The food truck with ties to a longtime Birmingham restaurant is closing

A Birmingham food truck with family ties to a beloved Magic City restaurant is closing after nearly two years.

Chris Joe, whose great-grandfather opened the old Joy Young restaurant in Birmingham city center more than a century ago, announced on Instagram this morning that he is ending his mobile food business Rickshaw, which first hit the streets in August 2022.

“It is with regret that I am making this post, but I have decided to end Rickshaw after two years of operation,” Joe wrote. “After so many years in the restaurant industry, I thought it would be fun to step out on a ledge and try something on my own. Cooking food I’ve never cooked before, meeting new people and challenging myself to create new things.

“While it was a fun and wild ride, I decided to walk away from it for a number of reasons. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to share my food with the people of Birmingham and make new acquaintances along the way.

“I would like to thank Slone (Boyd), my right-hand man, who has been with me throughout this journey. I love you and I appreciate you. As for my customers, thank you very much for supporting me in this project. I am truly forever grateful.”

A graduate of Homewood High School, Joe started in the food industry as a teenager washing dishes at Joy Young and later worked at former Birmingham-area restaurants such as New York Pizza, Merritt House, Bombay Café and 26. More recently, he ran the kitchen at GM Pizzeria in West Homewood.

He left the restaurant business during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a few years away, she realized how much she missed cooking and started Rickshaw, an Asian-inspired food trailer with a menu that included a pork belly banh mi, a chicken sandwich General Tso’s, fried stickers and dandan noodles.

“I’m not trying to get rich or famous from this,” he said in a 2023 AL.com story. “I mean, I’m just having fun. As long as I pay the bills, it’s fine. All is well.”

IN CONNECTION WITH: This food truck’s connection to a beloved Birmingham restaurant

Joe’s great-grandfather, Mansion Joe, and three partners opened the Joy Young Restaurant (originally called King Joy) in downtown Birmingham in 1920.

After it closed 60 years later, Henry Joe, Chris’s uncle, later moved the restaurant to Homewood, reopening Joy Young’s on the ground floor of the Brookwood Medical Center parking lot. It also closed a few years later.

When Chris was a child, his photo was featured on the children’s menu at Joy Young.

“I still have the memories of running through the restaurant downtown when I was little,” he said in that AL.com story. “And then, of course, I have more memories at the Brookwood location because I was a little bit older.

“That was actually my first job ever – washing dishes in my family’s restaurant,” he adds. “I was 14, washing dishes there.”