After 17 years, Chicken Comer barbecue returning to Phenix City

Terry Bussey is taking the iconic Chicken Comer barbecue restaurant and its spicy mustard-based sauce back to its Alabama roots.

Started in 1929 in Phenix City, the restaurant has changed ownership at least five times and has been in business off Veterans Parkway in north Columbus for the last 17 years.

Bussey, who has owned the restaurant for five years, will start construction on a second Chicken Comer location at the intersection of 14th Street and 11th Avenue in the next few weeks.

“We are going to put Chicken Comer barbecue back into Phenix City where it belongs,” he said. “We will keep the store in Columbus.”

With an aggressive construction schedule, he plans to open in early May. Plans call for a 2,000-square-foot restaurant, 20 parking spaces, a drive-thru and a $400,000 investment, Bussey said on Monday. The construction permit was obtained through Phenix City Building and Codes office on Friday.

“Anybody can put up a McDonald’s, Burger King or Dairy Queen, but for us it takes a lot to do something like this,” Bussey said.

And it has been a long and trying journey.

Bussey has been working for more than a year to find a location suitable for the venture. He looked at existing buildings, then decided if he was going to spend the money to renovate, it made more sense to build a new restaurant.

Phenix City Economic Development Manager Shaun Culligan worked with Bussey to find a location.

“He worked really hard on this,” Culligan said. “We are glad he was able to bring Chicken Comer back where it belongs.”

The restaurant was started during the Great Depression by Anderson “Uncle Chicken” Comer out of his house in Phenix City.

The key to the success is the sauce, Bussey said.

“You know it’s that yellow sauce that everybody tries to imitate,” Bussey said. “I have heard everyone say they know what’s in it. But none of them have got it right yet.”

Bussey worked in the barbecue business for Mike and Ed’s in the early 1990s. He then went to work in the information technology department at TSYS, where he stayed for 20 years until he bought Chicken Comer.

One of reasons Chicken Comer was located in Georgia was that the business owed more than $40,000 to the state of Alabama in back sales tax and penalties. That issue did not occur under Bussey’s ownership, but he had to deal with it before he could open an Alabama store. He made his case to the Alabama Revenue Department, arguing that it would be wrong to use the back taxes from allowing a new restaurant to generate new sales and employment tax revenue.

“We finally got a letter from them clearing the way,” Bussey said.

The deal came together in the last two weeks when he was able to secure financing, Bussey said.

“I give a lot of credit to Renasant Bank in Columbus,” he said. “There were a lot of banks that just would not touch this deal. They stepped in and really helped me get this done.”

Bussey also gave credit to his girlfriend, Kim Dunlap, who works in the Columbus store.

“This doesn’t happen without her,” he said. “She made sure I was in the position to do this.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 3:21 PM with the headline "After 17 years, Chicken Comer barbecue returning to Phenix City."