Pikeville Store-N-Deli

Scottsboro, Jackson County

This joint is on the original AL.com list of 22 (plus 35 submitted by the readers) Greasy Spoon Burger Joints in Alabama you have to visit before you die. 

What you find more often than not at a place where two county roads intersect is a Pure gas station. Sometimes it is abandoned, sometimes only the Pure sign is still standing, sometimes it is still operational, and sometimes it has been converted into something else - like the one on CR81 near Ft. Payne that is a church now, or the one at the intersection of CR21, CR420, and CR31 near Scottsboro. That one has become a Deli, but the old gas pumps are still standing in front of the building.

The deli is called Pikeville Store-N-Deli, and as the list of county roads that lead to it might reveal, it is in the middle of nowhere. There might even a Blues song exists that describes this place, maybe with a young aspiring guitar player as the hero, who makes a deal with the devil on that crossroads.

But although this joint is basically on a different planet, it was packed to the rafters when I arrived shortly after noon on this Friday. I barely could get a table to sit on and many of the cars outside were actually parked on the adjacent meadows.

So naturally, I wondered what all the fuzz was about – was there a big hungry underground population that I did not see on my lonely path to the crossroads, or was that the usual Alien invasion from outer space for lunch each Friday, as so many bad 1950s Sci-Fi B-Movies had portrayed? Where did all those people come from all of a sudden? My bewilderment grew when I scanned the inside and could recognize guys in business suits, workers in soiled Carhartt pants, retirees with Bama caps, some middle aged couples, a family with three small children, some chatty teenagers, and a few guys who apparently had been on a fishing trip. A more heterogenic crowd could hardly be imaginable. They all seemed to be in on a dirty little secret, and now here was I, a total outsider who evidently had stumbled into kind of a clandestine society – of Hamburger connoisseurs.

Oh well, now that I was finally there, after much head shaking about the path my usually trustworthy GPS unit had led me on, I decided to dive headlong into this adventure. But immediately I ran into a problem – there was no double cheeseburger on the menu. Bummer, I was extremely hungry, because I hadn’t eaten all day (don’t tell my wife). So I ordered the Cheeseburger basket, with everything on the burger, plus extra bacon. As it is customary in old style diners like this one, you order, the food is brought out, and you pay after you are done. In my case, with a small drink, that came to not even nine bucks.

While I waited for my order, I had time to watch a whole flock of Hummingbirds buzz around a couple of feeders that were placed outside the completely enclosed porch where I had eventually found a free space to sit. The whole atmosphere of this joint is very, well, country. It is a typical small-town American diner, with no frills, practical furniture, and sparse decoration. The store part of it is rather small, but you can get pickles out of a giant glass there, moon pie, root beer, and the like. The staff is very friendly and helpful, and the food is just great.

The Cheeseburger in the basket, which also contained very crisp and tasty crinkly fries, came with a big beef patty, cheese, white onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise and mustard (that I ordered specifically – usually, they do not put mustard on the Cheeseburger), on a standard bun. Very juicy, very tasty, very flavorful – and very greasy. In short, this is how a Cheeseburger should be. The only disappointment was the small amount of bacon – it barely registered as a taste enhancer, nor as a different kind of texture.

So, then, finally, I had cracked the secret of why this place was so full of people – they all came here for the burgers. No Alien invasion, no hidden underground community, just plain folks that drove more than just a few miles to eat good, original, hand made food. My hats off to you, Pikeville Store-N-Deli, with such a loyal following success will be yours – it is just too bad that this joint is so far away from where I live. Would that be within an hour’s drive, I’d be a regular Alien there too.