By Hannah Curran, Editor
LEEDS — The nostalgic Fried Green Tomatoes movie is known by many, and those iconic fried goodies can be created in your own home. Whistlestop Products are available, and the memory of the little green café in old Irondale still lives in grocery stores across the country.
GHC Products, Inc., famously known as Whistlestop Products, found its new home in Leeds, where they sell Whistlestop Products wholesale to some large grocery distributors across the state and country, as well as to numerous Mom and Pop grocery stores, produce stands, and produce markets. In fact, Martin states they are in every state except Hawaii and Alaska.
The Whistlestop Products are mixed, packaged, and shipped from its manufacturer (J. M. Exotic Foods) right down the road in Moody.
In a simpler time, as you approached the small town of Irondale, Alabama, you might see some quaint, country-style homes and children playing in well-groomed yards—neighborhoods with sidewalks and folks out for a stroll.
There, you’d also find the Original WhistleStop Café. Inside, you would find folks enjoying that friendly, down-home atmosphere and some good, home-cooked meals. There was a wholesome combination of close families, good friends, and food in a pleasant atmosphere of good times and special fellowship.
The Irondale Café was the birthplace of the fried green tomatoes that inspired Fannie Flag to write the New York Times best-selling ‘Fried Green Tomatoes at the WhistleStop Café.’ Her highly successful and beloved novel became the basis for the much-acclaimed movie Fried Green Tomatoes and earned the Scripter’s Award, Writer’s Guild of America, and Academy Award Nomination; for Best Screen Play.
Bess Fortenberry owned the café and was the great-aunt of Fannie Flagg; however, the café was purchased by Billy and Mary Jo McMichael in 1972. Billy worked for the Southern Railroad (now Norfolk Southern) in Irondale, and he was known to eat lunch at the Irondale Café sometimes.
“My dad found out Bess was selling the café and came home and told mom they were going to buy the café with the plans that she would run the café while he continued with the Railroad.” Connie McMichael Martin, President of GHC (Good Home Cooking) Products, Inc. d/b/a (doing business as) Whistlestop Products, said. “They met with Bess, and my parents bought it from her in 1972.”
In the mid-’80s, Fannie visited the café to find stories regarding her Great-Aunt Bess and the café. Martin explained that Fortenberry helped Mary Jo for the first three weeks to help her learn the ins and outs of running the café.
“Of course, a lot of what was shared with Fannie was what my parents had heard from long-time employees and the locals,” Martin said. “We lived in Huffman, not Irondale. Fannie was inspired by her great aunt and the Irondale Café to write the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. In 1989/1990, Fannie called my mom and said, ‘Mary Jo, Hollywood is looking at my book for a possible movie,’ in fact, Fannie co-wrote the screenplay for the movie.’ Mom was so excited.”
However, the movie was never produced in the original location; it was filmed in Juliette, Georgia, due to the town being small but quaint. According to Martin, her mom often joked, “We (the Irondale Café) baked the cake and they (Juliet, Ga) got the icing!”
In 1990, the McMichael’s bought the huge building next to the café and expanded the seating from around 90 to around 290. Then, in January 1992, the movie Fried Green Tomatoes premiered at the Cobb Galleria Theatre in Birmingham.
“My brother, Bill, who had been working and helping my parents at the café, said, ‘Mom, Dad, now is the perfect time to put some of your recipes on the market and sell them.’ With the help of my parents, my brother started GHC Products, Inc. d/b/a (doing business as) Whistlestop Products. My brother added some of his own recipes too. He pretty much built and ran the business and got the products in stores.”
The McMichael’s sold the café to the current owner in 2000, who Martin said has done a great job with the café.
“So our parents had the café 28 years, and now Jim Dolan has now had it 22 years,” Martin said. “My sister and I had our own careers, and my brother Bill had GHC, so we did not want to take over the café.”
When Martin’s parents passed, their shares were split evenly between their kids.
“When my brother died unexpectedly, on December 1, 2020, I told my sister-in-law and sister that I wanted to take over and run Whistlestop Products,” Martin said. “My sister, Beth Nail, agreed to help me when she could, and I worked for five more months with the state so I could retire with a full 25 years paid into retirement. Those first five months were rough.”
Martin worked her day job and came home and worked the evenings and weekends trying to stay caught up and learn a business that she knew very little about because it had been her brother’s baby.
“We could just not sell GHC,” Martin said. “It would be like losing another family member, and we wanted to keep the family legacy of my parents and my brother alive.”
While the McMichael family is no longer connected to the Irondale Café, they do occasionally sell Mary Jo McMichael’s cookbook, which has so many famous recipes.
“I do not own the Irondale Café,” Martin said. “It’s just the history and the products and how they started with my parent’s recipes, like the fried green tomato batter mix recipe. You really can’t talk about WhistleStop Products without talking about the Café.”
At the Original WhistleStop Café, they’ve always known the importance of delicious recipes that will stand the tastes and tests of time. These same recipes are available for you now, here at their online store. You will find tasty cooking batters, scrumptious dessert mixes, an award-winning chili starter, and some well-seasoned spice blends. You can also purchase Whistlestop Products in many local stores.