows the beans are popular, but isn’t giving up the secret anytime soon.

“It ain’t telling nothing,” she said with a smile. “I just put them in the pot and cook them up.”

But even the pot itself has special meaning, according to Thompson.

“That was something, and we’ve still got the little pot she used back then,” Thompson said. “And it’s a normal-size home pot, in the back and it was Miss Mary’s – and that’s why it’s so consistently made. But, now we have to use a big pot for them, and even it’s all dinged up from use at this point.”

Considering the attention the Wednesday lima bean special is getting statewide, it appears Buster’s will be replacing those dinged up pots used for the dish for years to come.

To see a complete listing of this year’s “100 Best Dishes to Eat in Alabama,” visit the Alabama Tourism Department online at ilovealabamafood.com or download the app, 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama.