Sugo Italian Restaurant: Christian Williams on Elevating Authentic Italian Cuisine in Tuscaloosa

Ever wondered what makes authentic Italian cuisine truly special? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we sit down with Christian Williams, the passionate owner of Sugo Italian Restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa. Christian sheds light on the art of crafting genuine Italian dishes, from sauces made with authentic San Marzano tomatoes to exquisite offerings like branzini and pesto-covered pork over polenta. Hear firsthand how Sugo is redefining Italian dining in Tuscaloosa with fresh ingredients and traditional cooking methods that promise an unforgettable culinary experience.

Christian also shares his fascinating journey from college student working in local restaurants to becoming the proud owner of one of Tuscaloosa's newest culinary hotspots. Discover the diverse and mouth-watering menu at Sugo, from their delectable Italian beef sandwich to the rustic tomato sandwich, ensuring there's something delightful for every palate. If you're a food lover eager to explore authentic Italian flavors and learn the story behind Sugo, this episode is a must-listen! #GNPNorthport #SugoTuscaloosa #SugoItalianRestaurant #WhattoEatTuscaloosa #TuscaloosaFoodie #Foodie #WhattodoTuscaloosa 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Speaker 2: 0:14

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Christian Williams, and Christian is the owner of Sugo Italian Restaurant on University in downtown Tuscaloosa. Christian, how are you today? Hey good, how are you doing, patricia? I'm doing great and I cannot wait to experience Sugo's. Tell us all about it.

Speaker 3: 0:38

Well, we're. We're new to the town, but not, and we're trying to bring an authentic, you know, italian restaurant to downtown and hopefully give citizens and travelers a chance to experience a little bit of Italy in Tuscaloosa.

Speaker 2: 0:59

We love our food here in Tuscaloosa. Tell me how. Tell me a little bit about the menu. Tell me about how Sugo's is calling it. Sugo's, it's Sugo. Tell me what. What does Sugo?

Speaker 3: 1:13

mean. So Sugo means gravy. In Italian is basically the Italians generally will call their homemade tomato sauce either ragu or sugo, and of course I didn't want to name my restaurant after a canned American spaghetti sauce. So I chose sugo because I thought it was an easy name to remember and actually I thought it would generate questions for people to ask what it meant.

Speaker 2: 1:41

Well terrific, I'm glad I fed into that people to ask what it meant.

Speaker 3: 1:46

Well terrific, I'm glad I fed into that. Tell me a little bit about what makes Sugo different. So we're truly, truly making everything from scratch and using fresh ingredients, so you could find us here starting at seven or eight every morning, making our sauces from scratch. We use true Italian San Marzano tomatoes, we use true olive oil from the region and we use everything we can source directly from the best suppliers possible to make our dishes.

Speaker 2: 2:21

So a lot of people think when they're gonna go into an Italian food restaurant they're just gonna be served a bunch of pasta. Tell, that's not the case in sugo. Tell, tell. Let's talk a little bit about authentic italian food and what that means. As far as what you can, order there.

Speaker 3: 2:38

Well, so I so truly. Italian food is very simple and that's a huge misconception that. If we've had any misconceptions about the restaurant, is that, like, say, our pomodoro sauce or our sugo is a traditional sauce, but it's also very simple and we as Americans have gotten so used to Americanized versions of these sauces that we don't really know what authentic means, or it's kind of, maybe doesn't have as much flavors and taste as they may be expecting, because if you look at any shelf-made spaghetti sauce, it's chock full of sugar, right? Well, a true Italian sauce is just garlic and olive oil and salt pepper and the tomatoes and some onion too, and it's just slow-c cooked.

Speaker 3: 3:31

But it's not all about pasta either. I mean, the Italians are surrounded by water, so you have lots of seafood options, especially for us. We sell branzini or we use a pork product to make pesto-covered pork over polenta, and they like their steak over there too. So we have steak options. And we do many, many other things besides pasta, for instance, at lunch. We just started open for lunch this past Monday and we serve an Italian beef sandwich it's fantastic or a rustic tomato sandwich. So there's a lot of things that are not just pasta, if that's not what you're into.

Speaker 2: 4:17

Wonderful.

Speaker 3: 4:18

Tell us about your journey, christian. Have you always been a restaurateur? I have not. So well, I've been in the restaurant industry for a long time. When I was in college I worked for a local restaurant called Cypress Inn. I worked there for many, many years and then went to the fine dining aspect working for a restaurant called Cozy's, and then from there I went into food sales working for a distributor who sold food to restaurants. So I got to learn that aspect of the industry and then I left the industry for just a little while while I had young kids and kind of changed paths in some ways and kind of change paths in some ways. And then it's just always been a big dream to open my own restaurant, as I have several friends here in town that have their own and I guess in some ways I was jealous of them and really wanted to. Well, if they can do it, I can do it. So here I am.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Well, what do you do for fun, Christian, when you're not, when you're not working and it's a tough business. I mean that you really wanted to be in this business speaks a lot about how hard you're willing to work. So I'm not saying you have a lot of time, but when you do, what do you do for?

