By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

MONTEVALLO – The Ammons family began Ida’s Country Kitchen to not only offer a comfortable, family atmosphere, but also to create a legacy of its own.

In the early 90s, Sheila Ammons and her mother, Ida, turned Ida’s homespun recipes into a full-fledged business.

“My mom taught us all to cook. I can still picture my son sitting at her kitchen table learning how to make biscuits. That’s why we named the restaurant after my mom. It was meant to be.”

As Ammons learned how to make light and fluffy biscuits, potato salad and banana pudding from her mother, she’s passing along cooking techniques directly to her children and grandson. And her sons are responding in kind, as they’re creating culinary legacies of their own.

“They like to watch those cooking shows,” Ammons explained. “My son created his own onion ring batter, and customers keep comparing it to Lloyd’s onion rings. I told him to take that as a compliment.”

It’s a true family operation. In one particular anecdote, Ammons shared how she was stuck in traffic, desperate to return to the restaurant to serve the dinner crowd. Thankfully, her brother and his family, who came to enjoy dinner, arrived and pitched in to help serve.

While the restaurant’s current location at 4781 Highway 25 in Montevallo is a new home for the country-style eatery, some of the restaurant’s faithful crowd followed the homespun food from its previous location at the crossroad of Highway 119 and County Road 22.

“We have some customers that followed us from Crossroads. We have ‘The Breakfast Club.’ This is where they always come and get their coffee.”

Montevallo’s Mayor, Ben McCrory, also enjoyed a cup of coffee on Friday, Jan. 14 as he patiently awaited the ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled to take place at 10 a.m.

Ammons’ 5-year-old grandson, Joey, couldn’t be more excited about the mayor’s visit.

“Joey was so excited to tell his classmates that the mayor was at his restaurant,” Joey’s mom, Latasha Ammons, said.

The restaurant began as a mother-daughter dream, but it has morphed into something even more family oriented. Ammons and her sons do all of the cooking, and her daughter-in-law greets and serves customers. The new location is bigger and better than the previous location, and Ammons couldn’t be more optimistic.

“It’s the best move we could’ve made,” she said.