The Globe restaurant returns as a 'food truck without wheels'

Chef Jeff Wilson will bring back his much-loved cuisine this spring, in a compact style, as the Globe Etcetera in Tuscaloosa.

Wilson, who worked construction post-college, has since January been laboring inside, painting and revamping a rectangular building adjacent to Jalapeno's, at 1825 New Watermelon Road, just above the spillway.

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"It's basically a food truck without wheels," said Wilson, who'd like to be serving on William Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, though he can't name the actual opening until after health department inspections, and other hoops.

But he's leapt through those before.

The original the Globe Restaurant, which operated at the corner of Fifth and Main in downtown Northport for 17 years, was named after the Bard's home theater, referenced in "The Tempest" as "the great Globe itself," a pun on both the world of play and the wider earth.

Wilson co-opened with fellow actor-friend Gary Wise, and developed recipes from a Southern upbringing, fused with French and other world cuisines. Victim of rising rents and operating costs, the Globe closed in 2009. Wilson tried a reduced downtown Tuscaloosa version in 2013, but that didn't take hold.

This kiosk-style Globe will serve from a tight menu, with a few tables and chairs, bar-style seating along black iron railings, and a takeout window along one side. The menu will feature probably eight staple items, some recognizable from The Globe Cookbook Wilson produced beginning in 2022; he sold out multiple print-runs of those to folks missing his Thai Emerald Curry, baked brie and garlic on focaccia, the Salmon Caliban.

"Then there'll be grab-and-go stuff, like lasagna, chicken alfredo, baked spaghetti, maybe chicken skewers," Wilson said. "Whatever we find that people want.

"And we're going to do stuff that our grandmas made that we miss, and want to share."

All desserts will be made fresh, he added; nothing store-bought. His partner Becky Price, who Wilson has known since high school, is also a financial backer, and will be helping in the kitchen. For now, he's anticipating the two of them handling all the work, but he'll take on others if needed.

Wilson says he's been watching cars coming and going down New Watermelon, just a stone's through from its intersection with Rice Mine Road, vehicles going to The Shops of Lake Tuscaloosa, to nearby Publix, CVS and other businesses.

"We're in a good place," he said. But noticing the roads are pretty dead on Saturdays, Wilson's Globe Etcetera may depend more on weekday traffic, people coming and going from work, from homes in the the Townes, North River village, and other residences around and near the lake. That's another detail that time, and traffic, will tell.

Working inside and out of his food truck without wheels Monday, Wilson seemed at home, and happy to have left behind cooking for Greek houses on the University of Alabama campus, where he's worked for years.

"I'm 62," he said, "and I can work 'til I'm 80."

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: The Globe Etcetera will feature old favorites, fresh desserts, to-go