A while back, we asked a handful of chefs from around Alabama to tell us their go-to restaurant — excluding their own, of course.

Specifically, we asked: “If you could eat at only one Alabama restaurant (other than your own) for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?”

And here is what they had to say.

Now, as part of our ongoing “Ask an Alabama Chef” series, we reached out to some of those same chefs, restaurateurs and pitmasters — as well as a few new ones — and posed another question:

“What old Alabama restaurant that is no longer around do you miss the most, and what are your memories of going there?”

Here are their responses:

Ashley McMakin of Ashley Mac’s Kitchen in Birmingham

Ashley McMakin, the owner and CEO of Ashley Mac’s Kitchen, misses Tavern on the Summit, which closed in late 2013 after 15 years in business at The Summit in Birmingham.

The restaurant was popular for its elevated bar food.

“Oh my gosh, we loved that place,” McMakin says. “We went there all the time.

“I loved their chicken fingers, which I hardly ever order out, but they were huge and so good,” she adds. “And then their French onion soup, and their house salad with homemade dressing was really good.

“Yes, we used to love that place.”

Brody Olive of Voyagers in Orange Beach

Brody Olive, the head chef at Voyagers in Orange Beach and the reigning Great American Seafood Cook-Off champion, has fond memories of the Anchor Bar and Grill at Hudson Marina off Canal Road in Orange Beach.

The restaurant closed a couple of years ago and has since reopened as a second location of Tuscaloosa’s popular Avenue Pub.

Olive was partial to the Anchor’s Cuban sandwiches.

“It was our spot for me and my girls, our lunch spot when we were out on the boat,” Olive says. “I’d always get a Cuban and eat half there and half went in the cooler in the boat for later in the day.

“I sure miss that guy’s food.”

Linda Smelley of The Historic Waysider Restaurant in Tuscaloosa

Linda Smelley, who started working at Tuscaloosa’s Historic Waysider Restaurant in 1976 and has owned it since 1989, has warm recollections of going out to eat at another beloved T-Town dining establishment, The Lamplighter, which closed sometime in the late 1980s.

“The big ol’ red house on the hill with the porch all the way around it,” as Smelley recalls it, The Lamplighter was located next to the Moon Winx Lodge on University Boulevard East in Alberta City.

Although the restaurant was best known for its steaks and seafood, Smelley was a fan of the Lamplighter’s down-home vegetables.

“They were open at lunch and at night, and they cooked like we do,” Smelley says. “They had really good vegetables and rolls and things like that.

“That’s been so long ago that I can’t even remember when that was,” she adds. “But it was always good.”

Another old favorite of Smelley’s was the Cotton Patch in Eutaw, which opened in 1937 and closed for good in the late 2000s.

“I miss the Cotton Patch,” she says. “Oh, my gosh, those watermelon rind pickles and those little pocket rolls they made. And their fried chicken was really great.”

Brian Mooney of Tre Luna Bar & Kitchen in Hoover

Brian Mooney grew up in South Florida, but after he met his future wife, Erin, in Fort Lauderdale, the couple moved to her hometown of Birmingham, where they eventually started their Tre Luna Catering business before opening Tre Luna Bar & Kitchen in Hoover in 2019.

One of Brian’s first Birmingham meals, he recalls, was at VJ’s Café on the Runway, a local favorite that operated for decades near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport and where Erin worked as a server in the early 1990s — long before they met.

(Erin’s uncle, Vincent Joseph “V.J.” Sazera, bought an existing barbecue joint from one of his in-laws in 1976 and renamed it VJ’s Café on the Runway, where he served two-fisted burgers and hearty meat-and-three lunches. In 2005, because of a runway extension project, the café relocated to the former Air National Guard Credit Union building on East Lake Boulevard, overlooking the airport runway. VJ’s was gutted in a fire in 2012 and never reopened.)

“One of the first experiences I had (in Birmingham) was we went out to eat tamales and a Reuben sandwich at VJ’s and then went to Bottega that night,” Brian recalls. “And that’s what made me fall in love with Alabama and what was going on in the food scene. . . .

“Oh man,” he adds, “that was my go-to order every time I would go (to VJ’s) — two tamales and a Reuben sandwich.”

Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur

Legendary Alabama pitmaster and barbecue world champion Chris Lilly of Decatur’s Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q knows his meat — be it pork, poultry or beef.

So, Lilly’s favorite Alabama restaurant that’s no longer around is, appropriately enough, a steak restaurant — Dale’s Steakhouse in Florence.

(The original Dale’s Cellar Restaurant opened in downtown Birmingham in 1946, and over the years, the Dale’s brand grew to include locations throughout Alabama and around the South. The Florence location was the last one standing before it closed.)

Lilly says it was always a special occasion when the family went to eat at the Dale’s in Florence.

But while that Florence location closed nearly 10 years ago and was rebranded as Sperry’s Restaurant (which has subsequently gone out of business), another old favorite of Lilly’s is still around.

“Growing up in the Shoals, we were fortunate to have two great steak restaurants close by — Dale’s in Florence and George’s Steak Pit in Sheffield,” he says. “Sadly, Dale’s is no longer chargrilling steaks, but George’s is still amazing.”

NOTE: Our “Ask an Alabama Chef” series will appear periodically on AL.com. To suggest a question or recommend a chef, email [email protected].