Billy's Sports Grill Stubborn About Scratch-Made Comfort Food

Good morning and welcome to the fourth feature highlighting a participant in Tuscaloosa Restaurant Week, where we're talking with Terry Humphryes, the owner of Billy's Sports Grill in downtown Northport.

Each day this week, the Thread and Visit Tuscaloosa will profile one of the businesses participating in the annual event, presented this year by Huntington Bank.

Hungry to learn more? Over 50 participating eateries will offer unique items or special discounts on their most popular orders when the extended Tuscaloosa Restaurant Week returns June 18th through 27th. Learn more and get connected at the Tuscaloosa Restaurant Week website now.

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A Family Brand Almost 50 Years Old

Ask any local, and they’ll tell you the heart of Downtown Northport is City Cafe, which has been pumping since 1931. But just up the block, on the corner of Main Avenue and 5th Street, a younger anchor has spent the last 13 years quietly reshaping what a Saturday in Northport looks like.

Billy’s Sports Grill opened in February 2013 in a building that housed the Shakespearean-themed Globe restaurant for 17 years. After the Globe shut down in 2009, two other restaurants opened in the space, only to close less than a year later.

But Billy's has not only survived but thrived, even during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the charming downtown district has blossomed right alongside them.

Like many local restaurants, Billy's is a family operation. It's owned by Terry Humphryes, who runs it alongside his sons, Paul and Wesley.

Although its 13 years in Northport have made Billy's a staple there, the brand is actually older than that - much older.

The first Billy's opened in the English Village area of Mountain Brook almost 50 years ago, in 1979, named after its founder, Billy McConnell. The restaurant became locally adored for its signature Marinated Chicken Sandwich, and McConnell sold it in the 1980s before Terry Humphryes ultimately bought the brand in 2005.

"I made an offer and bought the store in September 2005, then took my sons, Paul and Wesley and said, 'Alright, we just bought Billy's, now y'all go operate it,'" he told the Thread.

They took over, then opened a new location near Overton Road in Vestavia Hills in 2008, and brought the concept to Northport in 2013. The original Billy's Sports Grill closed in 2019 after Humphryes and the building's landlord couldn't agree on terms to fund extensive needed repairs.

Scratch-Made and Stubborn About It

In their completely remodeled downtown Northport location, designed so any patron can see three televisions at once, Billy's has earned and maintained a large and loyal customer base. Most sunny afternoons, its spacious patio fronting Main Street in downtown Northport is packed out with diners enjoying the weather and the food.

It's a distinctly American pub, with a menu featuring scratch-made chicken sandwiches, burgers, fried shrimp, salads, wings and much more.

"We don’t do trendy. We change things, but we’re very basic in that we sell what people want, and offer a menu of primarily comfort food. And that menu has evolved over time, but, very basically, it's Southern comfort food," Humphryes said.

During Tuscaloosa Restaurant Week, for instance, Billy's is offering a Buffalo Chicken Wrap topped with fresh produce and a house-made ranch.

Also beloved are the fried olives, a curious appetizer featuring black olives wrapped in mozzarella cheese before getting seasoned, battered and fried, served hot with a side of buttermilk ranch.

"When we bought Billy's, they had a fried olive, but it was this frozen thing, and eventually the supplier went away. So, my son Paul and our kitchen manager got back there and created these chipped-up olives, and to this day, we're still making all those things from scratch, and I'll tell you, it's a pain in the butt," Humphryes said. "But people love them. If we could mail them, some folks would be ordering every week."

It also features what is almost certainly the most popular bar in Northport, where there are 26 beers on tap housed in a custom-built keg room, as well as new infused liquor drinks like blackberry bourbon.

Welcome to the Goat Place

Billy's is also beloved by children all over the area, both for their chicken tenders served with honey mustard or another sauce and for its always-growing collection of goat statues and figures.

"About a third of our business is kids loaded up in cars telling their parents, 'We're going to Billy's,'" Humphryes joked. "The other night after a soccer game, we had a dad come up to us at dinner who said every time they play a soccer game, his kids act as if they're going to 'the goat place' tonight."

Goat figures are everywhere throughout the Northport store, including the Billy mascot on the menu, for kids and the young at heart to pose with for pictures.

"Billy's was named Billy's because of Billy McConnell," Humphryes said. "Well, he wasn't in the picture anymore, and I'm not Billy, and my sons aren't Billy. So we established this brand - we took the name Billy's and converted it to the goat, and that became our logo. We've evolved it over the years, and then eventually trademarked it."

A Crowded Patio on a Once-Sleepy Block

Back when the Globe closed in 2009, its owners blamed the Great Recession leading to a calamitous drop in sales. In 2020, a new worldwide problem materialized with the COVID-19 pandemic. But even as other restaurants and bars across the region, state and nation permanently closed their doors, Humphryes said Billy's saw its sales numbers grow that year, as they capitalized on using their already popular patio to socially distance customers.

"We did what we had to do, and we paid all the employees and kept everybody on staff. And then Paul got out here and we expanded the patio until we went from one end of the street to the other," Humphryes said. "We sort of shifted into high gear in COVID. We pushed through and actually came out on top, gaining sales instead of losing sales once we just started generating that patio business and got rolling — I'll never open another store without a patio presence."

That patio, Humphryes said, has helped transform their corner of Northport.

"When I graduated from Alabama in 1974, we didn't come across the bridge unless we were going to City Cafe. And when we got here in 2013, on Saturdays, Northport was a little lazy, and the only people who were open were Anders Hardware, a 100-year-old store, and us," Humphryes said. "We developed a sort of draw into this corner, and now a number of businesses have started staying open on Saturday over that long period of time."

Humphryes said it's meant a lot to him to see that growth come to the once quieter downtown Northport area.

"I went to school down here, and I'm as avid an Alabama as you can find, so I've always wanted to be in Tuscaloosa, but I just did not want to be on the Strip," Humpryes said. "Now, we've got parents bringing their kids and students who are coming over here themselves frequently. It's just something we've been thrilled to develop over a long period of time."

Billy's Sports Grill is open at 430 Main Avenue in downtown Northport every day from 11 to 9 p.m., and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

This is the fourth profile in this year's series, which partners with Visit Tuscaloosa to highlight locally owned businesses each summer. Tuscaloosa Restaurant Week 2026 is presented by Huntington Bank.

For ongoing coverage of restaurant and retail development in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread!