Three friends from Alabama brought their barbecue and restaurant know-how to Franklin.
The owners of the Moe’s Original BBQ at 9050 Carothers Parkway in Cool Springs opened a second location at 901 Columbia Avenue last year.
After success in Cool Springs, partners Alston Noah, Jordan Winn and Andrew Clark along with Will Strain, all friends who met at Alabama, brought the Southern Soul Food Revival to Downtown Franklin. The new location offers the same fast-casual menu that is great for families, tourists and professionals on the go.
With a 2900 square foot interior, 85 guests can comfortably dine inside, with about 50 on the patio enclosed by shrubbery with a canopy of small bulb lights. There is a full bar plus twelve beers on tap for those who enjoy libations. They also offer premium catering services, large party take out orders & delivery where the service-oriented staff is ready to accommodate any size party.
They smoke their meat fresh daily, and their rotating sides– up to 60– are always fresh and made-from-scratch.
The restaurant is open until
9 p.m. on weekdays and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. It is the place to go, by the way, according to Winn, for Roll Tide Roll fans.
“We are definitely a place for families to come, that famous southern down-home atmosphere, but we have something for everyone with our full bar, tv-on-the-patio and craft beers on tap,” said Winn.
The company’s founders also met at college at Alabama. Moe’s Original BBQ was founded by three ‘Bama boys: Mike Fernandez from Tuscaloosa, Ben Gilbert from Athens, and Jeff Kennedy from Huntsville. After meeting at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, they instantly became friends and had a mutual interest in all things Southern: BBQ, blues, college football, and whisky.
In 1988, Fernandez hooked up with Moses Day in Tuscaloosa and began learning to fire roast meats. When Moses fired up his backyard barrel pit, people came running. The boys were lucky to learn from Moses and his distinct style makes up Moe’s original flavor of BBQ, which got its start at road-side stands.
The boys loved the mountains and eventually they all landed in Vail, Colorado and refined the cooking skills they had learned. By using fruit wood to smoke the meats and hitting it with two sauces, they knew they had something special, according to Winn.
Winn’s parent’s own a catfish restaurant in northern Alabama, which got him interested in Southern-style cooking from a young age.
He went to Alabama for school, where he met Noah and Clark, who also had a passion for BBQ.
His family was from northern Alabama, but his dad moved to Nashville. From there, they discovered Franklin, and the burgeoning opportunities here.
So, the three friends opened the first Moe’s here in Cool Springs in 2014, and that success convinced them it was worth spreading the good food and good times they provide to downtown Franklin.
