The story behind these legendary Alabama orange rolls
When Cullman residents Dyron Powell and Zac Wood bought the local landmark All Steak Restaurant four years ago, a top priority was bringing back the original recipe for the restaurant’s legendary orange rolls.
The previous owner had tinkered with the recipe some, Powell says, and guests were complaining that they just weren’t the same orange rolls they remembered.
So, Powell, who also owns Dyron’s Lowcountry restaurant in Mountain Brook, called Charlie Dobson, another former owner of the All Steak, and asked him to come in and show them how it was done.
“When we bought it, we asked Charlie to come back up here one day and tell us how to make the orange roll recipe,” Powell says. “It was a day that we were closed, and I sat and made orange rolls from top to bottom with him.
“And we adjusted it back to the original recipe, which consisted of a lot more butter, a lot more sugar and a lot more orange zest than was being put in it (before),” Powell adds. “Everybody says the orange rolls are back.”
The orange rolls, which are included on the Alabama Tourism Department’s list of “100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama,” are offered complimentary at the end of each meal and are sold to-go by the dozen.
“We have one lady that makes them every day,” Powell says. “She comes in early in the morning and stays until about two o’clock, and she makes 720 every day. And we make double that on Fridays and Saturdays.”
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The orange rolls at the All Steak Restaurant in Cullman are featured on the Alabama Tourism Department’s list of 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama.” (Bob Carlton/[email protected])
The history of the recipe
A Cullman institution since native son Millard Buchmann came back home to open a restaurant in the 1930s, the All Steak Restaurant moved around and changed owners a few times over the ensuing decades, but one constant has been those sweet and tangy orange rolls.
Lucille Wallace — who, along with her husband, Ewing Wallace, bought the All Steak in 1946, back when it was out on U.S. 31 — is believed to be the one who came up with the recipe that is still used at the restaurant today.
The Wallaces often ate at other restaurants on their travels, and Lucille had a knack for taking some of the dishes they sampled and making them into her own, says Charlie Dobson, who started working for the Wallaces in high school and later owned the All Steak for about 30 years.
“She was very good at working out menus and recipes, and after one of their trips, she kind of developed the orange rolls for the All Steak,” Dobson says. “But where she got the idea, I’m not real sure about that.”
Her recipe remained something of a secret that was passed down from one owner to the next, but in 1985, in response to a reader request, Dobson gave Bon Appetit magazine permission to publish a home cook-friendly version of the recipe.
“That was kind of a recipe developed for home use,” he says. “The actual recipe has commercial products in it, something you don’t buy in a grocery store.”
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A copy of that faded magazine cover, alongside the recipe and a typewritten letter from Bon Appetit, hangs in a frame on the wall in Powell’s office at the restaurant.
He’s not all that worried about anybody trying to copy the recipe.
“I welcome anybody in the world to make ‘em if they want to,” Powell says.
The All Steak orange rolls may be imitated, he explains, but never duplicated.
“It’s just unique to us,” Powell adds. “It wouldn’t be the same orange roll if it were anywhere else.”
Dyron Powell, left, and Zac Wood, who have fond memories of eating at the All Steak Restaurant when they were growing up, bought the Cullman landmark in 2019. Powell attended boarding school in Cullman as a teenager and moved his family there about eight years ago. Wood was born and raised in Cullman. (Bob Carlton/[email protected])
An All Steak tradition
For years, the All Steak servers brought out a complimentary basket of orange rolls for guests to nibble on before their entrees arrived.
After he and Wood took over the iconic restaurant in 2019, though, Powell says they noticed some of their carb-conscious guests were skipping bread service altogether, even those tempting orange rolls.
“When we first opened, every table got bread and orange rolls,” he says. “And then we saw how much we were wasting.”
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So, now, the restaurant offers each guest an orange roll at the end of the meal.
“If they want one, then we bring ‘em to them,” Powell says. “Most people want ‘em.”
Those orange rolls, after all, have made the All Steak famous.
“All my life, everybody went to the All Steak and got orange rolls,” Powell says. “I mean, that’s just the way it’s always been. People want those orange rolls.”
The All Steak Restaurant is at 323 Third Ave. SE in Cullman. The phone is 256-734-4322. Hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, go here.
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