VALLEY GRANDE — The Valley Grande City Council voted unanimously Monday evening to approve the liquor license for Brad Moore’s Southern Grill, a restaurant replacing the former Chuck Wagon Steakhouse.

The new restaurant is scheduled to open in late August.

Cooks Clay Moore and Brad Parham, who cooked together in Tuscaloosa, have more than 23 years of combined cooking and restaurant service experience.

“We’re excited,” said Moore, a native of Valley Grande. “I just love it (cooking), it’s my favorite thing to do.”

The owners purchased the Chuck Wagon location from Valley Grande Mayor Tom Lee, 65, who said it was time to devote his attention elsewhere.

“I’m old, I’m ready to retire,” Lee said. “We’ve got a lot of things going on with this city. There are significant things happening that require hours a week. It’s getting to the point now that we’re through the adolescent stage and the city is right on the edge of really becoming a full city with all the problems and benefits of it. I can’t have three or four businesses like I used to have.

“It’s time I started to devote more time to the city.”