An award-winning Alabama chef has headed west. John Hall, the proprietor and executive chef of the popular pizzeria Post Office Pies, announced his relocation to Portland, Ore. In a detailed post Wednesday on his Instagram account, the Birmingham native expressed heartfelt thanks for years of support before announcing his move to the Pacific Northwest to place a greater focus on family:
“Through my education and training at some of the best restaurants in the world with arguably some of the best chefs in the world, I’ve come to learn that there is more to life than press, awards, and money to be made,” the post said. “Having come close to opening two new projects, I’ve decided to focus on what is most important to me after the last two years - family.”
In the post, Hall explained he will still retain his ownership stake in Post Office Pies and sang the praises of the team who will continue to run operations at the restaurants: The pizzeria’s general managers (“both strong, bad ass women”) and culinary director chef Roscoe Hall.
The carousel of photos in Hall’s Instagram post illustrate his culinary journey throughout the decades -- black and white photos of him smiling in kitchens, a childhood photo of him standing over the stove, and photos with colleagues.
In one photograph, Hall poses with a group of children in the front of Post Office Pies. Teaching youth about the culinary world is a passion of Hall’s, who has also played a pivotal role as an instructor at Jones Valley Teaching Farm in Birmingham.
It’s a sentiment he expressed to celebrity chef Carla Hall during a tour of the farm in her 2018 cookbook “Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration.” Hall described the dialogue in her book, writing that their conversation reminded her that it’s possible to get the next generation to love vegetables, and inspired her recipe for chunky tomato soup with okra.
Hall left Birmingham in 1999 and cooked in kitchens around the South, including later working for chef Frank Stitt. Over the years, Hall built an impressive culinary resume, cooking with Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants, such as Chef Léa Linster in Luxembourg and New York’s Per Se, Gramercy Tavern and Momofuku Ssam.
Hall returned to Birmingham years later and opened Post Office Pies in 2014 in Avondale with Mike Wilson, Hunter Lake and Brandon Cain -- the same management team that runs Saw’s Soul Kitchen. In 2015, a second location of Post Office Pies opened in Tuscaloosa, but closed in 2017. In 2020, the team opened a location of Post Office Pies in Mountain Brook.
In the Instagram post, Hall also urged his colleagues in Birmingham’s service industry to be change agents in the culinary world, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shed a light on the issues that have long plagued employees in the culinary industry, including stressful work environments, exhausting hours, and burnout.
“To all my colleagues in the service industry in Birmingham - let us re-define what our community of restaurants and bars look like. Let us strive to do better, be better than our predecessors before us when it comes to caring for our own.”
During a panel about Alabama’s culinary and agricultural industry, Hall shared the stage at Sloss Furnaces with more than twenty chefs, restaurateurs, and educators from around the state who told personal stories about their tenures in Alabama’s dining industry and ideas about how to move the scene forward, especially in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
When it was time to share his testimonial, Hall, donning shades and a black “The Nick Rocks” T-shirt -- a tribute to one of Birmingham’s most famous dive bars and rock music institutions, thanked the audience for their support. As attendees let out a few cheers, Hall leaned toward the microphone for the rest of his address-- a call to look beyond the same Birmingham restaurants media routinely include on “Best of” lists.
“Everyone here is a survivor of the pandemic, so we are blessed and grateful to be here. What I hope for in this sweet, delicious Alabama is that we support each other. To the writers who are here, to the people who are visiting, go support Green Acres. Go support Magic City Grill,” said Hall, nodding to two long-running restaurants in Birmingham helmed by Black owners.
Then, Hall paused before delivering his most forthright message-- one that addressed the value of culinary honors, such as the James Beard Awards.
“We know about the James Beards, but what does that mean anymore. What does James Beard mean anymore?”
“James Beard restaurants are closed right now,” Hall continued. “The award that means the most to me is that I’m an employer. I have employees to take care of. That’s the greatest award that matters.”
The country’s culinary industry has taken an overwhelming hit since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, from mandated shutdowns to mass layoffs and closures. The restaurants who made it through the year are still in survival mode, trying to keep their doors open and protect their businesses from the unpredictable effects of the public health crisis. The protests for social justice in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police also brought conversations about racism and inequality in the hospitality industry to the forefront, emphasizing the calls chefs, bartenders, and restaurant staff of color have long made for the industry to address its’ pitfalls.
Last year, the James Beard Foundation announced it would cancel its annual awards ceremony --which is often regarded as the “Oscars” of the culinary world-- as well as forego the awards in 2021. In a statement, the foundation said retaining the traditional award categories and format after a year of unprecedented hardship in the food and beverage industry would be “unfair and misguided.”
The foundation said the awards will continue in 2022, but with changes to the nomination process, announcing its awards committees would work with an outside social justice agency to overhaul the policies and procedures for the annual honors with the goal to “remove any systemic bias,” and " increase the diversity of the pool of candidates.” Over the years, culinary and media professionals-- particularly people of color--- have questioned the James Beard Foundation’s role in the industry and the relevance of the awards. The foundation has slowly heeded the advice, inviting thought leaders to share their opinions and making small structural changes on committees and advisory boards.
In his October address, Hall challenged the conference attendees-- many of whom were writers-- to document the stories of people who weren’t on the stage that day.
“There are so many stories that need to be told. People who don’t have a voice. People who are not heard,” said Hall. “Let’s go support minority businesses. Let’s support Black and brown people. The trans community. The gay community.”
As Hall continued, he pressed for more accountability from conference attendees, particularly media professionals, saying the onus wasn’t only on chefs, restaurant owners, and bartenders in the industry to share their stories at events such as workshops and conferences.
“It’s not on the people on this stage to write these stories. And to make sure they are heard. To make sure they are seen. There are millions of ‘John Halls’ in the city right now. But if you don’t look past the people we always hear about, you’re losing and missing the whole point of what makes this city resilient. What makes this city special. What makes this city the Magic City,” said Hall.
“So I ask you guys to look beyond the fluff. Go do the work.”
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