By BRAD GASKINS / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – Annie Drake has been a busy woman lately.

In July, she followed through on a dream more than 20 years in the making and opened a restaurant of her own.

Annie’s Place is located at 100 Ferry Road, across the street from Shelby County High School, where Drake has worked in the cafeteria for 25 years as the assistant manager of the child nutrition program.

“It’s a challenge,” Drake said of balancing her full-time day job with running a business. “But I love to cook and I have some great people working with me.”

Annie’s Place opened July 14 and will have a ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 8 at 4 p.m. with the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce.

The menu features country cooking favorites – oven fried pork chops, meat loaf, chicken and dumplings, sweet potato casserole, cornbread, dried butterbeans, homemade rolls and a slew of additional offerings.

If Annie’s Place had a feature item, it would be Drake’s homemade cinnamon rolls.

“They’re very different from what you would buy in the store,” she said. “I cook them fresh. There’s a difference in the taste.”

Drake has been perfecting her cinnamon roll recipe since 1988.

“It started with me just playing around with the dough batter,” she said.

In addition to tweaking the recipe, Drake and her late husband, Lee “LC” Drake, would often talk about Annie Drake opening her own restaurant. The idea to do so has been in her head for 23 years.

Between the death of her husband and helping her daughter, Sherrita, graduate with a masters’ degree from the University of Alabama, Drake said she had little time to pursue her dream.

But once her daughter graduated and was well on her way to a career in social work, Drake made plans to open the restaurant. She received encouragement along the way from students at SCHS.

“They kept asking me when it was going to open,” Drake said. “They were excited (when if finally did).”

Annie’s Place is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays. The restaurant is closed Mondays, though Drake said that’s likely to change now that football season has started.

Asked what’s been most satisfying about opening her restaurant, Drake said, “You never meet a stranger. If you do, once they come in they’re not strangers anymore.”