By Loyd McIntosh
Photos by Amanda E.H. Pritchard
Since its opening two years ago, Oh Sherri Pub has become one of Moody’s coolest places to hang out. Whether dropping by for a cold beer after work or hungry for some authentic Irish fare, like shepherd’s pie or bangers and mash, Oh Sherri is the spot.
However, the story about how Oh Sherri Pub came about is much cooler.
Longtime Moody resident Joel Wallace was getting ready to head to his job as an assistant soccer coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It was a normal day except for one detail: His car was almost out of gas.
Wallace altered his normal route and headed to the gas station nearest his house at the corner of Park Avenue and Moody Parkway, a decision that changed the direction of his and his family’s lives in an instant.
“I was driving by, and I saw a big “For Rent” sign, and I saw this unit here, and it had these big double doors, and I thought, ‘Yeah, this would be perfect for my pub,’” Wallace explained. “I always wanted to do it. My dad and I have talked about it forever, about owning a pub.”
He finished gassing up his car and started his daily commute to UAB, but he kept spinning the idea around in his head and turned the car around long before reaching the Interstate 20 on-ramp. He called the number on the “For Rent” sign, and the landlord agreed to meet at the space five minutes later. By the time the landlord unlocked the door, the vision for Wallace’s Irish pub came together faster than you can sing a rendition of “Danny Boy.”
“I walked in and right away my mind started going, and I was like, ‘You know, this would be pretty neat,’” Wallace said.
Excited about the possibility, Wallace called his daughter, a lawyer for a major firm in Birmingham, with an offer to treat her to lunch in Moody, a ruse to show her the space and get her thoughts on the idea. She didn’t hesitate to give him the thumbs up.
“I showed her, and the next thing I know, she was excited,” Wallace said. “She said, ‘You can do this, Dad.’ Well, that was sort of it. She gave me the nod, and I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go forward.’”
Still, there was one person left to convince—his wife, Diana Wallace. An engineering instructor at UAB and formerly Head of the Math Department at Hewitt-Trussville High School, Diana is the analytical, cautious one in the Wallace household. Her advice: “Just look into it.”
“‘Looking into it’ meant that I started buying equipment, signing leases and just went for it on a whim,” Joel admitted.
Joel canceled an upcoming recruiting trip to California and retired from coaching, immediately throwing himself into creating Oh Sherri Pub. With a blank slate to work with and no experience in food service, Joel got to work to bring his vision to life, even though he admits he had no idea what he was doing.
“I was so ignorant that when I went to the bank, and they were like, ‘What’s your expected income?’ I said, ‘I don’t know? Is $2,000 a month too much? $5,000? $10,000?’” he said. “I remember when I made my first 200 bucks. I was just ecstatic!”
Joel built the pub’s centerpiece bar on his own, adding that he had the idea for the wraparound bar the moment he walked into the space and that “it came together pretty easily.”
He and Diana paired up to complete the ceiling renovation and build all of the pub’s tables. They also sourced antique and discarded items, such as a pair of antique fireplace mantles, adding to the charm and authentic feel of the pub.
One of the first pieces Joel bought was a concrete mantle in Bessemer that he discovered on Facebook Marketplace. “That thing is so heavy,” he said. “That was one of the first things I bought. I knew that I wanted it.”
He acquired the second fireplace mantel from a lake mansion, which he said the owners were basically giving away.
“It’s gorgeous. I mean it is a big, beautiful piece of hand-carved wood,” he said. “Everything in the pub has a little story to it.”
Inside, it is easy to imagine sipping a pint of Guinness at The Brazen Head or Sean’s Pub in the center of Dublin. However, Joel said Oh Sherri is more reminiscent of Irish bars in American cities with large Irish populations like Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee or his hometown, Chicago.
In fact, he said many of the ideas for Oh Sherri Pub came from family snowmobiling trips in Wisconsin, where hole-in-the-wall joints were a common, and welcome, sight.
“Along the routes were these bars, and so you would take a trail, drive a few hours, pull up to a bar, you walk in, and there were always these small, little tiny four-foot tables up front,” Joel said. “You walk in, get something to eat or something to drink, maybe some hot chocolate, hop back on your sled and go to the next place.”
Today, many of the couple’s ten children work in the pub. However, in the early days, Joel put in many 12-hour-plus days with Diana helping out as her time allowed.
Joel named the pub for his sister, Sherri, who died as a result of a tragic accident on her third birthday in 1964, six years before he was born. Even though he never knew his sister, he said he’s been told she was a handful, but she displayed a joy for life that was infectious even at such a young age.
To honor her memory, he placed a photo of Sherri above the bar between a pair of sconces that he said are angels keeping her spirit alive. Despite only hearing stories about Sherri from those who knew her, Joel gets choked up talking about her
“We definitely think that she watches over us,” he said.
Oh Sherri Pub is located at 2733 Moody Pkwy in Moody and is open from 11 a.m.-11 p.m., seven days a week. For more information and to see their menu, visit ohsherripub.com.
Sherri Lee Wallace
Sherri Wallace died in an accident six years before her brother, Joel Wallace, was born. Though he never knew her, he’s heard stories of her lively spirit and named the pub after her. Her photo rests above the bar as a symbol of her watching over.
