Hot House Grille serves up familiar favorites, fresh ingredients, and plenty of food for the whole crowd.

Words by Jenny Lynn Davis | Images by Nick Rizzo

The kitchen at Hot House Grille in Sumiton lives up to the restaurant’s name.

The grill is going, the fryers are working, and orders move steadily through the small space. But owner Ricky Tavel says the name reflects what he wants the restaurant to deliver every time: food that is hot, fresh, and fast.

Food is cooked to order, the prep work is done on-site, and items are made from scratch or prepared in-house rather than pulled from a package. Ricky is sure to note that there is not a microwave to be found in the building.

Pictured: Stinging Honey Garlic Wings

Customers will find a little bit of everything on the menu. There are burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads, wings, hot dogs, and plate lunches, along with daily specials that change throughout the week.

Ricky describes the menu as “vast,” and he is not exaggerating. Meatball Monday offers a choice between a meatball sub and a spaghetti-and-meatball plate, while Friday’s options include a shrimp po’boy or a shrimp plate. Even customers who return regularly can find something different to try.

Pictured: Mild with Wet Lemon Pepper with Bacon Ranch French Fries

Lately, the chicken wings have attracted much of the attention. Ricky says many customers did not realize Hot House Grille offered chicken wings on the menu until a pair of online reviews brought a wave of new visitors through the door.

The wings, Cajun ranch fries, and bacon grilled cheeseburger quickly became some of the restaurant’s most requested items. Still, Ricky does not want customers to overlook the rest of the menu.

“We’re not exclusively a wing restaurant,” he says.

As the new crowd has settled in, more customers have begun exploring everything else Hot House Grille has to offer.

Pictured: Six-Piece Mild with Dry Lemon Pepper

Of course, the wings are especially popular when there is a football game on TV. Customers sometimes order 100 or 200 at a time, picking them up to share with a house full of friends and family. Someone at the gathering inevitably asks where the wings came from, Ricky says, and word continues to spread.

“Especially in a small town, people like to know where to come when they need wings, burgers, and hot dogs for family activities and gatherings,” he says.

Pictured: Six-Piece Mild with Wet Lemon Pepper

That hands-on approach comes naturally to Ricky, whose connection to the restaurant business began with his mother. She had worked as a short-order cook, and when Ricky bought his first business, Minor Cafe, he stepped in as owner and manager while she became the chef.

“She had me when she was 14, so we kind of grew up together,” he says. “I learned everything on the fly.”

Ricky ran Minor Cafe for about 10 years before returning to corporate work. Later, he created Dora Cafe from what had been an empty building, developing a business plan and securing a loan to bring the restaurant to life. He eventually sold it and went back to corporate America once more, including five years with Amazon.

But in November 2024, the opportunity to open Hot House Grille brought him back to the kind of work he knew.

But whether he is serving a football crowd, a family with young children, or someone stopping in for a quick weekday lunch, Ricky’s priority is the same: service.

He would rather pause orders during an overwhelming rush than take on more customers than his team can serve well. Good food matters, he says, but so do consistency and the way people are treated when they walk through the door.

That may be what best defines Hot House Grille. It is casual, familiar, and built for sharing – the kind of place that works just as well for a Friday lunch as it does for feeding a crowd before kickoff. 78