08/06/2026
A New Neighbor Worth Celebrating: Walk-On's Comes to Homewood
WalkOns Sports Bistreaux is opening a Homewood location at the Old Rodney Scotts BBQ
at 2701 18th Street S, Homewood Al 35209.
Homewood is one of the most beloved communities in Birmingham — the kind of place
people choose on purpose, raise families in on purpose, and stay in for decades. So when
Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux announced they are opening a fourth location here, the real
question wasn't whether Homewood needed it. It's what Homewood gains by it.
Spend five minutes with the three men behind this location, and the answer becomes
obvious: more of exactly what makes this city special.
John Parker Wilson isn't a stranger walking in from somewhere else — he's Hoover High
School's own, a three-year starting quarterback at Alabama. After four seasons in the NFL
with the Falcons and Jaguars, and five more as color commentator for the Crimson Tide
Sports Network, he came home. These days, he's just as likely found coaching his two sons'
teams — a hometown guy through and through.
Adam Baxter has called the Birmingham area home since 2003 and Homewood home with
his wife and two sons. By day, he's a Vice President at Stream Capital Partners — but his real
pride is local: Lucky Dog Mobile Grooming, Spartan Fence Company, homegrown
businesses he's helped build because he genuinely believes in investing in the place he
lives.
Matt Roth has spent years welcoming guests at Birmingham's three Walk-On's locations.
He and his wife have called this area home for more than eight years, Hoover for the last
five, raising three kids who went on to LSU — two of whom are in Birmingham now. For
Matt, this restaurant is one more place for his own family to gather, right alongside
everyone else's.
None of these three men needed Homewood. They chose it, because they already love it
here.
That's the real story: Walk-On's isn't arriving to prove a point or fill a gap. It's arriving
because three men who already believe in this community wanted to add something good
to it. A restaurant is never really about the food — it's about who's behind the counter, and
whether they care whether you had a good day. In John Parker, Adam, and Matt,
Homewood is getting three men who've spent decades showing up for this city, on football
fields, in board rooms, in youth leagues, and around their own family tables.
Walk-On's Homewood isn't arriving as a stranger. It's arriving as neighbors, coaches, and
hometown boys — opening as family!
Editor's Guide | Home & Heart | written by Charli Lavett
