Stepping into Old Hickory Steakhouse on Highway 45 North, guests are greeted by the smell of sizzling steaks and a tattooed man standing by the grill who invites guests to sit where they like.
Bobby Bowen ties on a red apron and steps behind the restaurant’s grill five days a week. He has manned the grill at the famous Columbus restaurant for a total of 12 years, but he’s been grilling and cooking in the back of restaurant kitchens for much longer than that — since he was 11, to be precise.
That was when the Columbus native got his start at My Friend’s Place, a restaurant known for its barbeque.
“I started when I was 11 and I never looked back,” Bowen said.
Between that first job and his years working at Old Hickory, Bowen has worked in several other kitchens. He worked as a meat cutter at Logan’s and grilled steak at Old Waverly. But he’s never had a job not cooking, he said. He added that Old Hickory is the place he’s been the longest.
Bowen cooks every day, even on his days off, he says.
“I’m smoking ribs, cooking gumbo, red beans and rice,” he said.
He’ll man the grill at family gatherings and cook for friends. He says he does a “mean” Texas-style barbeque and makes lots of Cajun dishes, his favorite type of food. His favorite recipe to cook is red beans and rice.
Bowen and his wife Martie left Old Hickory between 2001 and 2011 to start their own restaurant — Martie’s Steaks and Catfish on Tuscaloosa Road. Apart from that 10-year stint, Bowen has worked at Old Hickory since 1994. The restaurant serves steaks, and that’s primarily what Bowen cooks for customers these days, just like he did at Martie’s Steaks and Catfish.
‘Never work a day in your life’
Having worked at Old Hickory for so long, he knows all the regulars and knows what they like. He’s grilled up to 40 steaks at once, though he won’t give away the secret of how he stays organized. The more well-done the steak, the earlier it has to start, Bowen pointed out. And he always times it so that everyone at a table gets their steaks all at once and no one has to wait for theirs while their dinner companions are already digging in.
“It’s all about timing,” he said.
Standing in the kitchen, he clowns around with other staff, singing songs from every musical genre, often changing the words. It makes the waitstaff and other employees comfortable, he says.
“If they’re happy,” he said, “they like the work.”
He dribbles sauce on the steaks and flips them when necessary, urging customers to make themselves at home as they walk in the front door. He has the steaks numbered and when he’s done grilling them, he puts them on a plate which goes on a particular part of the counter depending on the number. He has the tickets lined up in front of him so that he can read off what kind of baked potato goes with which numbered steak — one with just butter or one with both butter and sour cream.
As the customers leave at the end of their meals, Bowen asks them if they enjoyed the meal and tells them to have a good night. Many of them compliment him, his cooking or Old Hickory itself.
Bowen says he’s grateful to the customers for making the restaurant a success. He loves his job because he gets to cook.
“I just love to cook,” Bowen said. “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
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