Hey, Good Lookin’

Linda Burton posting from Montgomery, Alabama – When Hank Williams moved to Montgomery in 1937 at the age of 14, Chris Katechis’ restaurant had already been open for twenty years. I’m sitting in Chris’ Place today, eating two of his famous hotdogs, beside a wall decorated in musical notes. I came in because I’d read that Hank Williams used to sit in Chris’ and write songs, and sure enough, I spotted a large poster of Hank as I came in the front door. “Do the musical notes have anything to do with Hank’s songwriting?” I asked my server, as she brought homemade onion rings stacked up cute like a tree. She went away to find out. The lady in the booth across the aisle had advised me on my order. “I worked here myself, back in the 60’s,” she told me, admitting she had no idea what was in the famous secret sauce Chris ladled over his hotdogs. “That’s why it’s called a secret,” she grinned. My server came back to tell me the musical notes on the wall were a part of the original décor, “just because Mr Chris liked music,” she said. Enter Gus, a third generation Katechis, who sat down in my booth and told me a little more about the restaurant, and Hank. “There was a jukebox in here, and Hank always sat in the back booth. Sometimes he’d write, and always he drank. When he’d drunk a little too much, he’d start womanizing. And when he got a little too boisterous, my grandfather would help him out the door. But Hank was a good guy.” “What songs did he write in here?” I asked, but no one had the answer to that. “Maybe Hey, Good Lookin’, whatcha got cookin’?” Gus gave me his card and invited me to come back as often as I could. » read more