A Birmingham food truck with family ties to a beloved Magic City restaurant is shutting down after nearly two years.
Chris Joe, whose great-grandfather opened the old Joy Young restaurant in downtown Birmingham more than a century ago, announced this morning on Instagram that he is ending his Rickshaw mobile food business, which first hit the streets in August 2022.
“It is with regret that I’m making this post, but I’ve decided to end Rickshaw after two years of operation,” Joe wrote. “After so many years in the restaurant industry, I thought it’d 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’s been a fun & wild ride, I’ve decided to step away from it for multiple reasons. It’s been an absolute pleasure being able to share my food with the people of Birmingham & make new acquaintances along the way.
“I’d like to thank Slone (Boyd), my right hand guy, who’s been with me this whole journey. I love & appreciate you. As for my customers, thank you so much for supporting me in this project. I’m honestly forever grateful.”
A Homewood High School graduate, Joe got started in the food industry as a teenager washing dishes at Joy Young, and he later worked at such former Birmingham-area restaurants as New York Pizza, the Merritt House, Bombay Café and 26. More recently, he ran the kitchen at Pizzeria GM in West Homewood.
He left the restaurant business during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a couple of years away, he realized how much he missed cooking and started Rickshaw, an Asian-inspired food trailer with a menu that included a pork belly banh mi, a General Tso’s chicken sandwich, fried potstickers and dandan noodles.
“I’m not trying to get rich or famous off this,” he said in a 2023 AL.com story. “I mean, I’m just having fun. As long as I’m paying the bills, it’s fine. It’s all good.”
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Joe’s great-grandfather, Mansion Joe, and three partners opened Joy Young restaurant (originally named King Joy) in downtown Birmingham in 1920.
After it closed 60 years later, Henry Joe, Chris’ uncle, subsequently moved the restaurant to Homewood, reopening Joy Young on the ground floor of the Brookwood Medical Center parking deck. It, too, closed several years later.
When Chris was a kid, his photo was featured on the children’s menu at Joy Young.
“I still have the memories of running around the downtown restaurant as a little kid,” 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, in there washing dishes.”
