This food truck’s connection to a beloved Birmingham restaurant
Those old enough to remember Birmingham’s beloved Joy Young Restaurant might recall the little boy whose face was on the children’s menu.
“They had a paper kids’ menu,” Chris Joe says, “and there’s literally a little black-and-white picture of me on the on the kids’ menu.”
Now 47, Chris — whose great-grandfather opened Joy Young more than a century ago — is bringing his own style of Asian-inspired cuisine to the city he calls home.
His Rickshaw food trailer hit the streets of Birmingham late last summer, and in the cozy confines of his mobile kitchen, Chris is working magic with a menu that includes everything from a pork belly banh mi and a General Tso’s chicken sandwich to fried potstickers and dandan noodles.
“The crazy thing about it is, I’ve never cooked in an actual Asian restaurant,” he says. “I’m kind of just winging it and making my way as I cook.”
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When he was a little boy, Chris Joe was featured on the front of the children’s menu at Joy Young Restaurant.(Photo courtesy of Chris Joe; used with permission)
Childhood memories of Joy Young
Chris Joe’s Birmingham roots run deep.
His great-grandfather, Mansion Joe, came to America from Canton, China, and in 1920, he and three partners opened a Chinese restaurant they called King Joy on Third Avenue North in Birmingham.
They later renamed their business Joy Young and relocated a few blocks away to 20th Street North, across from the street from the old Tutwiler Hotel.
Revered for its egg rolls and chop suey, as well as such American dishes as fried chicken and crabmeat au gratin, Joy Young was a downtown Birmingham landmark for decades until it closed in 1980.
Henry Joe, Chris’ uncle, subsequently moved the restaurant to Homewood, where he reopened Joy Young on the ground floor of the Brookwood Medical Center parking deck. It, too, closed several years later.
“I still have the memories of running around the downtown restaurant as a little kid,” Chris says. “And then, of course, I have more memories at the Brookwood location because I was a little bit older.
“That was actually my first job ever — washing dishes in my family’s restaurant,” he adds. “I was 14, in there washing dishes.”
Although his father’s side of the family was Asian, his mother’s family was American, so growing up, Chris was exposed to, and influenced by, both cultures.
“I got the best of both worlds,” he says. “I got the Joy Young Restaurant thing, and then on the other side of the coin, I got all these good, Southern, home-cooked meals.”
Chris’ mother, Gay, died when he was just 3, so he spent a lot of time with his great-grandmother, Susie Kite, in her kitchen in East Lake while his father, Jimmy Joe, worked as a salesman at Gus Mayer.
“She did all the cooking because she loved it so,” Chris recalls. “What stood out to me was the salmon croquettes. I used to love those things.”
Chris Joe opened his Rickshaw food trailer in August 2022. (Bob Carlton/[email protected])
A culinary adventure begins
After Chris graduated from Homewood High School in 1994, he attended the University of Montevallo for a couple of years but soon decided college wasn’t for him.
The restaurant business was.
He got a job at Cucos Mexican Grill on Green Springs Highway and then at New York Pizza in Edgewood before making the transition to fine dining at the Merritt House on Highland Avenue and, later, Bombay Café in Lakeview.
He met his future wife, Heather Robertson, after work one night in 1997.
“She was waiting tables during nursing school, so that’s how we met and started hanging out,” Chris says.
After they got married five years later, Chris and Heather moved first to San Antonio, Texas, and then to Augusta, Ga., for Heather’s training as a nurse anesthetist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Upon their return to Birmingham a few years ago, Chris worked for George Reis at his restaurant 26 in Five Points South.
He later befriended Giani Respinto of Homewood’s GianMarco’s Restaurant and began assisting him with private, in-home dinners.
Then, when Respinto opened a second restaurant, Pizzeria GM, in West Homewood in 2018, Chris ran the kitchen for him.
Customers place their orders at the Rickshaw food trailer during a recent stop outside Gatos and Beans in Avondale .(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Getting his groove back
During the COVID-19 pandemic, though, Chris began to get burned out on restaurants, and he left the business to work for a commercial linen supply company.
“I just wasn’t enjoying cooking anymore,” he says. “I just wanted to step away. I wanted to get as far away as possible from it.”
After a couple of years away — and a vacation to Italy that got his creative juices flowing again — Chris realized how much he missed being in the kitchen, how much he loved cooking, and how much it was in his blood.
“After I traveled to Italy, that’s what made me want to get back into cooking — just seeing the way they ate over there and their appreciation and love for food,” he says. “It made me miss cooking and sharing food with others.”
Inspired and rejuvenated, Chris went back to work for Respinto at Pizzeria GM for a few months to get his groove back and began shopping around for a food truck.
“I squirrelled money away for a while,” he says. “I slowly pieced stuff together and decided what concept I wanted to do and what kind of menu I wanted.”
The pork belly banh mi is a mainstay of the menu at the Rickshaw food trailer.(Bob Carlton/[email protected])
Asian food with a Southern accent
The Rickshaw menu is a mash-up of cultures and influences that draws on all his culinary experiences – from his family’s restaurant and his great-grandmother’s kitchen to every chef for whom he ever worked.
Among the dishes are Korean fried chicken nuggets with gochujang hot honey from Eastaboga Bee Company; congee with grilled Conecuh Sausage and a savory Chinese donut; and a house-made pimento cheese with Thai relish and prawn chips.
“Some of the dishes I do are just straightforward, traditional Asian (dishes),” Chris says. “Some of the stuff, I’ll throw in Southern elements or Italian elements or whatever just to make it different.
“I’m trying to push the envelope and still be creative and not get bored and have fun with it at the same time.”
Eventually, Chris wants to add something to the menu to pay homage to his family’s history with Joy Young Restaurant.
“I’m still working on that — like my gears are always turning,” he says. “I really want to do something with the egg foo young. I’ve got to figure out a way to do that.”
In the meantime, he’s going to heed the advice his uncle, Henry Joe, gave him a long time ago.
“Before I opened this truck, people were trying to push me to open a brick-and-mortar,” he says. “My uncle told me don’t open a restaurant because it’ll take over your life. It took my grandfather to an early grave, just from the stress of it.”
So, for now, the Rickshaw food truck is just a two-man operation, with Chris doing the cooking and Slone Boyd working the window. Typically, Chris is at out on the streets — at Hop City Beer & Wine at Pepper Place and at Gatos and Beans in Avondale — just three days a week.
“Maybe on down the road, I might try to expand and get another cook, but I’m not trying to get rich or famous off this,” he says. “I mean, I’m just having fun. As long as I’m paying the bills, it’s fine. It’s all good.”
For more information about the Rickshaw food truck, go here. For schedules and updates, follow Rickshaw on Instagram and Facebook.
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