For more than 76 years, the Tally Ho restaurant has been providing southern comfort foods to the Selma community. The restaurant started in 1942, and since been featured multiple times in the Alabama NewsCenter’s Best of Alabama NewsCenter: 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die. However, this year, the restaurant received a new mention. The restaurant placed seventh in Only In Your State’s “10 Alabama Restaurants You’ll Never Forgive Yourself for Not Trying”.

Paul Wilkerson, owner of the Tally Ho, said the mention was a total surprise to him, but an honor nonetheless. He said he was browsing the Internet and randomly saw the link to the site. 

“I clicked on a link, kind of curious to see what restaurants were on it, to see if I’ve been to any or see if there’s any I wanted to go to,” he said. “After scrolling through, our restaurant popped up, and it kind of surprised me.”

Wilkerson and his wife became owners of the restaurant just five years ago.

“Me and my wife bought the restaurant in 2013,” Wilkerson said. “Her dad had owned it for 34 years prior to that, and we bought him out in October of 2013.” Wilkerson’s father-in-law purchased the restaurant in 1979, and after his long time as owner, Wilkerson said he only hopes he has made his father-in-law proud.

“Hopefully, he’s proud of [the honor]. I think he is,” Wilkerson said. “I know that he spent a lot of years building that business, and I know it was probably hard to sell it. Hopefully this gives him some reassurance that we’re doing something right.”

Even with the accolades, Wilkerson said he still strives to be even better.

“I guess you’re always harder on yourself than other people are,” Wilkerson said. “I guess I want to live up to that. You don’t always feel like you deserve it, but maybe it’ll make us get even better at what we do.”