The historic Martin's Restaurant will keep its business license

Martin's Restaurant has been around for nearly a century, and it isn't going anywhere. At least not today.

Two weeks after the Montgomery City Council voted to strip the business license from the historic eatery for failure to pay local sales taxes, city officials said Tuesday that the owner of Martin's has now paid back taxes and the account is current. The Cloverdale meat-and-three has served up fried chicken, sweet tea and other Southern staples since the 1930s, catering to political leaders and other state figures through the decades.

"I didn't know so many people liked Martin's Restaurant," Council President Charles Jinright said. "We got a call from Huntsville. We a got call from Birmingham. They love that fried chicken."

The council had voted May 3 to revoke the restaurant's business license and set a show-cause hearing for Tuesday, when it would be officially stripped of its license unless it was able to reach a deal with the city.

Officials said the restaurant had been on a tax repayment plan in the past. 

Martin's Restaurant:Montgomery Council revokes license for historic Martin's Restaurant

Similarly, city officials said Can A Brotha Get A Slice pizza restaurant avoided a license revocation vote by agreeing to a repayment sales tax repayment deal this week. That repayment deal was scheduled to start Friday.

But the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to revoke the business license for Bayou Turkey food truck for failure to pay local sales taxes. Bayou Turkey now faces a June 7 hearing about its situation, when that revocation could be finalized.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.