Speaker 3: 5:24

fun. I enjoy spending time with my kids when, when there's free time and they've got a lot going on in their lives, right, so I generally find myself gravitating towards something that they've got going on. But if I had my own free time, I enjoy the things that most people do. I love going out to eat at new restaurants especially privately owned restaurants and not these chains and I like to travel and I love golf and various other things, but also love just sitting at the house and binge watching Netflix. Now that I'm in public so much, it's sometimes nice just to like veg out.

Speaker 2: 6:03

Let's zoom out a little bit and talk about a challenge, something that you faced. That sort of it was, maybe it was unexpected and it created a fork in the road for you. Is there something that kind of placed you here?

Speaker 3: 6:15

Yeah, so I wouldn't say there's any one specific instance, but there's been. Obviously, a series of things go on, as most people have had in their lives. I'm certainly one of the 50 percent. I just went through a divorce in 2020 and that was tough and it was a learning lesson for me of self, a time of self reflecting, if anything. So I got to look in the mirror and kind of of face my you know, my shortcomings or if I, whatever, and I've tried to better myself from that and and and in. Quite honestly, I think it does relate to business, because it it helps me to look in the mirror before I take certain actions, or to think before, you know, to make sure that I'm doing the right things with, you know, co-workers and teammates and things of that, and vendors for, for that matter, and everybody else. So I would say a series of events through you know have led me to try to be just a better overall human in general.

Speaker 2: 7:15

That's kind of like the journey of life, isn't it? If you, if you're taking, if you're taking all the right roads, or even all the wrong roads the difference is in your product, which is are you using it to make you a better person?

Speaker 3: 7:33

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think it's a lot like anything else. You always try to improve your business aspect or your work or your whatever else, and we treat those things as things that need to improve. Or our bank accounts right, we're trying to improve to. Or our bank accounts, right, we're trying to improve, to make a better bank account. But we need to look and I try to look in the mirror and see how I can improve my internal self on a pretty much daily basis at this point, which I did not do for a long time.

Speaker 3: 7:54

This is something new for me.

Speaker 2: 7:56

Yeah, I think the common with the wisdom I live by, you know, doing this podcast, for instance is that if I become a, if I become a better person and I give more, that that will reflect in the rest of my life, and I'm sure you're finding the exact same thing, and Tuscaloosa is a great town to be doing that in, because it's a great place for answering your gift with their gifts.

Speaker 3: 8:24

I agree 100%. And another one that I've learned to live by, especially in this crazy industry, is this too shall pass. It's one of the best. Whether it's good or bad, highs and lows, this too shall pass. So if trying to stay as even keeled and not get too high, not get too low about things, I found to be my goal each day, that's right Something to live for.

Speaker 2: 8:49

Hey, what would you like our listeners to take away about Sugo?

Speaker 3: 8:54

I think, more than anything, that I want people to know that we're a restaurant for the community and, while we have our menu and we have our ways of doing things, we are certainly wanting this to be a feedback-driven and community-owned and supported restaurant. For me, my ultimate goal is to have the patrons come in, tell us what they're looking for so that we know what is their favorites, because I have my favorites and it's not even on the menu right now. So I hope to expand the menu and grow it and things of that nature, all based on the feedback I get from our guests.

Speaker 3: 9:38

And we truly truly do want it to be a community-owned restaurant.

Speaker 2: 9:43

And Italian food is based on community and family, but it's also based on the seasonality of the ingredients that they put in. It's never anything, but you know it's never not seasonal. So that flexibility is going to make it a really exciting place to go to, season after season and year after year. How can listeners learn more about Sugo and how can they find you? Where are you located?

Speaker 3: 10:10

Well, so, first thing is they can find us on Facebook or Instagram at Sugo Tea Town, and we have our website, which is wwwsugoitalianrestaurantcom. You can see our lunch and our dinner menus there. We're located on 2218 University Boulevard and that's right across from CHOM downtown in Tuscaloosa, or like three or four doors down from Avenue Pub that I'm sure most people are familiar with by now. And, of course, you can always call or anything that you want to do, and we'd love to talk to you and come in and visit and tell us what you're looking for.

Speaker 2: 10:49

Wonderful Christian. Thank you so much for coming by and sharing Succo with us today.

Speaker 3: 10:53

Thank you so much. I appreciate your time, Patricia.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Denominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show. Go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.