Woodrow Washington III

The African American husband-and-wife tandem George (1934-1985) and Betty (1933-2002) Archibald opened their restaurant, Archibald’s BBQ, in the small town of Northport across the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, in 1962. Their business, now passed on to family, has expanded over the years and has achieved national attention for its pork ribs.

In the Tuscaloosa area, there were two Black husband-wife teams who left their jobs to start their own barbecue restaurants. A few years after fellow Tuscaloosa natives John and Lillie Bishop opened Dreamland Bar-B-Que in 1958, George and Betty Archibald left their jobs to pursue the independence of restaurant ownership amid Jim Crow segregation. George Archibald left Holt Steel mill in Holt, Tuscaloosa County, and Betty quit her job at a paper mill.

For more than 50 years, Archibald’s BBQ has remained in the same small building. Inside, customers can take a seat at the counter or in a separate dining room, at one of just a few tables. Outside, customers enjoy their meal at one of the few picnic tables. Otherwise, patrons park their vehicles in the gravel parking lot to pick up their carry-out orders. For most of its history, the restaurant offered a limited menu featuring only sliced pork shoulder or slabs of ribs, with white bread and potato chips as the only side items.

Archibald’s BBQ has remained in the family for three generations. Son George Archibald Jr. and daughter Paulette Washington took over for their parents. In 2002, Washington’s son Woodrow Washington III opened the Tuscaloosa-based Archibald and Woodrow’s BBQ on Greensboro Avenue, which then expanded to include a yet another location in Tuscaloosa on McFarland Boulevard. In 2014, Woodrow Washington III took over most of the responsibilities at all Archibald’s BBQ and Archibald and Woodrow’s BBQ locations. Under Washington III’s guidance, the original location has added chicken, potato salad, and banana pudding to the menu. The newer locations have an expanded menu, including catfish and many more side items. They also cater special events. In 2025, Archibald and Woodrow’s BBQ opened another location in downtown Birmingham, Jefferson County, taking over a location formerly owned by Rib-It-Up on First Avenue.

At the restaurants, the barbecue cooks, known as “pitmasters,” have almost always been members of the family. They use a direct-fire method of cooking pork ribs and, more recently, pork shoulders, which comes sliced instead of pulled. Like in-town competitor Dreamland Bar-B-Que, the Archibald’s pitmasters typically use direct-fire cooking and cook the restaurant’s ribs in about 45 minutes. Although their method defies the low-and-slow type of barbecue, which put cooking times at more than three hours for ribs and more than six hours for pork shoulders, they have achieved local, national, and even international fame.

Indeed, from humble origins, the Archibalds, and now the Washingtons, have gained national recognition for their hickory-cooked, open-pit pork ribs. According to local lore, the ribs pleased the palate of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, who frequently visited. In 2009, Archibald’s ribs placed second in Good Morning America’s quest to find the best barbecue in the country. In 2013, USA Today ranked the restaurants as the sixth-best ribs in the United States. In 2023, the family of restaurants earned recognition from Southern Living as the fourteenth-best barbecue restaurant in the South.