Much-anticipated restaurants set to open in Pell City
Story by Paul South
Photos by David Smith
There’s a recipe for cooking up a broader restaurant menu for hungry St. Clair County residents and visitors – patience, hard work and teamwork.
And that formula will come to life in 2026, with two popular national chains coming to Pell City in early Spring – Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse. Groundbreaking for the restaurants took place in March 2025, and Longhorn Steakhouse is expected to open first with Olive Garden’s following about three weeks later, officials say.
The two newcomers will join Outback Steaks and prove an unwritten economic development adage, said Pell City developer Bill Ellison. Brands follow brands.
The restaurants come on the heels of the Pell City Square retail development that features Hobby Lobby, PetSmart, TJ Maxx, Old Navy, Ross, Ulta and others. Ellison was a co-developer of the shopping center.
The new restaurants, located at the intersection of U.S. 231 and Hazelwood Drive adjacent to the I-20 interchange, are in response to residents who have long hungered for new full-service eateries in one of Alabama’s fastest growing counties.
“This has been something the community has really wanted,” Ellison said. “We’ve had a lot of retail success, but we just didn’t have the full-service restaurants. We’ve done well with everything else.”
He added, “I think when Pell City Square shopping center came in with that store mix, that’s sort of a regional type shopping center. The tenant mix that’s there, we had hoped, would bring in at least one full-service restaurant to the community, and we got Outback.”
Outback has had blockbuster success, Ellison said. “It’s a truly outstanding restaurant. As I understand it, the restaurant had the highest opening volume of sales in the history of Outback, and it’s been extremely high volume ever since.”
Pell City Square’s arrival lured more shoppers to Pell City than had shopped there in the past, Ellison said. The restaurants are the culmination of two to three years of work, Ellison said.
“The expansion of the trade area helped us to recruit Olive Garden and Longhorn to Pell City. It’s kind of like brands follow brands. When we got that shopping center, and Outback came, other brands look at Pell City, and they say, ‘Those stores came to Pell City. We might need to look at that.’ That just kind of gets the synergy going.”
Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Council, said bringing in new full-service restaurants was part of the public’s wish list.
“Having more sit-down restaurants was something that the community had expressed a desire in having here,” Smith said. “The elected officials have listened and made it a priority for us to work on. Through collaboration and partnerships with the developer, property owner, the city, the county and the EDC, we were fortunate to get those national chains to come to the community, to go along with those shoppers who are coming from outside of Pell City to shop at the new Pell City Square.”
Longhorn and Olive Garden are under the Darden Restaurants umbrella of brands, Ellison said. Darden operates 2,100 restaurants nationally with more than 200,000 employees.
Pell City’s growth, local industries and the Honda plant, tourism with Logan Martin Lake and a growing health care landscape all fueled the company’s decision to come to the county.
“Needless to say, that’s a big honor for Pell City, Alabama,” Ellison said. “To attract those restaurants to this city, that really says something.”
All of this economic activity can have a snowball effect that can bring more restaurants and retail to the area. Big picture is that it can mean a regional boost to northeast Alabama.
“Like I said earlier, brands follow brands,” Ellison said. “It’ll just be a continuing progression. We’re expecting St. Clair County to continue to grow with a very bright future moving forward. As long as St. Clair County continues to grow and Pell City continues to grow, our region will continue to grow.”
Smith credited Ellison’s efforts.
“Bill Ellison worked really hard on a number of different retailers and eateries,” Smith said. “He felt, and we felt that these two brands (Longhorn and Olive Garden) filled a void that had existed. I think the community’s demographic fits really well with (the restaurants’) target customer.”
Ellison makes a critical point. “I didn’t do this by myself. I’m a hard worker and the rest of it. But the elected officials in Pell City and in St. Clair County and the EDC and Metro Bank through the years, have been with me hand in hand through all of this. It’s a team effort.”
